College Planning System, Method and Article

• US 20150066559A1
• Filed: 03/06/2014
• Published: 03/05/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 03/08/2013
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: James Robert Brouwer
• Original Assignee: James Robert Brouwer
• Inventors: Brouwer, James Robert
• Application Number:
  US14/199,383
• Publication Number:
  US 20150066559A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 705/7.21
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/1097 Task assignment
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 50/2053 Education institution selection, admissions, or financial aid

Abstract

A computer-implemented college and career planning system is provided comprising a dynamic graphical user interface customized based upon user personal profile data and/or user system use data; an interface engine comprising a processor for matching post-secondary education institution content with a user based upon user supplied search terms, the user personal profile data and/or the user system use data; meta-knowledge rule bases for storing rules for filtering system data for a user; long-term memory editorial for being matched to users based upon the meta-knowledge rule base, user personal profile and user system use; moderated forums for user-to-user communications organized by topic; feedback forums for providing feedback regarding the editorial content, the editorial topics evolving based upon system use; a toolbox comprising worksheets configured for accepting user input data; and a module for vetting the editorial content prior to making the editorial content available for matching.

Claims

1. A computer-implemented post-secondary education or career planning system comprising:

a dynamic graphical user interface configured for displaying student data and post-secondary education institution data or career data upon a display of a computing platform;

an interface engine having a processor configured for computing the post-secondary education institution data and college editorial data or career data, and career editorial data to display on the dynamic graphical user interface and configured for receiving the student data input from one or more users, the student data comprising text, audio, video or multimedia based content;

a user database comprising memory adapted for storing personal profile data for the one or more users that is received by the interface engine from the dynamic graphic user interface, the personal profile data selected from the group consisting essentially of user profile data, user system use data, and one or more user forum entries;

a student database comprising memory adapted for storing the student data, the student data comprising demographic and survey obtained information about one or more student users, the student data further comprising data from the group consisting essentially of grades, test scores, athletics, accomplishments, activities and geographic region, the system configured to receive student data from one or more student users and/or third party input data, the third party input data selected from the group consisting essentially of parent input data, teacher input data, counselor input data, coach input data, administrator input data and director input data;

a post-secondary education institution database comprising memory adapted for storing the post-secondary education institution data, the post-secondary education institution data selected from the group consisting essentially of university programs, scholarships, athletics, campus life, admissions criteria, admissions considerations, admissions processes, admissions deadlines, financial aid information, financial aid deadlines and geographic area;

a career database comprising memory adapted for storing the career data, the career data selected from the group consisting essentially of salary, benefits, job scope, geographic location, quality of life in that geographic location, local schools, local museums, local art and culture, city size, sporting events, parks, company type, project area of study, potential for promotions, bonuses, workplace atmosphere, performance review regularity and process, project team, potential for advancement and travel;

the system is configured to receive the post-secondary education institution data and the career data by the interface engine from one or more post-secondary education institutions and/or from one or more third party sources;

one or more meta-knowledge rules bases comprising memory adapted for storing one or more rules for matching one or more of the post-secondary institution data to one or more of the student data and one or more rules for matching one or more of the career data to one or more of the student data, the meta-knowledge rules bases further comprising one or more rules for displaying the post-secondary educational institution data and career upon the dynamic graphical user interface, and one or more rules for displaying the student data upon the dynamic graphical user interface;

the processor of the interface engine configured for matching one or more post-secondary education institution data to one or more student data based upon one or more rules stored in the meta-knowledge rules bases and based upon user generated and input search terms and not user selection of pre-set search terms;

the processor of the interface engine configured for matching one or more career data to one or more student data based upon one or more rules stored in the meta-knowledge rules bases and based upon user generated and input search terms and not user selection of pre-set search terms;

the processor of the interface engine configured for displaying the post-secondary education institution data and the career data, and/or the student data based upon one or more rules stored in the meta-knowledge rules bases and the student data;

a marketing database configured for storing messaging data from one or more sponsor users, sponsor advertisements or promotions, the meta-knowledge rules base further comprising targeting functionality configured for matching the sponsor data to one or more users based upon the user profile data and/or the user system use data, the processor of the interface engine configured for matching the sponsor content in the marketing database to the one or more users, the matched sponsor content being viewable to one or more targeted users on the dynamic graphical user interface;

