Our CourseFinder team has been working hard to bring users an improved quality of experience on the CourseFinder site. In this post, we explore the latest features added and how they benefit users looking for courses.
What is CourseFinder?
CourseFinder is an Accredible product that is exclusive to our credentialing issuers and allows them to list and promote their programs to prospective candidates. Learners use CourseFinder to find programs, courses, and credentials that are relevant to their career or educational journey.
How does CourseFinder benefit issuers?
CourseFinder is restricted to Accredible credentialing partners, unlike other course marketplaces that allow any provider to add their programs. Users that navigate to CourseFinder to find relevant skills and credentials have a shared, strong intent to convert, with candidates earning over three credentials each on average. They are keen to locate and enroll in the next program that will support their career or education goals. Issuers that present their courses and programs on CourseFinder with comprehensive details of what can be gained through enrolling are able to increase their sign-ups.
Through our latest product, Recommendations™, issuers can opt-in for a pay per click advertising model that places their credentials in Featured placements at the top of relevant CourseFinder search results. To date, Featured credentials have climbed to a 15% click-through rate and as more courses are added, we anticipate this rate to increase. In comparison, the industry averages for ads presented in traditional display networks average 0.22% for education, 0.14% for employment services, and 0.35% across all industries.
Who is getting clicks on CourseFinder?
CourseFinder is free to use and exclusive to Accredible credentialing partners, however they must opt-in for their credentials to be found in search results. Issuers can opt-in via their Accredible Dashboard. Navigate to ‘Settings’, ‘Market My Courses’, and scroll down to the section labeled ‘CourseFinder Visibility’. Then check the box labeled ‘Include my courses on CourseFinder’. Issuers can then navigate to ‘My Groups’ to set which credential groups they would like included or excluded from inclusion in CourseFinder listings.
Issuers that don’t opt-in to list their courses or programs on CourseFinder are missing out on the opportunity to drive program growth and revenue. Highly relevant audiences of learners use CourseFinder to locate their next credential. By listing courses on CourseFinder and completing the listing to include a relevant Course Name, Description, Category, Skill, and Links to the sign-up page, issuers can increase their visibility and grow their student or member base.
The latest CourseFinder enhancements
We are thrilled to announce the latest CourseFinder features that will assist users in their search for relevant credentials.
Favorite a Course or Issuer
When a user has found a course, program, or issuer on CourseFinder that is of interest, they can click the heart icon in the bottom right of the course card. If the user is signed in, this will add the course to their ‘Favorite Courses’ to their list of course favorites. If the user is not signed in, they are prompted to sign in or create an account.
Recommend a Course to a Friend
If a user finds a program, course, or issuer that they believe will be of interest to their peers, friends, or colleagues, they can hover over the credential card to trigger the share icon. Clicking the share icon launches a pop-up from which the user can select one or more social share options at a time. Once a social media platform is selected, the corresponding social media window opens, allowing the user to share the credential.
Credential Requests
When a user searches for a program, credential, or issuer, they will receive a list of results that are most relevant to their search terms. Should no relevant course, program, or issuer be returned, a call to action button will be presented on screen that allows the user to tell the CourseFinder team what they were looking for. Clicking on the ‘Tell Us What You Want’ button returns a contact us style form for requesting learning topics and skills that are of interest. There is an additional textbox for providing further details, and a place to put the user email so they may be updated when a matching course or program becomes available.
Consumer Interests
Within the user’s CourseFinder account, additional features have been added to help CourseFinder return the most relevant course to the user’s learner preferences. Users can select the Learning Topics from a pre-populated list of options, add the specific skills they would like to learn in the section labeled ‘Skills’, and select the types of credentials they are interested in from the ‘I Want To Earn’ section. In the future, learner preferences will be integrated into both the Recommendations engine and the CourseFinder search experience, ensuring that suggested credentials are closely aligned to the searcher’s interests.
In Summary
Accredible’s CourseFinder directory provides our credentialing partners with a powerful directory to host their available programs and courses. By choosing to opt-in to CourseFinder, issuers benefit from increased visibility for their chosen credential groups to a highly relevant audience of prospective learners. Recommendations enables issuers on CourseFinder to further promote their courses by paying a fee per click for Featured placements.
For users, CourseFinder provides an easy-to-use index of courses and programs that offer shareable, verifiable digital credentials across a variety of topics. The latest enhancements added to CourseFinder improve the experience for users, making it easier to save courses for later review, share courses of interest, request courses where necessary, and set their learning preferences to receive the most relevant courses to their interests.
For more information about Accredible, digital credentials, or CourseFinder, book a platform demo.
