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Company Presents First-Ever 10-Year Partnership Award to University of Colorado DENVER, March 28 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- eCollege(R) (NASDAQ:ECLG), a leading provider of value-added information services to the post-secondary education industry, presented its annual partnership awards recognizing best practices in online teaching and administration during its recent CiTE (Center for Internet Technology in Education) conference held in Denver, CO. The awards acknowledged the work of institutions, faculty and administrators in partnering with eCollege to develop, deliver and grow successful online programs. eCollege presented its first-ever 10-year partnership award to the University of Colorado (CU) in recognition of CU's long-time dedication to the advancement of eLearning. eCollege built the first online campus for the University of Colorado at Denver (CU Online) in 1996 with one course serving a handful of students. Today, CU leverages eCollege's comprehensive solution to deliver hundreds of online courses, as well as several online degree and certificate programs serving nearly 25,000 annual enrollments across the CU System. "We believe the success of our program over the last 10 years can be attributed to our dedicated faculty members who have embraced the opportunities of eLearning, as well as our expert advocates at eCollege who represent the concept of a partner in every sense of the word," said Bob Tolsma, assistant vice chancellor, University of Colorado at Denver and Health Sciences Center. "eCollege has played a critical role in getting our program to where it is today, and we look forward to continuing to work together in the delivery of quality online offerings." Additionally, eCollege presented the 2006 Excellence in Online Teaching (eOT) Awards to instructors who have used the eCollege solution for the following: creating superior online content; developing highly engaging learning opportunities; forming outstanding mentoring relationships with students; promoting exceptional learner-learner collaboration; and leveraging first-rate approaches to assessment. This year's eOT recipients included: * Ruth May, University of Dallas * Jim Vincent, Robert Morris University * Clark Shah-Nelson, Colorado Online Learning * Barry McGlumphy, Pennsylvania State System of Higher Education * Gretchen Bartelson, Iowa Community College Online Consortium eCollege also presented the inaugural Excellence in Online Administration (eOA) Awards in recognition of those administrators who have leveraged eCollege's Program Administration Solutions to direct, manage and administer large and fast-growing online programs. Criteria included: establishing superior student and instructor support practices; developing high-quality online education programs; promoting online education to, and effective collaboration with, the traditional on-campus administrative environment; and using innovative tactics to further develop online education programs. This year's eOA recipients included: * Thomas L. Chilton, Ed. D., University of South Alabama * Denise Aberle-Cannata, Westwood College Online * Dr. Roger Von Holzen, Northwest Missouri State University * Darla Runyon, Northwest Missouri State University * Paul Johnson, Gwinnett County Online Campus "This year's award recipients have demonstrated a significant commitment to quality, delivering the kind of experience that contributes to the success of their students and the growth of their programs," said Oakleigh Thorne, chairman and CEO of eCollege. "We also are honored to recognize CU, our first client, as a true pioneer and innovator in the adoption of online education, and we believe our partnership marks a milestone in the continuing evolution of the industry." The seventh annual CiTE Conference, "Vision in Practice," brought together nearly 400 high-level decision makers, administrators and instructors to collaborate on topics that were once visionary and now are shaping today's online programs. Sessions addressed such topics as facilitating data-driven decision making, proving learning outcomes, managing content and supporting internationalization. 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 http://www.ecollege.com/ and http://www.datamark.com/. eCollege is a registered trademark of eCollege. DATASOURCE: eCollege CONTACT: Kristi Emerson of eCollege, +1-303-873-3788, Web site: http://www.datamark.com/ Web site: http://www.ecollege.com/

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