eCollege Partners with Houghton Mifflin to Increase Access to Popular Content

eCollege Continues to Solidify Partnerships with Leading Publishers

DENVER – March 4, 2003 – eCollege(SM) [Nasdaq: ECLG], a leading provider of technology and services for online higher education programs, today announced a partnership with Houghton Mifflin, one of the leading educational publishers in the United States. The partnership provides eCollege’s customers access to Houghton Mifflin’s online supplements for introductory courses in business, humanities, mathematics, science, social science, student success, and world languages.

“It’s important that faculty members have access to the kind of resources they need to best engage and challenge their students, and we believe the Houghton Mifflin content can ideally support them in this effort,” said Oakleigh Thorne, chairman and CEO of eCollege. “As we continue to solidify content partnerships with leading publishers, our customers can take their online courses to a whole new level.”

The Houghton Mifflin titles are available for adoption through the eCollege AU+(SM) course management system. Coupled with eCollege’s easy-to-use self-authoring tools and extensive course development services, the available content enables faculty to quickly and easily build and enhance quality online courses. The Houghton Mifflin content can also play a key role in the efficient development and delivery of new online programs.

“Houghton Mifflin has been an innovator in education for more than a century and a half,” said June Smith, executive vice president, Houghton Mifflin College Division. “The eCollege platform presents another excellent way for us to enhance the learning process by effectively leveraging technology.”

About Houghton Mifflin

Boston-based Houghton Mifflin Company is one of the leading educational publishers in the United States, with over $1 billion in sales. Houghton Mifflin publishes textbooks, instructional technology, assessments and other educational materials for elementary and secondary schools and colleges. The Company also publishes an extensive line of reference works and award-winning fiction and non-fiction for adults and young readers. Additionally, Houghton Mifflin offers computer-administered testing programs and services for the professional and certification markets. With its origins dating back to 1832, Houghton Mifflin today combines its tradition of excellence with a commitment to innovation. The Company’s website can be found at www.hmco.com.

About eCollege

eCollege [Nasdaq: ECLG] is a leading eLearning technology and services provider to educational markets. The Company designs, builds and supports some of the most successful, fully online degree, certificate/diploma and professional development programs in the country. eCollege’s customers include publicly-traded for-profit institutions, community colleges, public and private universities, school districts, and state departments of education. The Company was founded in 1996 and is headquartered in Denver. For more information, visit www.eCollege.com.

This release may contain forward-looking statements, as well as historical information. Forward-looking statements may involve known or unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that may cause the company’s actual results and performance to differ materially from the company’s outlook, including, but not limited to whether our partnership with Houghton Mifflin will be accepted by our customers; whether our customers will use Houghton Mifflin materials in their online courses; whether using Houghton Mifflin content will allow our customers to more efficiently create eLearning programs; and such other factors as are discussed in our most recent Form 10-K Annual Report filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”), 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.

eCollege and eCollege AU+ are service marks of eCollege. All other trademarks and service marks or registered trademarks or service marks are the property of their respective owners.