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MarcoPolo Education Foundation

MarcoPolo Education Foundation is a nonprofit consortium of premier national and international education organizations and the MCI Foundation dedicated to providing the highest quality Internet content and professional development to teachers and students throughout the United States.

C3 began working with MarcoPolo in 2000 and has provided customized content, editorial services, research, field testing, and project management to the Foundation. C3 continues to provide project management services for the Search Engine, for which C3 manages the selection of resources for Search Engine inclusion by seven content Partners, as well as Search Engine maintenance.

Most recently, C3 managed the development of a set of data-base driven interactives designed to be customizable by all seven MarcoPolo Content Partners. This two-year project, funded in part by Microsoft, included research of content Partners' materials to determine what interactives should be developed, instructional and artistic design of the interactives, database and Flash coding, and numerous review cycles with the nine participating organizations.

Some past and on-going projects include interactive design and development, Search Engine cataloguing and maintenance, and customized student and teacher content.

Featured Projects

MarcoPolo Search Engine
Since 2000, C3 has evaluated and individually reviewed and cataloged over 40,000 resources for the MarcoPolo Search Engine. In addition, C3 has assumed the task of project management for the search engine, handling identification, creation, and maintenance updates of the search engine records, including working with the eight participating organizations to develop and maintain cataloguing procedures, incorporate changes for site redesigns, ensure GEM compliance, and more.
  • Search Engine Cataloguing

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     C3 staff individually reviews each resource in the search engine. Using a custom-built cataloguing system, C3 writes a description, identifies keywords, and includes other pertinent information about each site. Each catalogued record is based on a set of standards and style sheets developed in coordination with the MarcoPolo partner organizations and undergoes a two-tiered peer review before becoming live in the search engine.


  • Search Engine Project Management

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     To coordinate the various tasks associated with the search engine, C3 has developed a custom intranet for cataloguing and search engine maintenance personnel. C3 also works directly with each MarcoPolo partner organization to ensure that their resources are included in the search engine in an appropriate and timely manner.


  • Search Engine Reporting

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    C3 provides MarcoPolo with search engine content reports and analysis on a regular basis. The data from these reports informs the selection of new resources for the search engine.




Lesson Calendar

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 C3 researches, writes, and maintains the MarcoPolo Calendar, which highlights one topic each day and points to related MarcoPolo Partner resources. The project includes surveying partner resources to identify topics, selecting and researching events related to those topics, and writing, coding, and editing each entry.



Student Interactives
C3 developed a set of 20 database-driven Flash interactives and accompanying customization forms for use by all eight MarcoPolo Content Partners. This two-year project, funded in part by Microsoft, included research of partners' materials to determine what types of interactives should be developed, instructional and artistic design of the interactives, database and flash coding, numerous review cycles with the nine participating organizations, and full technical support for the participating organizations, including the construction of a shared Knowledge Base.

The interactives, such as the Venn diagram tool for which several samples are included below, are currently in use by MarcoPolo Content Partners with their own customized content to support their lessons. The Venn diagram tool allows partners to customize the text, select the number of circles, and enter sortable images or text from a back-end tool, as well as change the look, color scheme, and branding, and to turn automatic feedback on or off. Each sample you see below was created using a single tool.





Student Field-Testing
C3 field-tested the interactives developed for MarcoPolo with students in grades K–6. C3 developed sample grade-level appropriate content, created testing guides, recruited educators and students, organized testing results, and recommended changes to the interactives based on testing.


I will not be joining this meeting, but I did want to send you a note earlier to say that I was impressed with how well last week’s meeting was run. This project seems to be going very well, and has the potential to be very significant for MarcoPolo.

—Bill Jewell
Manager of Technology and Measurement
MarcoPolo Education Foundation

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