Horizon Wimba Acquires Brownstone Research Group
Horizon Wimba Adds Test-Generation and Homework Management
Tools to Its Suite of Collaboration Software for Online
Education
NEW YORK, April 3, 2006 -- Horizon Wimba, a provider of
collaborative software applications for online education,
announced today that it has acquired Brownstone Research
Group, a leading developer of simple, powerful assessment
tools for teaching and learning.
With the acquisition, Horizon Wimba now boasts the most
comprehensive suite of collaboration software for online
education, as the addition of Brownstone's test-authoring
tool, Diploma, as well as its online homework management and
testing tool, EDU, complements its fast-growing suite of
collaborative products.
Now, faculty throughout the world can communicate online
with their students via Horizon Wimba's Live Classroom and
Voice Tools, can quickly and easily author online content
with Course Genie, and can create quiz, test, and exam
questions with Diploma and EDU. Each of Horizon Wimba's
products enables instructors to take the next step beyond
their current Blackboard, Moodle, WebCT, and other
text-based online courses.
Brownstone sells two products directly to education
institutions:
-- Diploma Campus: A desktop application that allows for
question authoring to be delivered via course management
systems (CMS). Diploma Campus is test-generation software
that allows instructors to create tests, write and edit
questions, and create study sessions for students. Tests can
be printed in a wide range of formats or administered to
students online via CMS.
-- EDU Campus: A web-based software application for creating
automatically graded homework and tests. EDU Campus allows
faculty to easily create questions and tests or to import
content from their own question banks in order to deliver
online assignments of all sorts (homework, online exams,
tutorials and practice, etc.).
Brownstone sells four other products directly to publishers:
-- Diploma: A desktop, test-generation software. Instructors
can create tests, write and edit questions, and create study
sessions for students. Tests can be printed in a wide range
of formats or administered to students online.
-- EDU: A web-based online homework management center.
Typically privately labeled by publishers, EDU eases the
development, publishing, and delivery of self-scoring,
highly configurable, low- and high-stakes assignments. EDU
puts more value in end-of-chapter problem sets, thereby
enhancing academic productivity.
-- TheTestingCenter: A secure, online testing environment,
used with Diploma, that allows students to take graded exams
anytime, anywhere.
-- Tutor: Enables students to create practice exams on their
own. Tutor even gives students feedback to why they answered
questions incorrectly.
"I couldn't be more pleased to join the Horizon Wimba
family," said T. Mack Brown, CEO and Founder of Brownstone.
"I started Brownstone more than 20 years ago to provide
powerful tools that are easy to use and to work with people
who are committed to serving the unique needs of students
and educators. It's extremely gratifying to see Brownstone
join Horizon Wimba, a company that shares these exact same
ideals. Together, our instructionally sound products and
experienced, enthusiastic teams will be able to serve the
academic community at levels we wouldn't otherwise be able
to achieve on our own."
"Education institutions throughout the world will be the
true beneficiaries of this announcement," said Tommaso
Trionfi, CEO of Horizon Wimba. "From colleges and
universities to K-12 schools, institutions of all sizes and
missions can now turn to Horizon Wimba for many of their
collaborative software needs. Brownstone is an academic
software pioneer and they've proven to be a reliable,
trusted developer of software for online education.
Together, we can provide numerous resources that allow
instructors to create highly engaging and effective online
courses."
In addition to offering Diploma and EDU, Horizon Wimba will
continue to work with Brownstone's textbook publishing
partners which distribute the majority of Brownstone's
products. Most significantly, more than 200,000 copies of
Diploma have been shipped to instructors containing question
banks - databases of questions and answers - for thousands
of textbooks in subjects ranging from mathematics, to
chemistry, to economics. Brownstone's customers vary from
major publishing companies to faculty at thousands of
colleges and universities worldwide.
Going forward, Horizon Wimba plans to incorporate its
Voice-over Internet Protocol (VoIP) technology into Diploma
and EDU in order to create voice-enabled assessments and
homework assignments for language learning courses.
About Horizon Wimba
Horizon Wimba develops collaborative software applications
addressing the diverse needs of the emerging online
education market. Its software enables institutions to take
advantage of the multitude of advances in the Internet and
Internet-based technologies while also enhancing their
course management systems. The Company's virtual classroom
solution enables educators to teach and meet live online,
its vocal collaboration technologies add oral content
directly into course content, webpages and assessments, and
its content authoring software allows users to quickly and
easily convert Microsoft Word(TM) documents into webpages.
With simplicity and power, Horizon Wimba adds new dimensions
to online, accessible education, enriching the learning
experience for both students and instructors.
Press contact:
Matt Wasowski
212.813.3886
http://www.horizonwimba.com