a knowledge acquisition interface configured for receiving editorial content from one or more contributor users providing advice to student users regarding post-secondary education institution options or career options, the editorial content is stored in memory and is selected from the group consisting essentially of post-secondary education institution information, career information, advice, educational content, counseling information, local school data, national school data, and counseling data;

the knowledge acquisition interface further comprising tagging functionality that is configured to allow the contributor users to assign one or more topical tags to the editorial content, the system is configured to search the editorial content by the topical tags;

the meta-knowledge rules base further comprising one or more matching rules for matching editorial content to one or more users for display upon the dynamic graphical user interface based upon the tagging of the editorial content and the user profile data and/or user system use data;

the meta-knowledge rules bases further comprising student directed matching functionality configured to match the student user to editorial content and/or to one or more post-secondary education institutions or careers based upon student user defined matching criteria, the student user defined matching criteria is not selected from a pre-set system list of criteria, the student user directed matching functionality comprises one or more customizable filters provided by the student user, the system is configured for searching the editorial content and/or post-secondary education institution database and/or career database based upon the customizable filters provided by the student user rather than provide ranked matches based solely upon system set criteria;

one or more moderated forums configured for receiving the user forum entries and data regarding post-secondary institution education topics that are topically organized based upon one or more rules of the meta-knowledge rules base and stored in a memory as moderated forum data;

the one or more moderated forums comprising at least in part one or more social networking forums for communication between users;

one or more feedback forums configured for receiving the user forum entries and data regarding editorial content that is topically organized based upon one or more rules of the meta-knowledge rules base and stored in the memory as feedback forum data;

a toolbox configured for display upon the dynamic graphical user interface comprising one or more tools or worksheets for users to select in acting upon system recommended tasks for college or career planning, the system recommended tasks are generated by the processor of the interface engine based at least in part upon one or more rules of the meta-knowledge rules bases and the student data; and

a calendar configured for calendaring college planning dates and deadlines selected from the group consisting essentially of admissions deadline data, college visit data, college nights or other admissions related events, entrance exam testing deadlines, financial aid deadlines, early admission deadlines, and/or other dates based at least in part upon one or more rules of the meta-knowledge rules bases, or career planning dates and deadlines selected from the group consisting essentially of on-campus interviewing data, off-campus interviewing data, acceptance timing and deadlines data, the calendar is configured for display on the dynamic graphical user interface, the calendar is customizable for a particular user, and is adapted to accept multi-media input from multiple sources, including universities, counselors, students, parents, employers and others.

2. The system of claim 1, the meta-knowledge rules base further comprising privacy settings configured to allow a user to elect what information from the user'"'"'s user profile in the user database may be viewed by other users, the privacy settings are configured to allow for different information to be shared with different users, different types of third party users and/or customized on a case-by-case basis by providing information only to selected friends, counselors, teachers, mentors, and/or one or more specific institutions that the user selects.

3. The system of claim 1, the tools or worksheets selected from the group consisting essentially of:

a student planner, a course planner, a personal academic record, a posted portfolio, a student profile published for institution viewing, a personal college search criteria document, a college search worksheet configured for users to organize and display search results, a college visit checklist, a budget work sheet, a financial aid worksheet, a college fit worksheet, one or more post-secondary institution application materials, an offer evaluation worksheet configured for comparing post-secondary admission offers, and a packing list for what to take to school.

4. The system of claim 1 further comprising admissions preparation components selected from the group consisting essentially of a mock admissions interview to prepare a student for the admissions process, decision follow through functionality including recommended actions to take to follow up on applications and/or acceptances, thank you notes, declination letters and/or acceptance letters for students and/or families to send to one or more of the post-secondary education institutions via the system.

