Academic Systems to Develop New All-In-One Platform for High-Quality, Multimedia Web Course Creation.Business Editors/High-tech and Education Writers MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--March 17, 2000 Company's Easy-To-Use Building Blocks for Web-Enabled Learning Powered by Blackboard's Leading CourseInfo Product Line There's a Catch-22 for higher-education faculty who want to deliver compelling instruction over the Internet Internet Publicly accessible computer network connecting many smaller networks from around the world. It grew out of a U.S. Defense Department program called ARPANET (Advanced Research Projects Agency Network), established in 1969 with connections between computers at the . They want to build effective, interactive Web courses and course supplements to help their students learn more effectively and to streamline time-consuming time-con·sum·ing adj. Taking up much time. time-consuming Adjective taking up a great deal of time Adj. 1. grading and assessment tasks. But these instructors, already up against the clock, don't don't 1. Contraction of do not. 2. Nonstandard Contraction of does not. n. A statement of what should not be done: a list of the dos and don'ts. have the time or the inclination inclination, in astronomy, the angle of intersection between two planes, one of which is an orbital plane. The inclination of the plane of the moon's orbit is 5°9' with respect to the plane of the ecliptic (the plane of the earth's orbit around the sun). to become multimedia Web authoring experts. academic.com, a new source for Web-based college-level content, tools and services, will provide a complete, anytime-anywhere solution. The academic.com suite of building blocks for developing fully Web-enabled courses is currently under development at Academic Systems Corporation and will debut this fall. Pilots will become available this spring and summer for the all-in-one (1) A combination computer printer, scanner, copy machine and fax machine. Some all-in-ones exclude the fax capability or make it an option. (2) A desktop computer that houses every component except the keyboard and mouse inside the same case as the monitor. platform for higher-education course creation, editing and customization. Academic Systems will use the Blackboard (1) See Blackboard Learning System. (2) The traditional classroom presentation board that is written on with chalk and erased with a felt pad. Although originally black, "white" boards and colored chalks are also used. CourseInfo teaching and learning environment to make the academic.com suite available over the Internet. "Creating online courses can be very time-consuming and difficult for faculty, and they are looking for Looking for In the context of general equities, this describing a buy interest in which a dealer is asked to offer stock, often involving a capital commitment. Antithesis of in touch with. tools that streamline the task," said John Brandon Brandon, city, Canada Brandon, city (1991 pop. 38,567), SW Man., Canada, on the Assiniboine River. The business center of the wheat-raising area of SW Manitoba, Brandon has an extensive trade in farm products and machinery. , president of Academic Systems. "By building on our expertise in developing outstanding multimedia instruction, Academic Systems can offer faculty the tools, content, training, and support they are looking for." The new academic.com offering has four key components: (1) ActiveContent(TM) -- a library of learning modules that provide interactive, multimedia content; (2) ActiveContent Course Builder -- a collection of third-generation, easy-to-use, course-building tools; (3) a platform with basic Web course components; and (4) professional training and technical support services support services Psychology Non-health care-related ancillary services–eg, transportation, financial aid, support groups, homemaker services, respite services, and other services to help faculty put their own content online. In addition, all of these components can be tied in with the existing information systems infrastructure at the institution. ActiveContent Faculty tell us that a Web course platform alone does not provide them with access to the rich multimedia instructional content they want to offer their students. However, faculty also tell us that they don't have the time or the inclination to develop such content. As a result, many of today's faculty-authored sites primarily have electronic representations of the same content that used to be distributed on paper. An economics course site, for instance, may include lecture notes online and perhaps a few presentation slides, but those elements do not significantly tap into the full power of Web-based interactive, multimedia content. academic.com offers a solution with its library of interactive online instruction covering both fundamental and discipline-specific learning objectives that can be used to supplement instruction in a wide variety of courses. For example, by developing a Web course or supplement on academic.com, that same economics professor could offer ActiveContent learning modules that allowed students who needed it to access both a review on fundamental graphing and also an application on how to develop graphs in an economics course. That student would learn, practice and be quizzed on those learning objectives. With the course building blocks from academic.com, faculty from a variety of disciplines will be able to choose from a large collection of ready-made ActiveContent to include in their web-enabled classes or distance learning courses. ActiveContent Course Builder This third-generation tool kit for building rich interactive content is an academic.com exclusive. First-generation tools required an extensive knowledge