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

Murray Goldberg, founder of popular course software WebCT
and an adjunct professor in UBC’s computer science department,
has been named recipient of this year’s EnCana Principal
Award by the Ernest C. Manning Awards Foundation.

The award, with a cash prize of $100,000, is given each year
to a Canadian innovator. Goldberg will be honoured at a Vancouver
gala dinner on Oct. 1.

“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.

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