5. A computer-implemented college and career planning system comprising:

a dynamic graphical user interface configured for displaying upon a display of a computing platform, the dynamic graphical user interface comprising a portal with which users may access the college and career planning system, the dynamic graphical user interface configured for displaying user specific content and configured for being customized for a particular user based upon user personal profile data for that user and/or user system use data, the dynamic graphical user interface further comprising template content for a student user and/or template content for a parent user, the student user template content differs from the parent user template content;

a short-term memory configured for being accessed by the dynamic graphical user interface for preparing and/or displaying the user specific content for the dynamic graphical user interface;

an interface engine configured for engaging related databases of the system and retrieving post-secondary education institution materials and career materials from a long-term memory for presentation upon the dynamic graphical user interface, the interface engine further comprising a web server configured for web based communications with one or more remote databases;

one or more meta-knowledge rule bases configured for storing one or more rules for filtering system data for display for a user, the interface engine configured for engaging the related databases of the system and retrieving the post-secondary education institution materials and the career materials from the long-term memory for presentation upon the dynamic graphical user interface based at least in part upon user generated and input selections and not based upon user selection of pre-determined search terms, the interface engine comprising one or more processors configured for matching content with a user based upon the one or more rules from the one or more meta-knowledge rule bases and computing one or more displays for the dynamic graphical user interface based at least in part upon one or more of the meta-knowledge rules and the user profile data and/or the user system use data;

a personal profile database configured for storing the user personal profile data and the user system use data and configured for being engaged by the interface engine;

one or more long-term memory editorial databases configured for receiving editorial content from contributor users and storing editorial content, the long-term memory editorial databases comprising national editorial and local editorial, the national editorial content configured for being viewed by any user and the local editorial content configured for being matched to one or more users based upon one or more schools affiliated with the user and displayed only to the matched users;

one or more moderated forums configured for user-to-user communications, the interface engine configured for interfacing with the moderated forums, the moderated forums configured for receiving user input content comprising an interactive exchange of posts or messaging content, the moderated forums configured for organizing content by topic;

one or more feedback forums configured for providing feedback regarding one or more of the editorial content, the interface engine configured for interfacing with the feedback forums, the feedback forums configured for organizing content by one or more editorial content topics, the editorial topics evolving based upon system use;

a toolbox comprising one or more worksheets, the interface engine configured for interfacing with the toolbox, the worksheets configured for accepting user input data regarding planning for post-secondary education or careers; and

a vetting module configured for vetting the editorial content prior to making the editorial content available for matching by the interface engine and available for display upon the dynamic graphical user interface, the vetting module vetting the editorial content by reviewing for inappropriate subject matter, off topic subject matter, or improperly tagged subject matter based upon one or more rules of the meta-knowledge rule base.

6. The system of claim 5 further comprising an activity monitor configured for monitoring user activity with system by monitoring system content viewed by a user, duration of use of the content, order of use of system content, and/or number of times of use for a particular piece of system content;

data from activity monitor is used at least in part for matching editorial content to users by the interface engine with data from meta-knowledge rule base, and for categorizing editorial content into the topics of the moderated forums.

7. The system of claim 5, further comprising one or more long-term memory sponsor messages configured for storing sponsor message content, the long-term memory sponsor messages comprising national sponsor messages and local sponsor messages, the national sponsor messages configured for being viewed by any user and the local sponsor messages configured for being matched to users based upon user profile data and/or user system use data and displayed only to the matched users.

8. The system of claim 5, the user personal profile data comprising one or more data from the group consisting essentially of user identification data, name, address, user type, demographic information, user educational information, current school of attendance, grade level, entrance exam test score information, financial information, student expectations, abilities, student college/degree program goals, planned course of study, student/work scheduling, desired attributes of a post-secondary program, college preference information, activities, professional information, professional experience, high school identifying information college identifying information, financial institution identifying information, parent demographic information, sponsor information, user system use goal information, user selections regarding privacy, user restrictions upon use or display of personal profile information, information regarding calendaring options, one or more user selections of calendaring options, data provided by the system, and marketing research or surveys that the user selects for participation;

and

the personal profile database configured for receiving the user personal profile data from one or more electronic surveys and/or forms, and/or imported into the system from one or more external sources.

9. The system of claim 5, the feedback forums selected from the group consisting essentially of campus tour feedback, student or alumni evaluation of colleges, financial aid feedback, financial scam feedback, advanced placement course feedback, college admission policy feedback, employer on-campus interview feedback, employer off-campus interview feedback, and alumni employed by a target employer feedback.

