Georgia Tech Web Site Redefines Professional Education Marketing

New Drupal Platform Built by Synaxis Offers State-of-the-Art Course Search Functionality

(ATLANTA) February 1, 2010 -- Georgia Institute of Technology’s Distance Learning and Professional Education has redesigned its professional education Web site, www.pe.gatech.edu, making it easier for visitors to search for and find information on job-focused short courses, certificate programs, and customized training, taught by Georgia Tech faculty and industry experts. A significant feature of the redesigned site includes robust search capabilities allowing courses to be located by title, keywords, subject, instructor, location, date, and format (onsite or online).

According to Bill Holm, associate vice provost for Georgia Tech Distance Learning and Professional Education, the new site is designed to meet the needs of professionals and organizations interested in taking advantage of career-advancing educational opportunities. “In today’s business environment, professionals are truly time-starved and simply don’t have the time to browse the variety of rich programming and courses we offer. We concluded that the way to address their needs was to build a powerful search feature that enables them to quickly examine the opportunities to identify the best options to help them advance their careers.”

Research played a significant role in the redesign and ensured that the most important customer needs were met. Synaxis, a national strategic marketing, branding and technology firm, was selected for the Web site redesign. In conjunction with associates at Georgia Tech’s Distance Learning and Professional Education, Synaxis conducted both qualitative and quantitative research among professionals from a wide range of industries. In addition to focus groups and online surveys, visual designs were tested, and many of the insights were incorporated into the final site.

Patrice Miles, Distance Learning and Professional Education Director of Marketing, added "Working with Synaxis is great. For this challenging project, they were able to combine knowledge of the academic environment with an understanding of best practices in Web design and production. Throughout the assignment, Synaxis was extremely flexible while keeping us focused on the end goal. We had a terrific partnership and feel we got an excellent final product.”

Paul Welty, Ph.D., CEO and Founder of Synaxis noted, “This research and academic Web project using Drupal was especially interesting because it involved learning about key business challenges…and solving them! We really enjoy being able to help our clients think not just about technology and marketing but also about their business.”

The site was developed on Drupal, an open source content management system.