These are notes from a talk by Jim Muir and Scott Mascio titled “Building a Modern Course Catalog Search” during the HighEdWeb 2015. The Ohio State University

https://classes.osu.edu/class-search/

3 Goals

• Prioritize User Experience
• Fast
• Intuitive

Uses

• Elasticsearch
  • Open Source Full-text search and analytics engine
  • Schema Free
  • Developer Frenziedly API
  • High Availability
• NodeJS: REST API
• AngularJS: Front-End
• Modeled after Amazon (side filters) and Google (single search box)

The Project

• Weekly meet ups
• Version Control - Git
• Gitlab Issues
• Pull Requests and Code Reviews
• Accessibility: Bootstrap (sr-only classes) + ngAria (AngularJS library)
• Student Feedback
  • Very positive response
  • 20 person user groups
  • Used the survey to iterate and improve.
• Other Uses
  • Recruitment Tools (could show prospects the courses they offered)
  • Each campus wants their own unique search.
• Challenges:
  • Relevance or Course Number?
  • Dropdowns?
  • Why isn’t my course first?
  • Let the data speak - use analytics, not your opinion.
  • Not yet launched

Peace
– KS
Web Developer at Benedictine University near Chicago