Ocean County College Partners with Pearson to Expand Access to Learning Opportunities

TOMS RIVER, N.J., May 3, 2011 /PRNewswire/ -- Ocean County College and Pearson today announced a partnership to significantly increase students' access to affordable learning opportunities by expanding online programs from approximately 7,000 enrollments to 21,000 enrollments over the next five years.

Under the agreement, Pearson will provide: Pearson LearningStudio, its learning management system, for the delivery of Ocean County College programs; Enterprise Reporting to monitor and analyze trends in student performance; and Learning Outcome Manager to track the achievement of learning objectives and goals. Pearson is also providing digital content and a full range of student support services, from enrollment to retention, to ensure program completion and increase graduation and transfer success rates.

"Partnering with Pearson was the best choice for us, as we did not find another company in this sector that offered the amount of comprehensive services and support necessary to sustain a successful high growth, rigorous and quality online learning program," said Dr. Jon H. Larson, President of Ocean County College. "Pearson is able to deliver the technology to help us improve access and affordability for our students, maximize students' academic performance and better prepare them for the workforce or attaining a four-year degree."

Prior to the agreement, Ocean County College offered individual online courses. By partnering with Pearson, the college has the capacity to offer students fully online two-year degree programs, beginning with associate programs in Criminal Justice, Computer Science, Homeland Security, General Studies and Business.

"Community colleges continue to face growing demand from students for access to affordable, flexible learning opportunities. Our new relationship with Ocean County College will provide the technology and innovative learning solutions necessary to create more capacity and support their students' achievement and career success," said Matt Leavy, CEO of Pearson eCollege.

Serving millions of students around the globe, Pearson LearningStudio is a comprehensive learning management system with assessment and analytics that help to improve student achievement and retention. The technology offers a personalized learning environment built on an advanced, scalable and dependable Software as a Service platform. For more information, visit http://www.pearsonlearningstudio.com.

About Ocean County College

For more than 40 years, Ocean County College -- a public two-year community college sponsored by Ocean County and the state of New Jersey -- has provided area residents with the opportunity to benefit from higher education. OCC aspires to be an institution of distinction, where faculty and staff serve to awaken students to a love of learning. Visit http://www.ocean.edu for more information.

About Pearson eCollege

Pearson eCollege is a trusted and innovative leader in powering personalized online learning programs and a part of Pearson, the world's leading learning company (NYSE: PSO). Pearson eCollege's flagship product -- Pearson LearningStudio -- represents the next generation in learning management systems and provides a comprehensive, flexible and fully supported cloud computing environment. Pearson eCollege's SaaS-based education solutions advance, improve and measure the teaching and learning experience in a vast range of educational institutions and programs. For more information, visit http://www.pearsonlearningstudio.com.

Media contact: Susan Aspey, [email protected] or (800) 745-8489

SOURCE Pearson