THE PORTAL – HELP US HELP YOUR STUDENTScollege, university & literacy programs & courses right where you live!

About Contact North

We are your recruitment and support team in small, rural and remote areas

1986 Non-profit organization 112 staffed online learning centres in small, rural

and remote areas, Aboriginal and Francophone communities

Support services to colleges, universities and literacy and basic skills providers

There are 112 online learning centres across Ontario supporting small, rural and remote areas and Aboriginal and Francophone communities.

Where we are

What we do locally

At each online learning centre, students and prospective students can: Meet with a Coordinator Obtain information on available

programs and courses; Get assistance with the registration

process; Get technical support throughout the

course; Obtain support and encouragement

from staff and peers as they pursue their course.

The Contact North | Contact Nord Portal

The Contact North | Contact Nord Portal

Key features: 1,097 program options 19,579 online course options Includes OL courses and non-OL college online courses Keyword search and search refinement since 2008 Context: Getting Started, Find a Career, Student

Services, Success Stories Direct links to institutions on search results pages One-stop shop for online learning in Ontario

Portal Analytics

Current Contact North Analytics: Unique Visitors – Apr/10 to Mar/11: 43,754 Unique Visitors – Apr/11 to Mar/12: 102,268 133.73% Growth The Search Tool is the page (www.studyonline.ca) that is

most frequently accessed by visitors 92% of visitors accessing the Student Portal website

use the search tool

Benefits for your College and OL

Increased reach in other/rural parts of the province (and to a lesser extent in other jurisdictions)

Link-outs to your eLearning/Distance education or program pages from interested individuals (registration referrals/leads)

Projected growth in unique visitors in the coming year due to promotional efforts including 750,000 course guides distributed in 112 communities

More timely information to more prospective students can lead to increased registrations

Current Status

Data Transfer: 2 automated XML feeds (Algonquin, Lambton) 8 semester based Excel (csv) uploads (Cambrian,

Collège Boréal, Conestoga, La Cité collégiale, Loyalist, Mohawk, Niagara, Sault)

14 colleges: manual data entry is still used (not effective nor efficient)

Automated Data Transfer Benefits

Benefits to colleges: Increased accuracy of course and program data Timely access to information by Portal visitors Link-out reports coming this fall There is work involved to get started, then once

automated there is less work than there is now for everyone involved, and better value for prospective students

Our Proposal

To each college: Join the Data Transfer Initiative Fall 2011 Student Usability study: students need timely

and accurate information on Ontario publicly-assisted online study options to make an informed decision

Begin by uploading Excel files containing course and program data each semester (starting in June)

Begin planning for an XML data feed for maximum timeliness and accuracy (live in 2012)

Let’s meet: luc@contactnorth.ca

thank you