Help/Tutorials
Instructions for using the 
search engine
How Do I Choose A School?
Academic Explorer (
) is an online
database repository of certificate and degree information available in a standardized, uniform,
un-biased, and easy-to-access manner to all eligible Marines, their family members
and the Marine Corps Community Services Lifelong Learning Program (MCCS-LLP) staff.
The MCCS-LLP will also realize significant efficiencies and higher levels/quantity
of counseling services as counselors will be able to provide more (and better) services
to Marines and family members.
The
Search Engine contains over 500 available certificate and degrees available to you around
the globe and online. Here, we will give you an overview of the search engine page
and get you familiar with it's features so you can find the degree you are
looking for.
The main search page is divided into three main parts, as you can see in Figure
1, below. The top panel has some links back to some informational pages about AeX.
The left-side is where you can enter your search criteria and filter your results.
The right-side is where the search results are displayed. This information presented
below will help you learn how to use the filter criteria and search results areas
to find the right degree for you.
Figure 1:
Search Screen
If you're ready, you can right to the
Search Engine page by clicking
here. If this is your
first time through this page, or you are looking for some detailed help on a specific
topic, go ahead and keep reading. You will find links throughout this page to take
you to the
Search Engine whenever you are ready to get started.
For a more detailed description of how to use the Search / Filter criteria, click
here.
For a detailed description of how to navigate through and use the Search Results,
click
here.
Using the Search / Filter Criteria
There are six main search / filter criteria for
that are described in detail in the paragraphs below. That list is:
The search screen opens with all of the search/filter panels closed (or collapsed),
see Figure 2 below, with the Keyword search text field displayed at all times. Each
of the individual search / filter criteria can be expanded (or contracted) by clicking
on the red down-arrow (highlighted with the yellow box below). The more options
you select (or enter information into), the more restrictive the search will be,
and thus, the less results there will be to display. These filters can effectively
manage the volume of information displayed to the user and keep it at a manageable
level, so their time is productive.
The "Clear" button, at the bottom of the panel, will clear all entries
in all filters, allowing the user to start over or start another search. Clicking
on the "Submit" button will submit the entered search / filter criteria
to the database and begin searching for degrees that match the entered criteria.
Figure 2: Search / Filter Criteria
We've talked about all of this in the general sense. If that's enough for you, go
ahead and get started by clicking
here. Otherwise, let's
get into the details for each of the filter criteria to give you a better idea of
how to use the tool to get the results you are looking for. Depending upon your
priorities, some of these options will be very important to your search and others
will be rather unimportant. If one of these has particular interest to you and you
don't want to read through all of this page, you can click directly on the text
link above or the filter name in the picture (Figure 2) directly above to navigate
directly to that filter. At any point while you are using the
Search Engine,
you can click on the red question mark for online help related specifically to that
filter.
Keyword(s) Search / Filter
The "Keyword(s)" search / filter criteria is a specific keyword search
in the database. This keyword search will look for matches against names, descriptions,
and other associated text fields at the Institution, Department, Campus, Certificate and
Degree, and Individual Course levels. This is a very broad search that will more
than likely return a large set of results for you to sift through.
Figure 3: Keyword Search
There are multiple ways to use this filter. If you know a specific word that you
are looking for, you can just type it in (i.e. Accounting) or enclose it in double-quotes
(i.e. "Accounting"). This will cause the
Search Engine to look for
a whole word that matches your input string. For example, if you enter the word
engineer, this will return all occurrences of the whole word
engineer
in the database. However, it will not find the word
engineering, although
some of the results may contain the word
engineering. To expand a word, like
“accounting” to include “accounting” and “accountancy”, use the wildcard character
(“*”) in your string, like “account*”.If you want to search for multiple words,
enclose each in double quotes with a space between them, such as “engineer*” “civil”
to look for anything related to “Civil Engineering”. Anytime you want to do a wildcard
search, your string should be enclosed in double-quotes.
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AeX
Search Engine]
Degree Level Search / Filter
Selecting a Degree Level will limit the search results to Certificates or Degrees that fit
the selected category. If you are not sure
what degree level you are interested in, try using the “Any” selection.
That choice will return all Certificate, Associate, Bachelor and Masters
level degree programs that match the rest of your search criteria. See Figure 4,
below for a view of what this search / filter criteria looks like.
Figure 4 - Degree Level Search / Filter Criteria
If you have not entered any other criteria, selecting “Any” and clicking on the
'Submit' button will return all certificates or degrees for all institutions that have been
loaded into Academic Explorer.
If you do not get any results returned and you have selected a specific degree level,
try changing you selection to the “Any” selection, while leaving intact the rest
of your filter criteria to expand your search results.
