Six-University Consortium Selects WebCT to Power e-learning in Hamburg.

Business Editors/High-Tech Writers

LYNNFIELD, Mass.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Jan. 13, 2003

German consortium will bring e-learning to 70,000 students

in `early adopter' institutions, plus the state library

A six-university consortium in Hamburg, Germany, has selected WebCT e-learning technology from 200 competing products to power its new joint e-learning program, WebCT announced today.

The program, funded by the Hamburg Ministry of Science and the state government, will use the WebCT Campus Edition course management system and the WebCT Vista academic enterprise system to link all six institutions in the E-Learning Consortium Hamburg (ELCH). The state library will also join the unified content- and technology-sharing e-learning environment.

The consortium, which represents 70,000 students, will focus on enhancing traditional classroom courses with Web content and communication tools, but will also provide distance-learning courses for students, faculty, alumni and continuing education students. WebCT will interoperate with the schools' diverse, proprietary authentication and registration systems, making it easy for schools to participate in the system.

Like the rest of Germany, ELCH is in the early adoption stages of higher-ed e-learning. The individual institutions now collectively have 400 students and 30 professors in independent e-learning pilots. "We are confident the Internet can do for education what it has done for business and personal life, and we look forward to significantly advancing our educational goals with e-learning in Hamburg," said Professor Joachim W. Schmidt, Ph.D., one of the initiators and leaders of the ELCH project. "We chose WebCT because of its flexibility, its scalability and its superior ability to integrate easily with our other campus systems."

ELCH institutions include the University of Hamburg, Technische Universitaet Hamburg-Harburg, University of Applied Sciences Hamburg, Hamburger Universitaet fuer Wirtschaft und Politik, Hamburg Academy of Music and Theatre, Hochschule fuer Bildende Kuenste Hamburg, and the library, Staats - und Universitatesbibliothek Hamburg.

WebCT Campus Edition includes teaching, content management, customization and personalization functionality. Among its key features and capabilities are: a gradebook; selective content release; assignment distribution and collection; online discussion management; and quiz design.

WebCT Vista brings ELCH an enterprise class e-learning system that goes beyond individual course management to streamline overall academic operations and workflow. WebCT Vista includes a broad range of course development and delivery capabilities, rich content management features and powerful learning information management tools supported by an extensible, enterprise-class architecture. It also offers the unique ability to support multiple institutions (in the case of consortia or educational systems), or multiple colleges or departments within one institution in a single installation, while allowing those institutions to operate autonomously.

"ELCH is an e-learning pioneer in Germany, an educationally enlightened country that offers free higher education to all its citizens," said Carol Vallone, WebCT's president and CEO. "We look forward to helping ELCH harness e-learning for every student's benefit and achieve the educational results they're striving for."

About WebCT

WebCT has set the standard for e-learning systems in higher education. Based in Lynnfield, Mass., WebCT provides a highly flexible e-learning environment that empowers institutions across the educational spectrum with the ability to achieve their unique objectives. Thousands of colleges and universities around the world - from community colleges to large university consortia - have standardized on WebCT to expand the boundaries of teaching and learning. For more information, please visit www.webct.com.