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Very useful product. This is a service I'm actually going to use. By the way, If you change your name to something more generic, add a couple of other educational sources to you engine as well, you will be google as academic earth is youtube.
Any ideas for different names? A fresh perspective would be appreciated.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
It indexes the PDFs in the zip files. It's not just the courses, but the full text of all the lectures in each course.
What I meant is that I would prefer to see where exactly my keyword surfaced in the course - in what lecture or assignment vs lists of all courses mentioning the keywords.
One thing we found was that providing alternate forms of navigation and filtering is important.
For example, from memory the OCW metadata contains subjects. If the query result pages displayed those as facets then it would allow users to refine results by subjects. "School" and "Year" would be other good facets.
Solr does faceting really well, BTW
nice! looks like a useful service! The search was pretty snappy! Was impressed. regarding the overall design, I think that a new make-up might not hurt ;) What's your business model (if there is one), or are u doing it just for the fun of it? Either way, keep up the good work! cheers
Thanks! Yes new make-up is needed. Clearly I am not a designer and I know that. If you have ideas, I'm keen to hear them. Also, if you have favorite search engines in terms of design and/or functionality, I'd like to see them for inspiration. Business model: there are different directions this could go. Of course the Creative Commons license is the main constraint, and I have what I think are compatible ideas. For no…
I think, that a bit less of clutter and a better focus on the important parts of the site (the search bar, and a clear message what value the site provides) would definitively help.
Further, something like "example searches" or "last searches" might be beneficial as well, e.g. to showcase the application. Just my 2cts ...
hth, cheers
I've done some work in this area, although more aimed at the school sector than higher ed. One thing we found was that providing alternate forms of navigation and filtering is important. For example, from memory the OCW metadata contains subjects. If the query result pages displayed those as facets then it would allow users to refine results by subjects. "School" and "Year" would be other good facets. Solr does facet…
What I'm imagining now is actually at least two new user tools to help them do their searches: a query builder that does the advanced operator searches for them (like Google's advanced search form) and filters on the search results.
You got my brain in over-drive :)
I've done some work in this area, although more aimed at the school sector than higher ed. One thing we found was that providing alternate forms of navigation and filtering is important. For example, from memory the OCW metadata contains subjects. If the query result pages displayed those as facets then it would allow users to refine results by subjects. "School" and "Year" would be other good facets. Solr does facet…
Others have asked for an advanced search interface, and I think your idea of filters fits right in with that. Thanks! What I'm imagining now is actually at least two new user tools to help them do their searches: a query builder that does the advanced operator searches for them (like Google's advanced search form) and filters on the search results. You got my brain in over-drive :)
People like to be able to explore result sets interactively. Properly implemented filters give you all the functionality of advanced search, but with the benefit of seeing exactly what you are getting dynamically.
Have a look at the filters on a search like this: http://shopper.cnet.com/1770-5_9-0.html?query=Core+i5&ta...
It gives much better feedback than an advanced search does.