LYNNFIELD, MA -- (INTERNET WIRE) -- 03/25/2002 -- WebCT, the world's leading provider of integrated e-learning systems for higher education, has announced the four-tier Web application architecture of WebCT Vista, higher education's premier Academic Enterprise System (AES). WebCT Vista, which WebCT announced last week, is a Java 2 Enterprise Edition (J2EE) compliant application that works with the Oracle(R) Internet File System, a feature of Oracle 9i Database. These industry-leading technologies deliver an extensible, enterprise-class architecture, while supporting maximum scalability, allowing for cross-platform portability. Sun's Solaris Operating System is the reference platform for the first release of WebCT Vista, v1.0, driving specifications and best practices for optimal implementation of this new e-learning system. WebCT Vista's state-of-the-art technology and world-class architecture are designed to enable the rapid growth of e-learning, while ensuring system reliability, security, and performance.

WebCT Vista, the industry's premier Academic Enterprise System, provides an integrated framework for optimizing an institution's return on technology investments and maximizing the value of learning assets, including educational content and student performance data. Employing Oracle Internet File System, WebCT Vista offers higher education 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. The new platform also provides higher education organizations the unprecedented ability to support multiple institutions (in the case of consortia or educational systems), or multiple colleges or departments within an institution, as independent entities, in a single installation.

WebCT chose to build WebCT Vista on Sun and Oracle technologies not only because of their state-of-the-art features and functionality, but because these companies are the leading information technology vendors in the public and private university sector of higher education, where the majority of large, enterprise-wide e-learning systems are found. According to the 2001 Campus Computing Project study, Sun Microsystems is the clear market leader among Unix/Linux system providers in the public and private university sector, with 51 percent of public universities and 58 percent of private universities reporting that Sun is the system brand recommended by their institutions.

"E-learning has become a mission-critical objective for higher education institutions, so it is imperative that e-learning systems are secure, reliable, and capable of supporting rapid deployment and scalability. To that end, WebCT chose to build its Academic Enterprise System, WebCT Vista, on world-class Sun and Oracle technologies that will accommodate even the largest institution or consortium," commented Carol A. Vallone, president and chief executive officer of WebCT. "We look forward to continuing to work with these technologies leaders as we deliver to the higher education market a ground breaking, enterprise-class e-learning system that will grow with an institution's needs."

"Sun and WebCT have had a long standing relationship, including working together to provide the benefits of e-learning to the world's largest e-learning site and Sun's Center of Excellence at the University of Alberta," said Kim Jones, vice president of global education and research for Sun Microsystems. "We're excited about the growth of our relationship with WebCT and pleased that the industry's first academic enterprise system, WebCT Vista, has been built on Sun's Java 2 Platform, and that our two companies continue to bring new learning options and opportunities to students anywhere, anytime, on any device."

"Oracle is excited about working with WebCT to meet a critical need in the higher education marketplace," said Ron Police, senior vice president, Higher Education Sales Operations at Oracle. "As institutions rapidly expand their e-learning initiatives, there is an increasing need for secure, reliable systems that facilitate growth and enable the institution-wide use of technology and learning assets. The strong combination of Oracle Internet File System technologies with WebCT's academic enterprise system provides higher education with an innovative model for educational content sharing, and a highly scalable system that accommodates the aggressive growth of e-learning."

Designed to run on technologies that support maximum scalability, WebCT Vista provides an architecture that facilitates rapid, efficient growth of e-learning across the entire educational enterprise. In order to ensure that students and faculty using the system work uninterrupted in the event of planned or unplanned server outages, WebCT Vista adds session fail-over and facilitates database server clustering through Oracle9i Real Application Clusters, a feature of Oracle9i Database in addition to system server clustering. WebCT Vista's flexible architecture makes it the optimal choice for integrating existing campus systems and preserving an institution's investment in technology. WebCT Vista will also include a software development toolkit (SDK) for integration with either custom or commercial learning software and services through exposed Java APIs, further extending the power of the e-learning platform.

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.

Contact: Karen Gage Company: WebCT Phone: 781-309-1147 Email: Karen.gage@webct.com Contact: Sandy Baird Company: Wheeler Baird Group Phone: 203-637-8614 Email: sandy@wheelerbaird.com