Searching the Portal Introduction There are a variety of ways to search the portal. The search tool selected will depend on what the user is searching for. In this unit, you will be shown how to perform searches using the search tool located in the upper right corner of the Home Page (Option 1) and the search tool located in the middle Quick Links column (Option 2). Note that search features can also be accessed from other areas of the portal. Search All Sources The pull-down menu allows a user to determine what part of the portal they wish to search including: All sources People This topic This personal site This search feature is available on all sections of the portal except collaborative sites, which require users to be a member in order to search. Search "All Sources": If you are searching for general information on the NB Education Portal, you will want to search All sources. Simply enter key word(s) in the field box provided and then hit the Enter key or click on the green arrow following the text box.
Search People All teachers, district office employees and Department of Education employees have contact information entered in the portal through the active directory. To search for a person, type their name in the field box and select People from the pull down menu. Hit the Enter key or click on the green arrow to perform the search. Search This topic and This personal site Search "This topic": When you enter a topic area like Teaching Resources for example, you will have the option of narrowing your search to only the topic area. Search "This personal site": When you are on your own My Site or another educator s My Site, the search box allows the option of searching only the personal site. Search a Collaborative Team Site Search a Collaborative Team Site: The search box window is still available in the collaborative team site on the portal. It differs from the previous search features in that only a search on the team site is performed. If the information you are searching is not found on the site, you will be referred to search the portal.
Search Results When searching the portal using the upper right Search Box, results will be displayed as shown below. With the quick navigation feature in the left side column, you have the option of changing your views by selecting from the list under Select View. Search results within Collaborative Team Sites will vary from the general portal search in the way in which items found are displayed. It will give the user the option of expanding the search for the requested item to the entire portal. It will also provide a list all items (folders) and all documents that contain your search words. Portal Search Accessing Portal Search from the Quick Links column opens the advanced search feature of the NB Education Portal. It functions in a similar way as the pull-down search windows addressed in Option 1, but provides access to all features in one screen. On this screen, the user can select the sources to be searched and the search type. The user can also narrow the search with three Boolean type fields and can also search by date.
Advanced Search When conducting an Option 1 type search (from the upper right corner of the Home Page), the user can always access the advanced search feature from their search results page. This is done by clicking Advanced Search in the left side quick launch navigation. Search Image Bank Search Image Bank is a search tool that was designed specifically for New Brunswick educators so that they can locate copyrightfree images for use in presentations and projects. The image data bank can be searched in both English and French. The search can be conducted with keywords separated by semi-colons. The user can also search by name of photographer or time period of submissions.
Image Bank Search Results Users can view the results of their search as thumbnails with or without details. As well, results can be displayed with a designated number per page, which is controlled by radio buttons in the top right corner. If the search results returned are not what are expected, the user can redefine the search and try again since the leftside search window is always available. Search Educational Resources is a search tool that was designed specifically for New Brunswick educators so that they can locate teaching resources. In every subject area, there is a quick link to the Search Educational Resources web part. Teachers have the option of manually searching through curriculum area libraries or they can use this search engine. The engine allows the teacher to select one or more of the categories of grade level, subject and resource type, as well as the option of key words. This search feature is
designed to look only at resources located in the Teaching Resource Section (Databases). It narrows the search to a specific area of the portal and retrieves resources quickly and efficiently. Search Educational Resources Results The results generated by this tool will be a list of the resources found in the Teaching Resource Section of the portal that meet the search criteria defined in the search. In this case the criteria were: (1)grade three; (2) science; (3) lesson plans; and (4) plants. Teachers are provided with details describing the resource including name, brief description, grade, subject, resource type, and URL location of the resource. Teachers then have the option of clicking on the resource title to download the resource, clicking on Add to my links to save the resource location in their My Site or click on New Search to try again.