Elluminate and Franklin University's Home for the Holidays Program Uses Technology to Turn Education into Communication

Ft. Lauderdale, Florida, (December 4, 2006) — Elluminate, Inc., a leading provider of live eLearning and Web collaboration software, and Franklin University, one of the leading educators of working adults, announced today "Home for the Holidays," a program which provides free, unlimited access to the Web conferencing software Elluminate Live!® for soldiers deployed overseas and their families from December 4, 2006 to January 2, 2007. Military service men and women and their families and friends may log in to Elluminate Live! virtual meeting rooms at any time to have private, face-to-face conversations.

Many soldiers enlisted in the U.S. Army already use Elluminate Live! to attend real-time college classes online through Franklin University and the U.S. Army's GoArmyEd program. The University and Elluminate partnered to make the progression from using the technology for educational purposes to donating the software to soldiers for personal communication during the holidays.

Using Elluminate Live!, families can speak in real-time, see each other with webcams, record audio and video messages, and share holiday greetings, photos, and more. Franklin University professors will conduct a training session on Elluminate Live! this week, which will be archived for access at any time. This session will teach participants basic usage of the software including how to speak, text, record messages, share photos, use video and break into individual conference rooms for private conversations.

"We've seen how soldiers use Elluminate Live! to advance their education through Franklin University's affiliation with GoArmyEd, and it seemed like a natural next step to give back to these service men and women who are unable to return home for the holidays," said Maurice Heiblum, president of Elluminate, USA. "Elluminate and Franklin aim to make distance education a natural fit for students around the globe, and we hope to make the distance between soldiers and their loved ones easier to cope with during the holidays by giving them a means to see and talk to each other much as they can."

"Serving non-traditional students means filling non-traditional needs, with often non-traditional methods. Elluminate Live! allows us to provide coursework online with the same quality and convenience our students have come to expect, in a manner that mirrors the on-campus experience," said Sherry Mercurio, director of public relations for Franklin University. "As a student-focused institution, ensuring our students have the most up-to-date tools needed to complete their degrees is of utmost importance. Elluminate provides the means of doing just that--making sure our students have what they need to complete their degree from wherever they are, whenever they want."

If you or someone you know is interested in participating in the Home for the Holidays program, please contact elluminate@schwartz-pr.com or Franklin spokesperson Sherry Mercurio at mercuris@franklin.edu, and you will be provided with a link to the training session and the 24/7 Web conference room.

About Franklin University
Founded in 1902, Franklin University is central Ohio's leading and most experienced educator of adult students. Annually, more than 10,000 students attend Franklin, both on campus and online. Nearly 1,500 students graduate each year with a degree in one of Franklin's 18 undergraduate majors or three graduate programs offered at its central Ohio campuses, or in one of the 15 undergraduate or Vantage MBA® Programs offered online through Franklin's Virtual Campus®. Further information regarding Franklin University can be found at http://www.franklin.edu.

About Elluminate
Elluminate, Inc. provides proven, best-in-class solutions for real-time online learning and collaboration. The company delivers exceptional outcomes, including enhanced learning experiences, increased retention and completion rates, lower Total Cost of Ownership, and higher ROI. Elluminate Live! features high-quality voice over the Internet, robust interactive functionality for participants and moderators, and unique No User Left Behind™ technology, regardless of platform or Internet connection speed. Elluminate is one of Deloitte's 50 Fastest Growing Technology Companies, is the winner of several prestigious industry awards, including a Top Training Product award from Human Resource Executive magazine, Network Computing magazine's Editor's Choice Award for Web conferencing software. Headquartered in Calgary, Alberta, Canada, and Fort Lauderdale, Florida, Elluminate is the trusted choice of prominent academic institutions and corporations, such as ADP, DeVry University, Duke University, Georgia State University, Johns Hopkins University, Novell, PA Department of Education, Queen's University, Red Hat, Sun Microsystems, and many more.


Elluminate Live! and No User Left Behind are trademarks or registered trademarks of Elluminate, Inc., Calgary, Alberta, Canada.