All Star Lineup of Publishers Supply Content in Universal Learning Technology's WebCT; Agreements Bring Textbooks to Life with Number One Web-Based Learning Application.

VANCOUVER, British Columbia--(BUSINESS WIRE)--June 17, 1999--

Universal Learning Technology Worldwide Users Conference

Universal Learning Technology(tm) (ULT), the number one provider of Web-based learning software and applications, today announced that it has established partnerships with top college textbook publishers establishing WebCT as the de-facto standard for institutions of higher education to bring course curricula to the Web. The announcement of this all-star lineup of course content is expected to make a big hit at the first annual ULT Conference on Learning Technologies, which got underway today at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver.

ULT's publishing partners will now offer a combined total of more than 150 different WebCT courses across a wide spectrum of academic disciplines. These agreements enable ULT to significantly expand its industry-leading base of over 700 colleges and universities in 39 countries.

"Agreements with these leading publishers and Internet companies further enable ULT to reach its goal of becoming the educational learning hub on the Internet," said Carol Vallone, president and CEO of Universal Learning Technology. "We look forward to working with each of these publishers to continue to move textbook content online ensuring faculty and students the broadest range of information available today."

ULT has strategic content agreements with the following publishers: Pearson Education, including its Addison Wesley Longman, Allyn & Bacon, Prentice Hall, Macmillan Computer Publishing and Pearson Professional, Reference and Technology imprints; The Thomson Corporation, including its Course Technology Inc., Thomson Learning, and Wadsworth Publishing imprints; Archipelago; Bedford, Freeman & Worth Publishing Group; Cambridge Physics Outlet; Harcourt College; John Wiley & Sons; McGraw-Hill Ryerson and W.W. Norton & Company, Inc.

Here's what they are saying:

Pearson Education - "Pearson is wholly supportive of the adopting professor and institution that has selected WebCT as their course management platform of choice," said Patricia Henry Leonard, senior VP and general manager, Pearson EducationNetwork. "We are the first publisher who migrated their content into the WebCT shell, the publisher with the most course resource material available in WebCT and the only publisher offering exclusive support to all adopting faculty direct from WebCT, the authorities on the tool and its use. We've had an extraordinary response from adopters who acknowledge that, although they could develop their online courses from scratch using the breadth of tools in WebCT, they have the opportunity to develop a much more robust online course using class-tested Pearson content. Most instructors don't write a textbook for each class they teach; why do it for your online course? Using WebCT, faculty can instead focus on augmenting that core course content and on the instruction, mentoring and interaction that makes online instruction so successful."

Pearson EducationNetwork, in conjunction with WebCT, will offer over 70 titles for Fall 1999 pre-loaded with its rich multimedia and web-based content from its family of imprints. Each Pearson EducationNetwork/WebCT course comes with a prepaid site license to use WebCT and a unique Gold Level technical support direct from WebCT and available only to adopters of Addison Wesley Longman, Allyn & Bacon, Prentice Hall, Macmillan Computer Publishing and Pearson Professional, Reference and Technology textbooks. Interested faculty members can visit http://www.ssdl.com/alliance/webct.html for samples of Pearson EducationNetwork/WebCT courses and general information about Pearson Education's offerings.

The Thompson Corporation - "WebCT has been an important part of Thomson Learning's strategy for some time," said Andrew Brenneman, VP technology, electronic learning. "In our experience, it not only has the most significant market penetration of any platform in higher education, but the feature enhancements and system performance have also been excellent. The Electronic Learning group of Thomson Learning and WebCT successfully collaborated on the creation of automated tools to create WebCT courses from Thomson Learning content. Fourteen online study guides will be launched this summer, with a total of 70 by year's-end. Supporting WebCT will be a critical success factor for content providers as the online learning market continues to develop."