of html programming. Second-generation tools made it easy to get text-based content online using templates. The new, third-generation ActiveContent Course Builder lets classroom instructors without Web programming skills quickly and easily create visually rich, interactive course material for Web sites and distance learning. The labor saving process is as simple as point-and-click. The Platform and Basic Course Components Powering academic.com's basic platform features is Blackboard, Inc.'s CourseInfo technologies. "Our partnership with Blackboard enables us to provide higher education higher education Study beyond the level of secondary education. Institutions of higher education include not only colleges and universities but also professional schools in such fields as law, theology, medicine, business, music, and art. faculty with proven, user-friendly tools on which to build their web courses," said Brandon. academic.com will enable faculty to quickly set up Web-based courses by following the directions of an on-screen on·screen or on-screen adj. & adv. 1. As shown on a movie, television, or display screen. 2. Within public view; in public. wizard Instructional help in an application or system development environment that guides the user through a series of multiple choice questions to accomplish a task. For the most part, wizards are more effective than the help menus found in most applications, which often border on the atrocious. . Using this tool, instructors can build course components such as an online syllabus A headnote; a short note preceding the text of a reported case that briefly summarizes the rulings of the court on the points decided in the case. The syllabus appears before the text of the opinion. , class calendars and notes, and community features such as discussion boards, online chat and e-mail. Professional Training and Technical Support Services academic.com's academic support team offers a suite of training workshops that support faculty members as they use the Web for teaching and learning. The workshops are designed to train educators to integrate Web-based teaching and learning tools, strategies and models into their classrooms. academic.com offers a variety of on-site, regional and Web-based workshops to suit the particular needs and online experience level of each faculty member. Faculty and administrators alike often cite technical support as critical to successful Web-based teaching and learning. academic.com provides 24/7 technical support to both students and faculty. In addition, academic.com is offered as a completely Internet-based hosted eLearning solution, eliminating need for expensive campus-based server equipment and systems support. About Academic Systems Academic Systems Corporation, the higher education division of The Lightspan Partnership, Inc., has focused on meeting the needs of higher education faculty and students since it was founded in 1992. Its first products were interactive, multimedia instructional programs that offer an enhanced learning environment in mathematics and writing for college students in developmental and entry-level courses. Created in concert with educators, Academic Systems' Interactive Mathematics and Interactive English programs have demonstrated increases in learning and achievement. Academic Systems' networked courses are offered at more than 250 college campuses in 36 states. For more information, visit the Web site at www.academic.com. For more information call 800/694-6850. Statements in this press release that are not strictly historical are "forward-looking" statements within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933 and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934. These statements involve a high degree of risk and uncertainty, are predictions only and actual events or results may differ materially from those projected in such forward-looking statements forward-looking statement A projected financial statement based on management expectations. A forward-looking statement involves risks with regard to the accuracy of assumptions underlying the projections. . Factors that could cause or contribute to differences include volatility of the Company's expenses and operating results, market acceptance of the Company's curriculum-based software and Internet products, management of growth, risks associated with expanding the Company's Internet business, changes in funding for public schools, technological advances and risks related thereto there·to adv. 1. To that, this, or it. 2. Archaic In addition to that; furthermore. thereto Adverb Formal 1. to that or it 2. , and risks associated with the Company's rapid growth. These factors and others are more fully described under "Risk Factors" in the Final Prospectus Final Prospectus A legal document stating the price of a newly issued security, the delivery date, and other facts that are important for investors. Notes: The final prospectus must be given to every investor who purchases a new issue of registered securities. included in The Lightspan Partnership's Registration Statement on Form S-1 (File No. 333-90103) as filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Christopher J. Kearns, Cooley Coo·ley , Denton Arthur Born 1920. American surgeon and educator who in 1969 performed the first artificial heart transplant on a human. Godward LLP LLP - Lower Layer Protocol / 4365 Executive Drive, Suite 1100 / San Diego San Diego (săn dēā`gō), city (1990 pop. 1,110,549), seat of San Diego co., S Calif., on San Diego Bay; inc. 1850. San Diego includes the unincorporated communities of La Jolla and Spring Valley. Coronado is across the bay. , CA 92121 / 858-550-6000 / 858-453-3555 fax / ckearns@cooley.com |
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