Babson College Selects eLearning Software from Centra to Power Live Executive Education Programs on the Web
LEXINGTON, Mass. — Centra (NASDAQ: CTRA – news), the world’s leading provider of software and ASP services for live eLearning and collaboration, today announced that Babson College, internationally recognized as a leader in entrepreneurial management education programs, has selected Centra’s live, interactive virtual classroom software to power their Internet-based Executive Education programs. Using Centra’s Symposium™, Babson’s College of Executive Education will provide a hybrid approach to education delivery that combines self-paced learning, traditional classroom teaching, and live, Internet-based sessions delivered directly to home or office PCs.
Realizing that today’s business executives require new business and managerial skills for innovation, enhanced decision making, creative problem solving, and opportunity recognition, Babson has developed programs around real work projects that are academically rigorous and immediately relevant to company specific objectives. Using Centra, students and business professionals can now participate in Babson’s innovative programs from any geographic location with minimal disturbance of their day-to-day work. Likewise, invited guest lecturers from corporations and other universities across the globe can participate in programs without the time and expense associated with physical classroom delivery.
According to Stephen Flavin, Babson’s Director of eLearning initiatives, “Babson’s executive programs are highly collaborative and highly interactive. Our faculty and students work very closely together applying learning to real work projects. Centra’s technology provides Babson with innovative ways to expand and replicate online the rich, interactive experience that is our hallmark.”
Internationally Recognized Business Program
Recognized Internationally as a leading provider of programs in entrepreneurship, Babson College grants BS, MBA and MS degrees and offers advanced programs for corporate managers through the School of Executive Education. For more than 25 years, Babson’s world-class faculty has been designing programs for delivery at the state-of-the-art conference facility located on Babson’s campus west of Boston. Now, Babson will extend the reach of the faculty and their programs with Centra’s integrated voice over IP, application sharing, video conferencing, and session recording capabilities to provide an effective blended, online learning environment.
“We identified early on that blended delivery was essential for maximizing the benefits of executive education to our participants,” added Tom Moore, CEO of Babson Interactive LLC and Dean of the Babson School of Executive Education. “So we chose the strongest eLearning vendor we could find.”
Software Infrastructure for Live eLearning and Collaboration
Already used in over 440 companies and universities worldwide, Centra’s Web-based enterprise products and services share a common collaboration framework, and are optimized to address the full range of real-time business interactions necessary to accelerate internal and market-facing business processes and distance education. Every product features Centra’s hallmark voice-over-IP capabilities, robust collaboration tools, and intuitive user interface to enable live conversation and interaction over low-bandwidth network connections. Centra’s products include Centra Symposium for virtual classrooms, Centra Conference™ for Web conferencing and events, and Centra eMeeting™ for team collaboration and 1:1 mentoring.
About Babson College
Babson College in Wellesley, Massachusetts, grants BS, MBA and custom MS degrees through its Undergraduate Program and the FW Olin Graduate School of Business at Babson College, and offers executive development programs to experienced managers worldwide through the Babson School of Executive Education. The College’s for-profit venture, Babson Interactive LLC, develops distance learning programs and business simulations for executives and graduate students. For more information, visit http://www.babson.edu
About Centra
With over a million users worldwide, Centra is the leading provider of software infrastructure and ASP services for live eLearning and business collaboration. Today hundreds of global organizations have standardized on Centra for the delivery of live eLearning, including Accenture, Century 21, Domino’s Pizza, EMC Corporation, ExxonMobil, McKesson HBOC, Nationwide Insurance, and Procter & Gamble. Centra supports a vital ecosystem of strategic eLearning partnerships, which include alliances with Microsoft, PricewaterhouseCoopers, Cisco, Oracle, Saba, Docent, and Global Knowledge. Headquartered in Boston’s technology corridor, the Company has sales offices throughout North America, Europe and Asia. For more information, visit http://www.centra.com.
Contact Information:
Ellen P. Slaby
Centra Software
(781) 994-1068
eslaby@centra.com
Michael Chmura
Babson College
(781) 239-4549
mchmura@babson.edu
