McGraw-Hill Higher Education Teams With Cisco Systems to Introduce Next Generation of E-Learning Solutions

McGraw-Hill Higher Education, a premier provider of teaching and learning solutions for the post-secondary and higher education markets worldwide, today announced it was teaming up with Cisco Systems, Inc., the worldwide leader in networking for the Internet. Through this relationship, McGraw-Hill will deliver a large and growing portfolio of interactive, online courses for students, for global distribution, wherever there is an Internet connection.

McGraw-Hill is the first major educational content provider to build on the power of Cisco Systems' Global Learning Network (GLN) -- a scalable e-learning architecture -- to offer these cutting-edge, high-tech learning solutions. Through the GLN, McGraw-Hill Higher Education will deliver online courses with multimedia-rich content that incorporates animation, streaming video and personalized assessments.

"This is a powerful relationship that will enhance learning and offer educational institutions even more innovative options for providing instruction," said Ed Stanford, president of McGraw-Hill Higher Education. "We've combined McGraw-Hill's world-renowned educational content with Cisco's ability to establish proven, scalable networks over the Internet. McGraw-Hill has applied instructional design methods to develop a new and unique set of online courses that leverages our proven content. This online instruction offers considerable flexibility for both educators and students. It can be used as part of a regular course with both classroom and online instruction or as a completely online course."

The Cisco GLN features content-delivery technology that can reach millions of students quickly. Its capabilities enable McGraw-Hill's courseware to be presented in an engaging environment that provides personal feedback and real-time assessment for more effective learning.

"Cisco's vision is changing the way the world works, lives, plays and learns. The Global Learning Network will help make this vision a reality, as the flexibility it provides instructors will result in a different way to teach altogether," said Reza Mahdavi, vice president and general manager of the Cisco Global Learning Network group. "Since 1997, GLN has delivered the Cisco Networking Academy Program -- one of the world's largest e-learning programs -- to over 500,000 students, in more than 160 countries, in nine languages. Our work with McGraw-Hill will provide educational institutions with the same ability to offer innovative online courseware -- true eLearning -- to their students."

The Pacific Center for Advanced Technology Training has been piloting McGraw-Hill Algebra online courses, delivered via Cisco's GLN, at the University of Hawaii since 2003. Since that time, McGraw-Hill's online curriculum has been growing substantially, with nearly 50 courses in business, economics, math, science and the social sciences planned for release through 2005. When educational institutions invest in the McGraw-Hill courseware, they purchase both the content and the content-delivery mechanism to learners (via the GLN as a managed service). Although there are some on-premise equipment costs, this managed-service approach eliminates the need for extensive infrastructure build-outs.

"The net effect of the McGraw-Hill/Cisco Systems collaboration is advanced online courseware that immediately enriches and expands an educational institution's offerings to students, while at the same time limiting cost and risk," said Mr. Stanford of McGraw-Hill.

About McGraw-Hill Higher Education

McGraw-Hill Higher Education is a unit of McGraw-Hill Education, a leading global provider of electronic and print products for the pre-K through 12th grade, higher education and professional markets. It is a division of The McGraw-Hill Companies (NYSE: MHP), a global information services provider meeting worldwide needs in the financial services, education and business information markets through leading brands such as Standard & Poor's and Business Week. Founded in 1888, the Corporation has more than 280 offices in 40 countries. Sales in 2003 were $4.8 billion. Additional information is available at http://www.mcgraw-hill.com/.

SOURCE: McGraw-Hill Higher Education

CONTACT: April Hattori
McGraw-Hill Education
+1-212-904-2078
april_hattori@mcgraw-hill.com
Tom Stanton
McGraw-Hill Education
+1-212-904-3214
tom_stanton@mcgraw-hill.com

Web site: http://www.mheducation.com/
http://www.mcgraw-hill.com/