Online Tutorial: Learn About Searching
Searching is the heart of the ISC Research online system.
The top half of the search screen comprises a search input area and a number of filters. This type of search allows the user to quickly access specific school data.
The search may be filtered by city, school name, head name or the default "any". The match filter offers AND/OR type logic when more than one search criteria is entered. By combining filters, search criteria and the match logic, complex searches can be performed.
Beneath this area is a list of existing saved searches. This list will continue to grow as searches are saved and there is no limit to the number of saves that can be made.
From this list saved search results may be viewed or deleted.
Beneath the list of saved searches are the Advanced search options. These are the powerhouse of the online system offering a wide variety of criteria to be used to filter the results.
Each section may be opened by clicking on the underlined option to reveal a wide range of filters.
In this example the "Country and regions" section and the "Curriculum studied" section have been expanded.
Selections are made by left clicking with multiple selections made by holding down the Ctrl key and left clicking.
As many individual criteria as the user requires may be combined to produce a list of schools.
Most searches are carried out by filtering from lists, however some options require a YES/NO choice. This is true of the "Enrolment and Phase" and the "Further options" filters.
"Enrolment and Phase" allows specific year groups to be targeted while "Further options" allow users to include French and German schools and non international IB schools.
Users may also view schools not yet open or schools opened since a particular date.
This powerful suite of filters, backed by the most difinitive database of international school in the world offers users unprecidented access to international school data.
We are going to search for all schools with "ROME" in the school name.
To do this the user would type "Rome" in the search box, make sure that the "School name" filter is on and then click the Search button.
The system interogates the database and returns a list of all schools fitting the search criteria.
In our example there are six.
Towards the bottom of the screen is a text entry area and a "Save as" button. These are used to save the search results for future reference.
As all searches (including saved searches) are rerun whenever used, saved search information is always current.
In the list of schools you will notice that all the sections are underlined. This is because each is a link to more information.
Geographic entries take the user to summary information relating to that geographic region.
An exclude function is also provided so that the user has absolute control over the schools listed.
In this example we have followed the Southern Europe link to the Southern Europe detail screen.
We can see that this area contains 451 schools and how they are made up.
The country screen also contains useful country specific information such as currency, telephone prefix, etc.
Following the link to a school brings up information specific to that school.
The user can see the address, the main contact (usually the Principle), what age groups the school teaches and how many pupils attend.
There are also links to a number of additional pieces of information such as the school website and it's email address.
Users can also see which international school association(s) the schools belongs to and which curriculum and examinations the school offers.