DENVER, Colo.--Colorado Community Colleges Online (CCCOnline) and Pearson Education (NYSE: PSO) have signed an agreement to provide the appropriate learning materials in a digital format that will also help reduce costs for CCCOnline students.

In its 10th year, CCCOnline is a consortium of the 13 institutions of the Colorado Community College System (CCCS) that furnishes online courses and student services to 17,000 individuals annually via nearly 1,400 course offerings. CCCOnline enables students to earn a degree or certificate from one of the 13 CCCS colleges via a curriculum which may be pursued entirely online or in combination with classroom instruction. As the world's largest educational publisher, Pearson Education publishes textbooks, workbooks and other learning resources in all available media for the K-12, higher education, and professional markets.

"This groundbreaking arrangement enables students to access electronic versions of Pearson textbooks plus digital learning resources associated with particular texts for one low cost," explains CCCOnline Co-Executive Director Dr. Rhonda Epper. Adds CCCS President Dr. Nancy McCallin, "Many of our students find it financially challenging to fund a college education and this arrangement will help ease their burden."

Students will pay for their eTextbooks through a one-time digital materials charge that will appear when they are assessed tuition, enabling students to know upfront exactly what it will cost to take their CCCOnline course. "This arrangement is an excellent complement to the cadre of methods we are using to minimize the costs and improve the quality of course materials for our students," adds Epper. Students may print whatever section of the eTextbook they desire, or, if they wish to have the text entirely in hard copy form, they can purchase a custom black-and-white print version via participating campus bookstores.

Another savings for CCCOnline will come from the edition control afforded by the new agreement. "CCCOnline faculty and instructional designers spend an enormous amount of time each semester revising courses to keep pace with updated textbook editions," explains Epper. "Under the Pearson agreement, we will have much greater control over our course revision cycles."

"We are delighted to collaborate with CCCOnline in producing content that benefits the consortium and its students," remarked Daniel Bartell, Pearson Vice President and Director of Institutional Sales. "Working with CCCOnline we have created a model that gives students customized learning materials in a digital format," he added.

CCCOnline is launching the new program for their Summer 2008 semester. At the end of the 2008-09 academic year, 17 courses (some offered in multiple sections per semester) will be part of this partnership that directly impacts college affordability. CCCOnline will continue converting courses to use the reduced-price electronic textbooks with the goal of having a majority of their enrollments benefiting from the agreement by Spring 2011. The agreement will complement other methods CCCOnline is using to minimize course material costs such as wikibooks and National Repository of Online Courses (NROC) digital content.

Between Summer 2008 and Spring 2009, the arrangement will benefit CCCOnline students taking specific Sociology, Human Nutrition, Business, Criminal Justice, Biology, History, Management, Economics, Marketing and Geography classes.

For more information about classes using the program visit CCCOnline at www.ccconline.org.

About the Colorado Community College System

The Colorado Community College System comprises the state's largest system of higher education serving more than 107,000 students annually. CCCS oversees career and academic programs in the 13 state community colleges and career and technical programs in more than 160 school districts and seven other post-secondary institutions.

About Pearson
Pearson is the global leader in educational publishing, assessment, information and services, helping people of all ages to learn at their own pace, in their own way. Our higher education publishing brands -- Addison-Wesley, Allyn & Bacon, Benjamin Cummings, Longman, Merrill, and Prentice Hall - have earned the trust of educators and students because of their commitment to student learning, integrity, and independence of thought. Pearson provides quality education solutions in all available media, spanning the higher education learning spectrum from college and career training through graduate studies and professional training and development. Pearson's other primary businesses include the Financial Times Group and the Penguin Group.

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