Eight e-learning “sites/portal” were reviewed briefly with the following 3 questions in mind. Results are in
the table below.
1) How do they organize the site to serve the needs of various target markets (prospective students, current
students, staff and faculty) and what information are they housing on this section of their university’s
website?
2) How are they meeting the needs of the various target markets?
3) Do they use a mix of public-facing pages and Intranet, or not?
A. Queen’s FAS (arts and science online) http://www.queensu.ca/artsci_online/
1) Lots of information on courses available and ways to get in contact, ways to start, about the
school and why you should choose it, very prospective student focussed, current students can
get some information and course outlines (excellent level of detail), very social media aware
2) Could be more geared towards the other markets, especially staff and faculty (those
interested in teaching or running a online course), staff and faculty sections is present and
somewhat limited, has some employment links
3) all public facing, until one decides to apply, which has links to intranet sites
standouts: collapsable tabs for information at various section of the website are excellent (this
avoid the reader arriving at a "wall of text” and keep the look and feel clean and simple)
B. Penn State (penn state online) http://www.worldcampus.psu.edu/
1) very menu heavy, only relevant information on each page, about the school, the programs
offered, how to apply and financial aid, very prospective heavy information. houses all
information about their online courses, and anything that might do with that, tuition info,
services, courses and degrees available
2) info for section (see image below) is very good at giving different information for each
market type (current and prospective mainly), no information for staff or faculty, even with
extensive digging through menus
3) all public facing information, until one decides to apply, or is a current student which has
links to intranet sites (header at top of site, easy to view)
standouts: consistant branding, videos for each program, personal focus, info for section
Additional information:




Branding to Penn State “World Campus” to showcase their Online presense.
Landing page that launches to several sub pages: About Us, Degrees & Certificates,
How Online Learning Works, Admissions, Tuition and Financial Aid, and Info
For. Strong focus on meeting the immediate needs of the current and prospective
student. Weakness: no significant information for current and prospective
instructors. Weakness: no significant information for current and prospective
instructors.
Navigation for courses is focussed on programs. Clearly they believe that students
register for programs first, and courses second.
They have great videos, that showcase people, feelings and interactions (i.e. humanize
the online learning space) in the areas of : Student supports
(http://www.worldcampus.psu.edu/how-online-learning-works/student-services) , How
Online Learning Works (http://www.worldcampus.psu.edu/how-online-learning-works),
Student Video Stories (http://www.worldcampus.psu.edu/about-us/video-stories), Why
Penn State from a Military Perspective (http://www.worldcampus.psu.edu/military),
most webpages that describe each online program and certificate have short disciplinespecific information videos. Examples: (http://www.worldcampus.psu.edu/degreesand-certificates/energy-and-sustainability-policy-bachelors/overview) and
(http://www.worldcampus.psu.edu/degrees-and-certificates/psychology-bachelor-ofscience/overview) and ( http://www.worldcampus.psu.edu/degrees-andcertificates/applied-statistics-masters/overview ) and
( http://www.worldcampus.psu.edu/degrees-and-certificates/systems-engineeringmasters/overview ) and ( http://www.worldcampus.psu.edu/degrees-andcertificates/engineering-management-masters/overview ) and
(http://www.worldcampus.psu.edu/degrees-and-certificates/geographic-information-
systems-gis-certificate/overview) . These videos can provide a strong attractive force to
help students make their decision to enrol.
C. Princeton (online learning) http://www.princeton.edu/main/academics/online/
1) 2 pages under academics tab, with links to courses and list of courses available, student only
focus again, information about courses and what princeton does for online learning, limited to
free noncredit courses online through coursera and novoed
2) focus on prospective students only
3) public facing with links to courses on coursera and novoed
D. U of T (school of continuing studies) http://learn.utoronto.ca/
1) headers for different markets, three focuses: current students, prospective, prospective
international and professional students, information about courses available, how to register,
programs, international students section, student resources for current and prospective. Is only a
portion of the continuing studies website, can be confusing about if you are actually looking at
information about online programs when moving between links
3) various headers to find the information related to their different markets, no focus on staff or
faculty
4) all public facing
standout: extensive international and professional student focus and information for these
individuals
E. Athabasca http://www.athabascau.ca/
1) whole program and site dedicated to online learning, very aware of all target markets,
information for: section is very extensive, visually appealing and clean layout. all information
you could like, with a variety of ways to get to info, more than one link to same thing
2) information for section is key for getting to info for different markets
3) public facing and internal links
standouts: site very focused on various markets, personal touch to some videos
(http://www.athabascau.ca/students/index.php - what’s it like to be a AU student?)
F. UBC (centre for teaching, learning and technology) http://ctlt.ubc.ca/
1) lots of menus and links to various information, has target markets in mind through various
different links, prospective, current, ta's, grad studies, staff and faculty. Lots of menu diving for
specific information. Focus on information pertaining to courses, online initiatives
2) learner support, instructor support, helpdesk links for current students, information for
prospective, aboriginal initiatives addressed
3) public facing
standout: http://ctlt.ubc.ca/distance-learning/ - help desk for online learners
G. McGill (school of continuing studies) http://www.mcgill.ca/continuingstudies/
1) most organization of website is done via markets (prospective, current, instructors), very
clean interface has all relevant information regarding courses offered, how to apply. links to
advising, and information about the program as a whole
2) information seperated by markets with information related to each under each header with
some overlap of information, very wall of text heavy
3) public facing
standouts: instructors corner http://www.mcgill.ca/continuingstudies/instructors, current
student resource centre http://www.mcgill.ca/continuingstudies/current-students
H. MIT (open courseware) http://ocw.mit.edu/index.htm
1) very different focus other than prospective students -> donors (open and free
courses), information on courses and perspective students, information about the ocw system
and how to get involved as donor and instructor elsewhere
2) basic menus with information, focused on parts of the program, not specific mention of
differing markets
3) public facing, access to course material
standout: visually appealing and no overload of information