WebCT And Datatel Announce Agreement To Jointly Develop And Deliver Solutions For Higher Education Institutions

June 26, 2001

WebCT and Datatel recently announced an agreement to jointly deliver advanced solutions for post secondary education institutions. The technology and marketing agreement brings together the strengths and expertise of both companies to provide seamless integration between WebCT their course management system and Datatel’s comprehensive Colleague information management solution for higher education.

Under the terms of the agreement, WebCT and Datatel will jointly develop IMS Enterprise standards-compliant interfaces between Colleague and WebCT’s Campus Edition course management system. WebCT Campus Edition was designed especially for those institutions that want to efficiently scale their online learning programs and/or integrate their course tools platform with campus-wide portals and student information systems, such as Datatel’s Colleague. The integration between WebCT and Datatel will be deployed using Datatel’s Software Development Kit (SDK). WebCT and Datatel will also offer a full range of services to help their mutual customers implement the integrated solution.

The WebCT/Datatel relationship affords an end-to-end e-learning solution that can be operated and maintained by a single group of administrators. WebCT and Datatel clients will enjoy seamless integration between the two solutions, including synchronization of class sections student registration (add, drops), grade exchange, and support for single-sign on for Web-based applications.

More than 2,200 colleges and universities worldwide use WebCT’s products and services to transform the student education experience. Nearly 600 colleges and universities use Datatel solutions for instructional management, strategic enrollment planning, budgeting and planning, student services, financial management, human resource management and institutional advancement.

“The integration of Datatel’s Colleague student information system with WebCT course management systems will have a significant impact on the faculty and students of South Dakota public universities,” noted Dr. Robert T. Tad Perry, executive director for the South Dakota Board of Regents. “Linking real-time class roster information to student records will facilitate faculty and administrators information tracking of enrollments. Faculty can load grade information from WebCT to Colleague, which will reduce effort and increase accuracy by eliminating transcription errors. Students will also see more timely grade reporting. This integration allows us to provide services to students remote from campus that are comparable to those on campus. The Datatel/WebCT partnership is an opportunity to provide better learning environments by connecting the data and processing functions of student information systems with the data and the tools of course management systems.”

“The majority of our customers have a real need for seamless, end-to-end integration between WebCT and their student information systems,” said Carol A. Vallone, WebCT president and chief executive officer. “The combination of WebCT’s and Datatel’s company strengths will enable us to deliver critical ‘out of the box’ integration to our mutual customers, and yield greater competitive advantage for both companies.”

“This agreement enables the many colleges and universities deploying both WebCT and Datatel solutions to offer faculty and students a single streamlined system with one-stop, secure access to all their online services,” said Russell H. Griffith, president and chief executive officer of Datatel. “The advantages brought about through this collaboration will maximize the synergy between administrative and academic technology.”

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