A business intelligence and data management system is disclosed comprising a database for storing multi-dimensional business data from multiple online educational institutions; a usage tracking engine for recording within a user profile the time and duration of access to disparate system features. A reporting engine provides periodic and custom reports and a benchmarking engine facilitates comparison of internal institution data with aggregate data from multiple institutions, to compare student retention, course completion, student satisfaction, and student performance. The reporting engine provides reports on course retention rates, course evaluations, faculty evaluations, enrollment, student performance, and course run rates. The usage tracking engine, benchmarking engine, and reporting engine facilitate determination of best practices to improve student enrollment, student retention, course completion, student performance, and student satisfaction. A custom query engine facilitates freeform searches of business data and a data mining engine provides access to detailed data supporting the periodic reports.

Controlled access is provided to a shared resource 23 such as an ontology (knowledge database) in order to maintain its quality without restraining the ability of users 21a, 21b, 21c . . . to contribute to that resource.An edit and query function 26 is used to determine the validity and consistency of individual contributions. The results of these checks and the level of contribution made by individual users to the information resource is used to produce a rating for each user of the resource, which is stored (24a, 24b . . . ) for use in prioritise and manage future contributions to the resource 23, provide metadata on the resource and to prioritise access control 28 to the resource.When a new contribution is made by a user a threshold of approval can be set before it is accepted into the main database 23. This threshold is based on the sum of the ratings points of the original contributor and of users that give their assent to the inclusion of that contribution.

An enterprise-wide web data mining system, computer program product, and method of operation thereof, that uses Internet based data sources, and which operates in an automated and cost effective manner. The enterprise web mining system comprises: a database coupled to a plurality of data sources, the database operable to store data collected from the data sources; a data mining engine coupled to the web server and the database, the data mining engine operable to generate a plurality of data mining models using the collected data; a server coupled to a network, the server operable to: receive a request for a prediction or recommendation over the network, generate a prediction or recommendation using the data mining models, and transmit the generated prediction or recommendation.

A method and system is provided for testing and analyzing websites via a test-enabled web browser. In the representative embodiment a user controls a test-enabled web browser via a set of pull-down menus, thereby choosing between alternative testing and analysis functional capabilities, selecting files in which to store recordings (scripts), choosing files into which to place test results and messages, and setting various parameters that affect how the testing and analysis functions are performed. When the user requests it, the representative embodiment provides for deep recording of user interactions as they relate to a specific web page currently on display in the browser view area, for extracting key information from the current web page sufficient to validate that a future playback does or does not produce the same effects on the chosen website page, for playing back a prior recording to confirm that a website page continues to pass the user-defined tests, and for providing detailed analyses based on the specific contents of the current website page. The general result of systematic use of the test-enabled browser on websites is improved content quality, demonstrated website server behavior for deep tests, quicker delivery by the website server, and better serviceability for e-business.

An apparatus and method for searching a database of web site functional characteristics to identify web sites that are compatible with designated functions are provided. With the apparatus and method, a database of functional characteristics is compiled and a search interface is provided. The database may be compiled in an automatic, manual, or semiautomatic manner by, for example, retrieving web site content with various functions of a web browser disabled and analyzing the resultant output through the web browser. With the search interface, a user may enter designations of the functional characteristics that the user is either interested in having or not having in the resultant list of web sites. Based on the user's designation of functional characteristics, the search engine associated with the search interface searches the database of web sites and identifies the web site entries in the database that are compatible with the designated functional characteristics. The search engine then provides a listing of these web site entries through a search output interface which may then be used by the user that requested the search.