10. The system of claim 5, the editorial piece feedback comprising user opinion content for one or more particular subjects, one or more user ratings for specific subjects, one or more user ratings for a reviewed product or service, and rating criteria supplied by the system.

11. The system of claim 5, the toolbox further comprising an academic chronicle series of worksheets that build on each other for planning high school courses and tracking high school grades,

12. The system of claim 5, the toolbox further comprising a selection criteria worksheet configured for receiving one or more student user input college search terms or career search terms and a student assigned importance level to the college or career search terms, the system configured for searching for matching post-secondary education institutions and employers based upon the student user input search terms and assigned importance level.

13. The system of claim 5, the toolbox further comprising one or more budget and financial aid worksheets providing a modifiable outline of budgeting considerations and fields that aggregate and project expected expenses.

14. The system of claim 5, the toolbox further comprising high school academic chronicle suite comprising a course planner, a personal academic record, a portfolio/extra curricular journal, and/or a posted portfolio posted and available for viewing by one or more college admissions users, the course planner providing suggested high school classes for a student user to take based at least in part upon the student user'"'"'s course of planned study, the high school academic chronicle may provide extracurricular or other activity suggestions to a student user, and the high school academic chronicle may be accessed by a counselor user for providing academic course recommendations, assignments, reviewing progress, and sending communications to student users and/or parent users via the course planner.

15. The system of claim 5, the toolbox further comprising a college fit suite comprising one or more tools selected from the group essentially consisting of a college fit worksheet, mock interview information, one or more academic applications, an academic or financial aid application module that is configured to export user personal profile information from the system to one or more university admissions applications and/or financial aid applications, one or more financial aid applications, calendared deadlines regarding early admission decisions, an offer evaluation worksheet, a campus visit checklist, conditional acceptance requirement data, wait listing data, need-blind acceptance data, admission denied data, follow-through suggestions, thank you notes, acceptance letters, recommended or required acceptance steps, letters informing colleges that the student has accepted admission elsewhere, and a side-by-side comparison of two or more colleges based upon personal college search criteria and ranked criteria weightings, the personal college search criteria comprising one or more criteria selected from the group essentially consisting of information gathered by the student user in the college search suite, travel from home cost considerations, personalized budgeting for contemplated actual college costs based upon the user'"'"'s personalized information.

16. The system of claim 5, the editorial content selected from the group consisting essentially of academic based content, career based content, university information, employer information, educational content, admissions related topics, counseling content and calendaring content capable of being personalized for a user to announce admissions deadline information, recommended steps on the path to college, event information, job placement information, job qualification information, calendared content for application deadline information, and on-campus interview dates,

17. The system of claim 5, the meta-knowledge rule base comprising one or more rules for filtering matches between system users and editorial content based upon user profile data and user system use data, the meta-knowledge rules comprising university determined criteria for content matching editorial content to students meeting university admissions criteria.

18. The system of claim 5, the meta-knowledge rule base comprising one or more rules for filtering matches between system users and editorial content based at least in part upon criteria selected from the group consisting essentially of student grade level, user type and school of attendance.

19. The system of claim 5, the local editorial content received by the system from a local school teacher, administrator, counselor or other user associated with the local school.

20. A dynamic graphical user interface for display upon the display of a computing platform comprising:

a personal profile display comprising user personal profile data and user system use data;

a customizable tool pallet for a computer-implemented college or career planning system configured for displaying on the display of a computing platform, the tool pallet comprising a tool navigator for selecting one or more tools for accessing functionality of a college or career planning system for rating, saving, organizing, bookmarking and/or recalling system content;

the tool pallet further comprising one or more tools for accessing sponsor content customized for a user to display one or more promotions and advertisements available for the user, the sponsor content customized for the user based at least in part upon one or more rules in a meta-knowledge rule base of the system, data from the personal profile for the user, and/or the user'"'"'s system use data;