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Help Index] [
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AeX
Search Engine]
Degree / Discipline Search / Filter
This search / filter criteria is a specific keyword search in the database.To use this filter, enclose the string you
are searching for within double quotes (i.e. “civil”). To expand a word,
like “accounting” to include “accounting” and “accountancy”, use the wildcard character
(“*”) in your string, like “account*”. If you want to search for multiple
words, enclose each in double quotes with a space between them, such as “engineer*”
“civil” to look for anything related to “Civil Engineering”
Figure 5 - Degree / Discipline Search / Filter Criteria
The checkbox for “Online” can be used to return certificates and degrees that are offered
online, and eliminate those that are only offered in person at a campus. This
is another way to filter your results to make your searching and navigation easier.
[
Help Index] [
Top] [
AeX
Search Engine]
Location Search / Filter
This criteria element will enable you to filter your search results to certain geographic
areas.There are multiple filter criteria within this section. The “Region” selection
provides the user with the ability to select across a broad area, including searches
related specifically to certificate and degree offerings in ‘US Territories’ and ‘Overseas’.
There is also an ability to search within a specific state, or within a certain
radius of a zip code. You can pick any one of the three criteria elements within
this section.
Figure 6 - Location Search / Filter Criteria
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AeX
Search Engine]
Institution Search / Filter This
search / filter criteria is a keyword search in the database. To use this
filter you can just type the word (or words) that you are looking to match against
an Institution Name (i.e. ‘Maryland’ – to return all institutions with the word
‘Maryland’ in their name; or, ‘University Maryland’ – to return all institutions
with the words ‘Maryland’ and ‘University’ in their name). It is not case-sensitive.
Also, you can use the wildcard character (“*”) by enclosing the search string in
double-quotes, like “*Texas*”, to return all institutions with the name Texas anywhere
in the name.
Figure 7 - Institution Search / Filter Criteria
[
Help Index] [
Top] [
AeX
Search Engine]
More Options Search / Filter
This search / filter option provides a checkbox to filter your search results to
include only institutions that offer certificates or degrees that are part of the Servicemembers
Opportunity Colleges (SOC) Consortium of colleges and universities. SOC is
dedicated to helping Servicemembers and their families get college degrees. More
information on SOC can be found at the
Servicemember
Opportunity College website.
Figure 8 - More Options Search / Filter Criteria
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Help Index] [
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AeX
Search Engine]
Navigating Through the Search Results
The main area of the page is set aside for the search results. In order to make
it easier to review and navigate we have used a collapsible grid to allow the user
to focus on an area to explore. The first level of information that is displayed
is a list of institutions that have certificates or degrees matching the entered search
criteria, along with a count for the number of degree programs at that institution
that matched the search criteria.
There are three main areas where the user can navigate to for more information that
are described in detail in the paragraphs below. That list is:
Figure 9, below, gives you an example of what you might see as a starting point
from which to begin trying to find the right degree program for you. This figure
shows a sample main search results page when selecting a Degree Level of 'Any' and
making no other choices, returning all degrees in the database.
Figure 9 - Default Search Results Screen
The next level below the institutions is a list of certificates or degrees that match the
search criteria for that institution. As you can see below, in Figure 10, the list
can be expanded by clicking on the symbol next to the institution name (see green
circle in Figure 9, above).
Figure 10 - List of Degrees for an Institution Matching
Search Criteria
To continue to another level, as you can see in Figure 10, by clicking on the symbol,
a list of available certificates or degrees that match the current search / filter criteria
is displayed and the symbol next to the institution name changes to . In this display,
the user can see the name of the certificate or degree, the degree level and the number
of campuses where this degree is offered. Our next figure shows the example of looking
to see where the Bachelor degree in Accounting is offered at Thomas Edison State
College. See Figure 11 below.
Figure 11 - List of Campuses where the Certificate or Degree Program is
offered
In all of the search results screens, the titles of most columns can be clicked
on to change the default sort order to be on that column. As you can see in Figures
9, 10 and 11 above, the list of institutions is sorted by institution name, the
list of programs is sorted by the Certificates/Degrees Name, and the list of campuses
is sorted on campus name.
You can see further details by clicking on any of the name fields in these lists
(Institution Name, Certificates/Degrees Name, or Campus Name). Keep reading to see what
kind of information is available by clicking on any of these names.
Institution Details
A sample "Institution Details" page can be seen in Figure 12, below. From this page,
the user can investigate through various areas at their own pace, depending upon
their interests. In the top border, we have provided the logo for the school at
the upper-left portion of the page, then in the upper-center the name of the institution.
As you can see in the green circle below, this is a URL hyperlink to the website
for the institution, if they have provided it. At any point, you can navigate to
the institutions website to obtain additional information. On the upper-right portion
of the page, we have provided location and contact information for the institution
if it has been provided.
Below that is a list of tabs in the main portion of the window that can provide
additional information. The Institution details page opens up to the Overview tab,
where the institution can provide any information they desire to provide you with
general information about their institution.
Figure 12 - Institution Details Page
The "Institution Details" page provides the general details about the institution
in a set of tabs. Those tabs are:
- Overview – a general overview of the institution.
- Campuses – a list of campuses where the certificates or degrees are offered.
