WebCT BECOMES FIRST COURSE MANAGEMENT SYSTEM VENDOR TO DEMONSTRATE

PRODUCT SUPPORT FOR 'SHIBBOLETH' IN HIGHER-ED E-LEARNING

With successful demo of single-sign-on specification, WebCT continues to

lead industry in support for important standards

LYNNFIELD, Mass., Dec. 16, 2002 — WebCT, the world’s leading provider of

integrated  e-learning systems for higher education, is helping break

down campus walls by becoming the first e-learning management technology

vendor to support "Shibboleth" access and authorization technology

across its entire product line.

Shibboleth – an Internet2/MACE (Middleware Architecture Committee for

Education) initiative – is an emerging open source standard advancing

the cause of simplicity and privacy in higher-education e-learning and

other Internet communications. It is designed to enable seamless sharing

of multiple Web resources that are subject to access controls such as

user IDs and passwords. Shibboleth uses "Clubs" to specify a set of

parties who have agreed to a common set of policies. This moves the

trust framework beyond bilateral agreements, and allows different

systems, such as course management systems and library databases, to

access one another securely without requiring manual integration or

users to log in separately for every system they wish to access.

WebCT proved its software’s ability to both accept and transmit

Shibboleth data in a demonstration with The Ohio State University at the

Internet2 Fall 2002 Member Meeting held Oct. 27 through 30 in Los

Angeles. The demonstration provided users with "single-sign-on" access

to an EBSCO publications database and a repository of QuickTime video

files at Brown University. WebCT preserved users' authentication and

privileges across all systems instead of forcing them to log in

separately for each one.

"Ohio State and WebCT together have made a strong statement about our

vision for lowering the access barriers in higher education e-learning,"

  said Steve Acker, director of Technology Enhanced Learning and

Research at Ohio State University. "Single sign-on is important for us

to be able to leverage our large investments in library databases for

convenient access by our students, both on and off campus. Shibboleth

also will be a key enabler for colleges and universities seeking to

share access to courses and digital assets across institutional boundaries."

WebCT is one of the first higher-education learning management vendors

in the Shibboleth initiative. Support for Shibboleth is available today

through services provided by WebCT’s Professional Services Group.

In addition to providing users with selective access to content and

systems, Shibboleth protects privacy by letting individual users choose

which information about them can be released to each destination.

"Working with Internet2 university members, WebCT has proven that

privacy-preserving online authorization provides significant benefits to

the education community," said Ken Klingenstein, director of the

Internet2 Middleware Initiative.

Shibboleth is a project of Internet2, higher education’s initiative to

harness advanced Internet technologies. "Initiatives like Shibboleth

require a serious commitment by technology vendors, but the benefit to

our customers is well worth it. This will make a major difference for

our customers in terms of the quality of the e-learning experience and

the cost of technology ownership," said Carol Vallone, WebCT president

and CEO.

About WebCT

WebCT is the world’s leading provider of integrated e-learning systems

for higher education. Thousands of colleges and universities worldwide

are using WebCT’s products and services to transform the educational

experience of their students. Consortia in 24 American states, four

Canadian provinces and two Australian territories as well as the

Consortium of Distance Education have licensed WebCT for their member

institutions, making it the de facto standard in higher education. For

more information, please visit www.webct.com.

# # #

Contacts:

Karen Gage                   

WebCT                        

(781) 309-1147                     

karen.gage@WebCT.com         

Darby Johnson

Beaupre & Co. Public Relations, Inc.

djohnson@beaupre.com

(603) 559-5809

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