WebCT Launches Industry’s Premier Academic Enterprise System, WebCT Vista™
Lynnfield, MA, March 18, 2002 – WebCT, the world’s leading provider of
integrated e-learning systems for higher education (www.webct.com),
is announcing WebCT Vista, higher education’s first and only Academic Enterprise
System (AES). The AES is an entirely new category of e-learning that goes beyond
the boundaries of individual course management, providing higher education institutions
with an integrated, enterprise-class e-learning system that mirrors their existing
structure, operations, and workflow. Based on the cornerstone of course delivery,
WebCT Vista gives colleges and universities an integrated framework for optimizing
their return on technology investments and maximizing the value of their learning
assets, including educational content and student performance data.
WebCT Vista is an e-learning platform that includes a broad range of course
development and delivery capabilities, rich content management capabilities,
and powerful learning information management capabilities – all supported
by an extensible, enterprise-class architecture. Institutions who use WebCT
Vista have the ability to create, store, tag, reuse, manage, and share content
beyond course boundaries, facilitating more effective and efficient use and
reuse of educational content. In addition, WebCT Vista gives higher education
first-time access to aggregate student learning data at the institutional level,
extending the capacity for colleges and universities to access and strategically
leverage learning information beyond an individual classroom. The system’s
industry-leading functionality and technology delivers benefits to every constituency
in the academic enterprise including students, faculty, administrators, and
CIOs.
WebCT Vista gives institutions the unprecedented ability to uniquely support
multiple institutions (in the case of consortia or educational systems), or
multiple colleges or departments within one institution, in a single installation.
Designed to run on technologies that support maximum scalability, the platform
facilitates rapid, efficient growth of e-learning across the entire educational
enterprise. WebCT Vista’s architecture is fully extensible, giving institutions
the ability to optimize their existing technology investments and seamlessly
incorporate external content and tools that extend the power of the e-learning
platform. WebCT Vista will be available in Q2 of this year.
Ten institutions have already committed to WebCT Vista, prior to its availability,
including the University of Southern Queensland, Australia, and the University
of Ulster, Ireland and the University of Alberta, Canada.
"The University of Alberta has a long history of leadership and innovation
in e-learning and we have enjoyed a strong partnership with WebCT," said
Dr. Doug Owram, Provost and Vice-President (Academic). "E-Learning is truly
a mission-critical service for the University, and the next generation of WebCT
will assist us with achieving several of our core institutional
objectives: recruiting and satisfying new students and faculty; providing the
best possible learning experience for our students’ lives and careers; and creating
an improved learning environment inside and outside the classroom. We look forward
to working with WebCT to meet these challenges."
“There’s no question that today e-learning is mission-critical for
higher education,” commented Carol A. Vallone, president and chief executive
officer of WebCT. “Working in partnership with customers worldwide as they
have expanded their e-learning initiatives, WebCT recognized a need in the marketplace
for a new category of e-learning system that meets the needs of the entire educational
enterprise. Institutions, educational systems, and consortia are looking for
ways to leverage human and technology resources, as well as educational content,
enterprise-wide for maximum impact. We developed WebCT Vista, the premier Academic
Enterprise System, to meet this critical market need and ensure our customers’
success as they continue to align e-learning with their institutional goals
and mission.”
In addition to WebCT Vista, WebCT also continues to offer its market leading
course management system, WebCT Campus Edition, as well as a wide range of related
consulting, support, professional development and training services.
About WebCT
WebCT is the world’s leading provider of integrated e-learning systems for higher
education. Over 2,500 colleges and universities in over 81 countries worldwide
are using WebCT’s products and services to transform the educational experience
of their students. Consortia in 23 American states, four Canadian provinces,
two Australian territories, the Association of Jesuit Colleges and Universities,
and the Consortium of Distance Education have licensed WebCT for their member
institutions, making it the de facto standard in higher education. More information
about WebCT can be found at www.webct.com.
For more information, contact:
Karen Gage
Sandy Baird
WebCT Wheeler Baird Group
781-309-1147 203-637-8614
