eCollege and SMARTHINKING Provide Students Seamless Access to Online Tutoring
Integration Builds on Commitment to Student Retention and Program Growth
DENVER – October 20, 2005 – eCollege [Nasdaq: ECLG], a leading provider of value-added information services to the post-secondary education industry, and SMARTHINKING, the leading provider of online tutoring to colleges and high schools, today announced a partnership enabling students to connect to SMARTHINKING’s online tutoring services through the eCollege platform.
“Integrating SMARTHINKING’s services with our eLearning solution builds on our commitment to ensuring a high-quality student experience, which drives student success and retention, and ultimately program growth,†said Oakleigh Thorne, chairman and CEO of eCollege. “By streamlining access to SMARTHINKING’s resources through this add-on service, we believe our organizations can help students more efficiently and effectively achieve their educational goals.â€
Students who attend institutions that leverage both eCollege’s and SMARTHINKING’s online solutions can simply log in to their personal home page within the eCollege eLearning environment and link directly through a secure connection to SMARTHINKING’s live online tutoring, online writing services or homework help services. SMARTHINKING’s tutors are available up to 24 hours a day, 7 days a week in a variety of subjects, including mathematics, writing, chemistry, physics, biology, accounting, economics, Spanish and statistics.
“Research shows that one-on-one instruction at the moment of need from a trained instructor can greatly improve student performance. Our partnership will increase access to and simplify the process by which students use tutoring services,†said Burck Smith, CEO of SMARTHINKING. “Like SMARTHINKING, eCollege understands that on-demand support services are critical to student success and retention in an online environment.â€
About SMARTHINKING
SMARTHINKING, the leading provider of online tutoring to colleges and high schools, provides live, online, easy-access tutoring to students. SMARTHINKING works with schools, colleges, universities, textbook publishers and other institutions to help educators offer students outstanding academic support. SMARTHINKING’s custom solutions improve faculty support and raise student performance by connecting students to qualified assistance anytime, from any Internet connection. SMARTHINKING clients include schools, colleges, libraries, education companies, individuals and anyone seeking to increase student achievement. SMARTHINKING currently works with over 500 school clients and businesses. To learn more, please visit www.smarthinking.com or call 888.430.7429 ext 224.
About eCollege
eCollege [Nasdaq: ECLG] is a leading provider of value-added information services to the post-secondary and K-12 education industries. The Company’s eLearning Division designs, builds and supports some of the most successful, fully online degree, certificate/diploma and professional development programs in the country. The Company’s Enrollment Division, Datamark, Inc., helps institutions build new enrollments and increase student retention. Customers include publicly traded for-profit institutions, community colleges, public and private universities, school districts and state departments of education. eCollege was founded in 1996 and is headquartered in Chicago, with the eLearning Division headquartered in Denver. Datamark was founded in 1987 and is headquartered in Salt Lake City. For more information, visit Read the Full Storyand Read the Full Story.
This news release contains statements that are not historical in nature and that may be characterized as “forward-looking statements†within the meaning of the securities laws. Examples of these forward-looking statements would include statements about the expected benefits to customers of our products or services and any other statements that are not historical facts. These statements are based on management’s current expectations and are subject to a number of uncertainties and risks. Actual results may differ materially. Important factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from estimates or projections contained in the forward-looking statements include, but are not limited to: the difficulty in predicting future growth due to the early stage of and rapid changes in the market for our products and services; our eLearning customers’ ability to continue to build, grow and market their online programs; the difficulty in predicting changes in the marketing budgets and the mix of marketing products and services employed by customers of our Enrollment Division; substantial competition, including pricing competition, in the online education and enrollment and retentions services markets; technological developments, emerging industry standards and government regulations, and customer requirements, which continually require us to improve our software and services; a significant portion of our revenue is generated from a relatively small number of customers; our debt obligations could adversely affect our financial health and our ability to obtain financing and react to changes in our business; the possibility that we may not be able to achieve continued growth or profitability, or maintain current levels of revenue; our ability to protect our intellectual property and other proprietary rights from infringement; the impact of laws and regulations affecting education and the Internet; the ability of the Company to retain key executives at eCollege and Datamark; our lengthy sales cycle; our network infrastructure and computer systems failing; the vulnerability of our network to security risks; the possibility that we may not be able to raise additional capital on acceptable terms; Datamark’s ability to develop and sustain long-term customer relationships; the cost of marketing activities, including mailing lists, materials and postal rates; and such other factors as are discussed in our most recent Annual Report on Form 10-K and Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q filed with the US Securities and Exchange Commission, which you are encouraged to review in connection with this release. We believe that these forward-looking statements are reasonable; however, you should not place undue reliance on forward-looking statements, which are based on current expectations and speak only as of the date of this release. We are not obligated to publicly release any revisions to forward-looking statements to reflect events after the date of this release.
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