UBC Computer Scientist Wins $100,000 Award for Popular Course Software

"Prof. Goldberg and his WebCT software has revolutionized the way people teach and learn," says UBC president Martha Piper. "We are delighted he is being acknowledged for his innovative and tireless efforts to improve the online learning experience."

Since its inception from a course experiment in 1995, Goldberg's WebCT--which stands for World Wide Web Course Tools--has become an indispensable part of the university learning experience. It is used every day by more than 10 million students at over 2,500 universities and colleges in 80 countries.

"WebCT opens up communication between students and faculty members," says Goldberg. "It allows students to communicate more effectively with one another and with faculty members."

Courses created with WebCT contain searchable course notes, review material, a discussion board, quizzes and exams, image databases and chat rooms.

In 1997, with the help of UBC's Industry Liaison Office, Goldberg founded WebCT Educational Technologies Corporation with Sasan Salari, a student who had helped him design the software.

In 1999, WebCT merged with Universal Learning Technologies of Massachusetts. It now has more than 300 employees in offices in the U.S., Canada and Australia. For more information visit www.webct.com.

Since then, Goldberg has founded another company, Silicon Chalk, with former UBC dean of science Maria Klawe, who is now dean of engineering and applied science at Princeton University. The company builds e-learning tools that incorporate the wireless environment and complement WebCT. For more information visit www.silicon-chalk.com.