Tap.co.uk redirects to Coursefinder.org.uk - NE England course database
Title
Course Information North East England
Description
Coursefinder Mashup
We are told constantly that young people prefer more images and that a site predominantly text based is likely to be less interesting to the youth. The challenge is to integrate more images into Coursefinder pages and to make those images informative rather than simply decorative.
How Coursefinder is Used
Course information is the core component of Coursefinder, BUT increasingly important is how Coursefinder is used. A site has been developed which displays information about what people are looking for, which kind of courses and occupations people are interested in, what words are being used to search, which providers are the most popular. Information about demand for courses is almost as important as providing course information itself. Search patterns provider a key indicator of demand, and Coursefinder has well over a million records of searches undertaken in the past few years. People tend to be interested in how other people are using the site, a successful web sites present interesting information to people.
The scope for user annotation of the web site is not as great for Coursefinder as for a site such as Amazon. However an era begins where software learns from it's users and all of the users are connected. We can learn from users by studying the way they search. Every week Google.com publishes it's 'Zeitgest' , an index that tracks the popularity of search engine requests. The list it calls the 'spirit of the times'. Google is not alone in tracking and making visible public usage, Ebay's Pulse, and Amazon's Lists and Reviews all make extensive use of user annoation and input, so must Coursefinder.
