News for and about the Internet2 community

[Greg Wood <>]

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.

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Contacts:
Karen Gage                              
WebCT                                   
(781) 309-1147                          

               

Darby Johnson
Beaupre & Co. Public Relations, Inc.

(603) 559-5809

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