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Resources Help Improve Student Mastery of Learning Outcomes and Drive Retention DENVER, Oct. 2 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- eCollege(R) (NASDAQ:ECLG), a leading provider of value-added information services to the post-secondary education industry, is expanding its partnership with Thomson Higher Education by providing seamless access to the ThomsonNOW online resources through the eCollege platform. By leveraging Web services, this initiative allows for single sign-on and gradebook integration between the eCollege platform and ThomsonNOW. Students easily move between their eCollege courses and the ThomsonNOW online assignments, assessments and "Personalized Study," and all student results automatically are transferred back to the eCollege Gradebook. "Retention is a top priority for our customers, and we are continually working to provide access to resources that can help improve student mastery of learning outcomes and increase student success in an online program. Our customers are telling us that ThomsonNOW can do just that," said Oakleigh Thorne, chairman and CEO of eCollege. "Additionally, the integration is yet another example of our commitment to delivering an on-demand software application adaptable to our customer's evolving needs." eCollege uses Web services to pass data between the two systems. This integrated approach builds on eCollege's focus on providing an open architecture, which will be fully realized with the release of eCollege .NExT. eCollege .NExT is the company's next generation eLearning platform designed around increased flexibility and customization. The collaboration with Thomson Higher Education, a global provider of teaching solutions for higher education and part of The Thomson Corporation (NYSE:TOC)(TSE:TOC), allows eCollege to provide more options for faculty enhancement of online courses, as well as a more engaging student experience through the integration of ThomsonNOW. With ThomsonNOW, faculty can efficiently target areas where a student may need additional help, assign the relevant assignments and assessments specific to a student's individual learning needs, and track student grades and progress. Students can use ThomsonNOW's pre-test, personalized study plan and post-test to improve their understanding of course content and performance on tests. "ThomsonNOW provides personalized services and tools that lead to a more effective and efficient teaching and learning experience. Overall, ThomsonNOW saves instructors time and improves student performance," said Susan Badger, CEO, Thomson Higher Education. "By partnering with eCollege, we are able to broaden our support of full online programs, and help students and faculty excel in the online environment." For more information on ThomsonNOW, visit: http://www.thomsonedu.com/thomsonnow. 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/. About The Thomson Corporation and Thomson Higher Education The Thomson Corporation (http://www.thomson.com/), with 2005 revenues of $8.40 billion, is a global leader in providing integrated information solutions to business and professional customers. Thomson provides value-added information, software tools and applications to more than 20 million users in the fields of law, tax, accounting, financial services, higher education, reference information, corporate e-learning and assessment, scientific research and healthcare. With operational headquarters in Stamford, Conn., Thomson has approximately 40,000 employees and provides services in approximately 130 countries. The Corporation's common shares are listed on the New York and Toronto stock exchanges (NYSE: TOC; TSX: TOC). Thomson Higher Education is a leading provider of higher education textbooks, software, and Internet materials for the humanities, behavioral and social sciences, mathematics and the sciences, and business and economics. It publishes under the brands of Thomson Wadsworth, Thomson Brooks/Cole, Thomson South-Western, Thomson Heinle, and Thomson Schirmer. This news release contains statements that are not historical in nature and that may be characterized as "forward-looking statements" within the meaning of the securities laws. Examples of these forward-looking statements would include statements about the expected timing of product or service releases, the expected benefits to customers of our products or services, the expected impact on customers of upgrade deployments and any other statements that are not historical facts. These statements are based on management's current expectations and are subject to a number of uncertainties and risks. Actual performance and results may differ materially from those reflected in these forward-looking statements due to general financial, economic, regulatory and political conditions affecting the Company's industries as well as the more specific risks and uncertainties facing the Company, including those identified in the Company's reports on Form 10-K, Form 10-Q and Form 8-K filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission ("SEC"), which you are encouraged to review in connection with this release. 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 is a registered trademark of eCollege. DATASOURCE: eCollege CONTACT: Kristi Emerson of eCollege, +1-303-873-3788, ; or Lindsay Brown of Thomson Learning, +1-203-539-8634, Web site: http://www.thomson.com/ Web site: http://www.datamark.com/ Web site: http://www.thomsonedu.com/thomsonnow Web site: http://www.ecollege.com/

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