Creating a website can be terribly easy. Simply gather as many links to sites and pages on a particular area as you possibly can and then "frame" them within your own site. Of course this makes for a pretty flimsy - and frustrating - site, and is characteristic of some Irish educational sites. The student seeking third-level course information is left with the task of trawling through the individual college sites.
CollegesWeb.com, on the other hand, has put considerable thought and resources into providing what is probably the most comprehensive rundown of the third-level options available in Ireland. It claims to be the only website that provides, within the site itself, prospective Irish students with the details of every single day course available in the State. The usual links to all the institutions' sites are there too.
CollegesWeb.com is targeted at third-level students past, present and future, with guides to applying to courses using both CAO and UCAS and daily student tips. It's strong on interactive elements, including 15 discussion forums, ranging from educational topics to job hunting, and three chat rooms. There's also a second-hand bookswapping area, an accommodation noticeboard, a live sports-news feed and even a dynamic Periodic Table of the Elements. You will need to register for certain services on this site.
Features promised for the coming months include free e-mail and web space for home pages. Visitors to the site are also given plenty of opportunity to make comments.
A potential problem with this type of site is that material posted by third-level students (e.g. discussions about sexual conquests) can be unsuitable for schoolchildren, but CollegesWeb.com appears to be free of such content.
Finally, CollegesWeb.com should not be confused with Collegeweb.com, a much more commercial US website.
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