- Departments – a hierarchical listing of departments within the institution.
- Certificates/Degrees – a list of certificates or degrees offered by the institution.
- Courses – a list of course offerings for the institution.
- Accreditation – provides the accrediting information about this institution.
- Additional Information – any additional information that the institution wished
to provide.
As you can see in Figure 13 below, by clicking on the Campus tab, a list of campuses
for the institution is displayed. Each campus name can be clicked on to bring up
a separate page with details specific to that campus. Details on that page are provided
in a later section of this document.
Figure 13 – Institution Campus List Page
The next tab is the Departments tab. Figure 14 below gives an example of what the
list of departments within an institution might look like. This page is where an
institution can list/display their list of colleges, schools or departments, to
give the student/counselor an idea of the breadth of study at that institution.
The user can click on the department name to bring up a detail page about that specific
department. Further details on the Department page are provided in a later section
of this document.
Figure 14 – Institution Departments List Page
The next tab is the Certificates/Degrees tab. Figure 15 below gives an example of what the list
of certificate or degree programs within an institution might look like. This page is where an
institution can list/display their entire list of certificate or degree offerings, to give
the student/counselor an idea of the breadth of study at that institution. The user
can click on any one of the certificate or degree names to bring up a detail page about
that specific program. Further details on the Certificates/Degrees page are provided
in a later section of this document.
Figure 15 – Institution Certificates/Degrees List Page
The next tab is the Courses tab. Figure 16 below gives an example of what the list
of courses within an institution might look like. This page is where an institution
can list/display their entire list of course offerings. The user can click on any
one of the course names to bring up a detailed page about that specific course offering.
Further details on the Course Details page are provided in a later section of this
document.
Figure 16 – Institution Courses List Page
The following sections will go through the detail pages associated with each of
the tabs listed above for the institution. These pages are displayed when the user
clicks on one of the hyperlinks mentioned in the various sections above.
Campus Details
The campus details page is displayed whenever a user clicks on the name of a campus,
anywhere within the
platform. This page provides information in the top banner
about location and contact information, as well as a set of 3 tabs in the main portion
of the page. The tabs are:
- Certificates/Degrees – this provides a list of certificates or degrees that are offered at the selected campus
- Map – this page displays a map of the area associated with the location information
provided.
- Additional Information – this page displays any information that the institution
has provided about this campus.
Figure 17 – Campus Details Page
Department Details
The department details page is displayed whenever a user clicks on the name of a
department from the Institution Details page. This page provides information in
the top banner about location and contact information, as well as a set of 5 tabs
in the main portion of the page. The tabs are:
- Overview – This page displays detailed information that the institution has provided
concerning this department.
- Departments – This page lists any “sub” departments associated with this department.
- Certificates/Degreess – this provides a list of certificates or degrees that are offered by the selected department.
- Accreditation – this page displays any specialized accreditation information associated
with any of the degrees offered by this department.
- Additional Information – this page displays any information that the institution
has provided about this department.
Figure 18 – Department Details Page
Certificates/Degrees Details
The certificates/degrees details page is displayed whenever a user clicks on the name
of a certificate or degree from anywhere within the
platform. This page provides information
in the top banner about location and contact information, as well as a set of 5
tabs in the main portion of the page. The tabs are:
- Overview – This page displays detailed information that the institution has provided
concerning this degree.
- General Requirements – This page lists any general requirements associated with
this degree.
- Course Requirements – this page provides a detailed “course catalog” view of the
selected degree. See Figure 20, below for an example page.
- Outcomes – this page displays any expected outcomes for this degree, as
provided by the institution.
- Additional Information – this page displays any information that the institution
has provided about this degree.
Figure 19 – Certificates/Degrees Details Page
An example of the course requirement details is provided below. As you can see,
the highest level is the listing of course categories, with a minimum and maximum
number of credits (or courses) required to satisfy that requirement. Then, by clicking
on the symbol, the list of available courses from the institution that can be taken
by the student to satisfy that course requirement is displayed. In the example below,
the first category is “Business Administration General English Requirement” and
it has a requirement of 6 credits to satisfy this course category. By opening up
the course category, you can see that there are two 3-credit courses (totaling 6
credits) that can be used to satisfy that course category requirement: ENGL-1301
and ENGL-1302. The next course category is the Speech requirements. Here, one of
the three listed courses can be taken to satisfy the 3-credit requirement.
Figure 20 – Degree Program Course Category Requirements
Page
Course Details
The course details page is displayed whenever a user clicks on the name of a course
from anywhere within the
platform. This page provides information in the top
banner about location and contact information, as well as a set of 3 tabs in the
main portion of the page. The tabs are:
- Overview – This page displays any information that the institution has provided
concerning this course.
- Course Objectives – this page provides information about the course objectives.
- Additional Information – this page displays any additional information that the
institution has provided about this course (such as pre-requisites, required labs,
etc.).
Figure 21 – Course Details Page