the tool pallet further comprising one or more tools for accessing one or more moderated forums in the system that are configured to accept user forum entries, the moderated forums are configured to accept user input postings, the moderated forums are vetted by a vetting process of the system by content review to remove inappropriate content and to dynamically categorize user forum entries by topic, the tool pallet configured for providing customized access to one or more moderated forums that the user selects as followed forums;

a contribution link adapted for a user to select to access functionality for contributing editorial content to the system;

one or more editorial content displays for displaying the editorial content in a customized categorized manner for the user, the editorial content customized for the user based at least in part upon one or more rules in the meta-knowledge rule base of the system, data from the personal profile for the user, and/or the user'"'"'s system use data;

an educational content display comprising background information for users regarding post-secondary education institutions and the admissions process or career offerings and the interviewing process;

a consider content display comprising topical issue-raising content for considerations regarding post-secondary education or career planning, the consider content is customized for the user based at least in part upon one or more rules from the meta-knowledge rule base, data from the user personal profile and the user system use data;

an explore content display comprising one or more suggestions and resources for researching post-secondary education institution or employer topics, the explore content is customized for the user based at least in part upon one or more rules from the meta-knowledge rule base, the user personal profile data and the user system use data;

an act content display comprising one or more tools or worksheets selected for the user to complete, the act content display comprising one or more act content tasks, the act content display customized for the user based at least in part upon one or more rules from the meta-knowledge rule base, the user personal profile data and the user'"'"'s system use data, the tools selected from the group essentially consisting of a college fit worksheet, a budget worksheet and a job evaluation worksheet;

an organize content display comprising one or more calendar entries for calendaring the act content tasks for the post-secondary education or career decision-making, the organize content topically categorized to dynamically categorize organize content entries by topic based upon content tagging based upon one or more rules from the meta-knowledge rule base, data from the user personal profile, and/or information from an activity monitor monitoring user system use;

an opinions content display comprising one or more opinion content selected from the group consisting essentially of counseling advice, advisor opinions, peer opinions, alumni opinions and student opinions, the opinions content topically categorized to dynamically categorize opinions content entries by topic based upon content tagging based upon one or more rules from the meta-knowledge rule base, data from the user personal profile, and/or information from an activity monitor monitoring user system use; and

a subject bar comprising one or more links for accessing secondary considerations for post-secondary education decision-making comprising sporting team try-out data, scholarship data, geographic location of the post-secondary education institution, music program auditions data, nearby amenities data or local community data, or comprising once or more links for accessing secondary considerations for career decision-making comprising benefits, job scope, geographic location, quality of life in that geographic location, company type, project area of study, project team or potential for promotions, the subject bar being customized for the user based at least in part upon one or more rules from the meta-knowledge rule base, the user personal profile data and the user'"'"'s system use data.

21. A computer-implemented method for college searching for students to find post-secondary education institution matches using a post-secondary education institution searching system comprising:

receiving, by an interface engine of the post-secondary education institution searching system, user defined search criteria for searching for one or more colleges, the search criteria not comprising user selection of search criteria pre-listed by the system, the search criteria comprising one or more user generated and input search terms, the search criteria further comprising data input to one or more tools or worksheets of the post-secondary education institution searching system;

receiving, by the interface engine of the post-secondary education institution searching system, user defined ranked weighting of the search criteria, the ranked weighting assigning relative values to the search criteria;

searching for colleges in a college database of the system that substantially match the user input search terms by a processor of the interface engine matching one or more colleges in the college database to the user generated and input search terms, based upon one or more rules of a meta-knowledge rules base and the user input search terms, the system applies the user input search terms and searches with the interface engine the college database located in a long-term memory, for colleges substantially matching the user defined search terms; and

displaying customized search results in an order of relevance based upon the ranked weighing of the search terms, the customized search results comprising matches in the college database, the customized search results listed on a dynamic graphical user interface of the system in an order based upon the ranked weighting.

22. The method of claim 21, further comprising:

receiving, by the interface engine of the post-secondary education institution searching system, a change to the user defined ranked weighting of the search criteria, the changed ranked weighting assigning new relative values to the search criteria; and

displaying new customized search results, based upon the new ranked weighing of the search terms.

23. The method of claim 21, the display of customized search results further comprising calendar data for college admissions events of each matched college.