A mall or aggregator broker is a business model in which individual providers advertise their courses or programs through a broker's information portal - like listing a business in the yellow pages. Learners can use the information portal to find courses and programs from multiple providers listed. In its simplest form, a mall broker provides space for listing courses and programs on an information site in return for some form of payment. The information site provides search tools that let learners find courses or programs based upon their interests. Typically searches can be made based on content, provider, or learning format.
Learners can then compare courses from different providers through on-line course descriptions.
Many mall sites are adding new features to separate themselves from other mall brokers and to entice both learners and providers to regularly visit. For example, Hungry Minds is a mall broker that has added new features to its search tools including a money-back guarantee for courses taken through its site. Although the site lists training opportunities in a wide variety of formats, it shows the evolving nature of aggregator sites and the quest to provide value-added features. A consortium represents a collaborative business model in which multiple providing institutions, typically regionally based, share activities to benefit the learner and to improve efficiency. All consortia are based on the assumption that cooperation is a more effective way to respond to changes in the market - to offer better learning opportunities to learners and to compete more effectively.