Thomson Learning's family of market-focused publishing houses are committed to providing electronic learning tools on the leading platforms. WebCT is clearly a leader and WebCT-specific courses are now being offered for the following courses: accounting (from South-Western College Publishing, one of the leading business and economics publishers); computers and technology (from Course Technology, the leading provider of Information Technology course materials); anthropology, sociology, philosophy, religion, social work, counseling, education, political science, history, college success, criminal justice, health and music (from Wadsworth, a leading publisher in the social sciences and humanities). Thomson Learning is also creating Web-based electronic supplements to accompany market-leading textbooks across the disciplines. In addition to the publishers listed, Brooks/Cole (mathematics, sciences, and engineering), Heinle & Heinle (foreign language and ESL), Delmar (for vocational and career education), and Nelson (in Canada) are also preparing a wide variety of courses. This means additional content that can be adapted to the WebCT platform for a wide array of disciplines.

Archipelago - "Archipelago/WebCT Course Content Cartridges allow instructors to easily import Archipelago's Web-based content modules into WebCT's learning management system," said Robert Gemin, Archipelago's VP of sales & marketing. "In addition, WebCT's standard design tools allow for easy modification of Web-based course content." For more information go to www.archipelago.com.

Bedford/St. Martin's, W.H. Freeman & Co., and Worth Publishers - "Bedford/St. Martin's, W.H. Freeman & Co., and Worth Publishers are pleased to announce their support for the WebCT environment," said Reid Sherline, director of electronic media, Bedford/St. Martin's, W.H. Freeman & Co., Worth Publishers. "The companies will be launching the first of their WebCT courses, to accompany Worth's market-leading introductory psychology textbooks this August. Additional courses will be launched in psychology, chemistry, astronomy and American history later this year."

Cambridge Physics Outlet - "ULT offers the most practical and cost-effective solution we have found for Web distribution of educational materials," said Dr.Tom Hsu, president, Cambridge Physics Outlet.

Harcourt College Publishers - "Our goal at Harcourt is to provide high quality educational material in any format our customers demand--and that increasingly means via the Web. ULT with the WebCT platform, is the best vehicle for that delivery," said Scott Timian, vice president of Harcourt Integrated Technologies (HITs). "HITs specializes in digital re-purposing of content to meet the changing needs of the educational marketplace."

John Wiley & Sons - "We feel that Wiley and ULT share the same goal of developing and supporting technology that powers education," said Bonnie Lieberman, senior vice president and general manager-college, John Wiley & Sons, Inc. "We are happy to have ULT as a partner in our mission to help teachers teach and help students learn." Wiley currently publishes 14 titles in WebCT in the areas of psychology, physics, accounting, engineering, mathematics and management. More information is available at www.wiley.com/college/solutions.

McGraw-Hill Ryerson - "McGraw-Hill Ryerson recognizes WebCT as the leading On-line Classroom Management system available for faculty," said Joe Saundercook, director of business development. "High quality, faculty reviewed McGraw-Hill content is pre-loaded into WebCT for faculty convenience. WebCT training is provided at a series of McGraw-Hill Ryerson sponsored Educational Technology Conferences in Canada. Continuing the commitment to WebCT, McGraw-Hill Ryerson will create WebCT supplementary materials for each of our new titles and provide increased support to enrich course Web sites prepared by faculty."

W. W. Norton & Company, Inc. - "When W. W. Norton & Company, Inc. decided to enter the distance education market, we discovered WebCT becoming the lingua franca of this type software," said Fred McFarland, distance education manager. "We are happy to add our content to their software, creating Norton/WebCT courses for distance education and for enhancing on campus lecture courses." Courses for Fall, 1999: We The People, Second Edition, by Ginsberg, Lowi and Weir America: A Narrative History, Fifth Edition, by Tindall and Shi Psychology, Fifth Edition, by Gleitman, Fridlund, and Reisberg Norton Introduction to Literature, Eighth Edition, Hunter and Beaty, eds. For more information, see www.wwnorton.com/distance/templates.htm.

About Universal Learning Technology (ULT)

Universal Learning Technology, the de facto standard in the Web-based learning marketplace, is the industry leader with the largest installed base of more than two million seats at over 700 colleges and universities in 39 countries. ULT's WebCT product offers colleges and universities a total solution across the learning enterprise, providing faculty with the best tools for building online curricula, students with an integrated Web-based learning environment and publishers with an ideal platform on which to provide the richest variety of content. For more information on Universal Learning Technology and WebCT call [phone] or visit the Web site at http://www.ult.net.