Using XCRI – the needs of the aggregator

A completely selfish presentationNeil Pearson, Hotcourses

27th June 2011

Who are Hotcourses?Over 1 million courses for key study destinationsUK, USA, Australia, Singapore...

UK student traffic • 25 million visits a year• 6.3 million student interactions with institutions

International student traffic• 10.2 million visits a year• 2.6 million student interactions with institutions

Course information• HE data largely from UCAS • Rest collected from providers

“World’s largest course database” - Hank

ME

Aggregators

What we’ve done…

• 2009 - Started XCRi bulk upload pilots• 1 truly successful file from 10 pilots • FE providers found it difficult • Support intensive

• Lessons learned • Logical model not in line • Range of different values for the same field • Lack of consistency • Format was heavy e.g. repetition of venue • Data errors • Aggregator responsibility to do more?

What we’ve done…

2010 - Moved towards XCRI logical model • Massive organisation-wide project 2010• Remodelled core structures• Worked with SFA and Next Step • Rubber stamped by ISB

Course

Presentation

Provider

What we’re doing right now…

Created new bulk upload interface for providers • CSV format • Far less support • Far more uptake amongst smaller providers

Future – needs of the aggregator

Build it and they will come

No they won’t.

Sites need data that is good quality, in an optimal

format, well SEO-ed

Aggregator needs – giving users choiceTypical scenarios • Who offers chemistry at the lowest price for my tariff points?

• Who offers a course under xxx that’s ranked in the top 10 for business research

• Who offers 1 year MBAs?

• What are my chances of getting a good job between Leeds and xxx Uni?

• Which business degree is the best value for money when including average living costs?

Can XCRI suggest more enumerations to try and

bring UK data into a more coherent whole?

Fast sites

XCRI’s repetition of venue is not very performant. A lot of manipulation needs to take

place to make location searching fast. This will put off

the mashup guy.

Search engine optimised

Providers need to bring their marketing and application data

together in one place.

Aggregators need to aggregate.

• We should build things to be used • Rich data – summaries etc • Needs taxomony

Hotcourses & XCRI - Disappointed?

• Working with XCRI logical model

• Taken on responsibility• Auto-categorisation based on course title/summary

• 4404 category codes • 88% success rate so far

• Auto-qualification (856 values) • Auto-level (Beginner, advanced, intermediate)• Auto-awarding body (pending)

Working again with XCRI?

• Working again with XCRI• Providers can expose their data in XCRI • Added value or ‘special sauce’

Aggregators