Cenquest Partners with Top Universities To Offer Businesses Company-Customized E-Learning MBA Programs and Courses.

Business Editors/Technology Writers

PORTLAND, Ore.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--May 16, 2001

Collaboration with Established Universities To Develop

Company-Specific Curriculum Marks Radical Change

In The Way Corporations and Academia Work Together

Cenquest, developers of university-sourced e-learning courses for working professionals, today announced they have partnered with top-ranked universities to offer companies customized business courses and degree programs.

The adaptation of established university course content to meet company-specific needs represents a significant change in the way academia and businesses work together and is a direct consequence of advanced e-learning technology.

By making the education programs directly relevant to an individual company's day-to-day needs, the customized programs are intended to provide businesses with a substantially higher return on their employee-reimbursed education dollars and provide employees with an education that is both relevant and career-enhancing.

Employees from Intel and other large companies have already begun to take Cenquest company-customized e-learning courses being offered by such schools as Babson College and the Oregon Graduate Institute of Science and Technology. Cenquest is also working with other university partners such as the University of Texas, Austin to develop additional company-tailored graduate-level programs.

Companies like Intel find the customized courses offer several advantages over traditional corporate-sponsored education programs. While standard university courses offer the theory needed for critical thinking, they don't necessarily tie this theory to day-to-day company-specific needs. Training programs teach the skills and solutions to address day-to-day issues but don't include the foundational information necessary for analysis and critical thinking. By adapting validated university coursework to company-specific applications, the Cenquest courses increase the employee's immediate value to the company while increasing employee job satisfaction and retention.

Breaking New Ground

The collaboration between Cenquest and its university partners reflects a change in the way corporations and universities work together.

"The once sacred wall between academia and corporations has begun to crumble," said LaVonne Reimer Young, CEO of Cenquest. "Due in great part to the capabilities of online learning, universities are finding they must adapt the theories and research they have traditionally taught to the real-life situations of today's business world."

E-learning plays a critical role in Cenquest's ability to customize course content. The Internet-based classes permit the easy participation of guest lecturers from the company, its customers or other relevant business partners. The customized courses may also include company-specific case studies that illustrate lessons and may have students/employees work on relevant business concerns in the context of the course content. Cenquest courses are designed to allow students and teachers to interact in a virtual classroom via collaboration tools, message forums and threaded discussions, all of which help to provide an effective learning environment.

"Cenquest has proven that e-learning is not only an effective learning model but can actually be superior to traditional brick-and-mortar education," said Reimer Young. "No other educational model provides the combined experience of classroom interaction, individual student involvement and flexibility."

About Cenquest

Cenquest is a leader in creating and delivering high-quality university-sourced programs over the Internet. With unique instructional design expertise, Cenquest transforms traditional classroom-based content to its proven Internet-based learning model. Cenquest specializes in adapting accredited education and professional development content into an e-learning format that is highly interactive, instructor-mediated and event-driven. Cenquest also offers the full range of necessary support and delivery services required to enable e-learning events, including faculty support and training, student registration and tracking, event management and hosting as well as online chat and collaboration between students and faculty. Cenquest's academic partners include: Babson College, University of Texas at Austin's IC2 Institute, Oregon Graduate Institute of Science and Technology, Adelaide University (Australia) and Monterrey Institute of Technology (Mexico). For more information on Cenquest visit www.cenquest.com or call 503/276-7900.

Intel (Nasdaq:INTC) the world's largest chip maker, is also a leading manufacturer of computer, networking and communications products. Additional information about Intel is available at www.intel.com/pressroom.