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OREM, Utah - June 27, 2006 - ClassTop today officially
opened its doors to facilitate online course management
for post-secondary instructors and to pursue a piece
of the $11 billion online higher education market.
ClassTop was formed in January 2006 after research
showed that less than 30 percent of purchased Learning
Management Systems (LMSs) used by higher education
institutions are being adopted by instructors today.
The research identified low adoption rates of LMSs
as the number one roadblock stalling the growth of
online education initiatives at colleges and universities.
The company has worked with instructors, instructional
designers and CIOs at universities to develop a solution
that empowers higher education institutions to deliver
on the promise of online learning by increasing the
use of their existing LMSs.
LMSs are online software
applications that allow instructors to post content,
quizzes, assignments and other class-related communication
for student access. With the growing interest from
universities in online education and distance learning,
LMSs play a critical role in keeping instructors and
students on the same page.
"The instructors,
CIOs, and instructional designers we interviewed at
more than 40 universities said that their LMSs are
prohibitively time consuming to use," said Jared Allgood,
chief executive officer of ClassTop. "LMS administrators
affirm that only a small percentage of instructors
actually use their LMS to manage their courses. Instructors
who do incorporate an LMS into their classrooms only
use a fraction of its functionality, and as a result,
neither the students nor the instructors are truly
benefiting from the many advantages of online learning.
ClassTop bridges the gap between a university's implementation
and an instructor's adoption of learning management
systems by allowing instructors to work in a comfortable
client-side software environment and then synchronize
their work with the LMS. Our customers call the process:
'Drag, drop, done.'"
Allgood continued.
"According to some industry analysts, the online
education market was expected to reach $11 billion
in 2005. It is clear that colleges and universities
are investing heavily in their online education capabilities
and they fully understand the revenue potential of
increasing online courses for students. Without ClassTop
facilitating the use of existing LMSs, schools will
not achieve the adoption rates they need to deliver
online/distance learning nor justify the significant
investment in the LMS. Given the right tools, instructors
can manage more classes and universities can increase
full-time enrollments. E-learning allows universities
to increase the number of students and revenues without
significantly increasing their overhead."
ClassTop's technology,
which will be available in the third quarter of 2006,
will facilitate online and distance learning and help
solve instructors' single greatest pain point.
"Instructors
tell us they don't want to change the way they work,"
said Jayson Ahlstrom, president of ClassTop. "Making
the jump to online learning is intimidating in many
ways. We developed ClassTop so that instructors don't
have to change the way they work, but they still get
all the benefits of posting online learning content.
We will revolutionize how people use learning management systems by delivering innovative
solutions that enhance traditional classroom learning
and enable true online distance learning."
About ClassTop
ClassTop is an enterprise application provider targeting
the postsecondary education market. The company's
client-side software application facilitates and synchronizes
content changes to existing learning management systems,
and enhances the usability,
functionality and reach of the hundreds of LMS extenders.
ClassTop is a privately held start-up company based
in Orem, Utah. For more information on ClassTop, please
visit www.classtop.com
Media Contact: Kevin Wilson, kwilson@kevinwilsonpr.com,
513.898.1008
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