FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE 
-------------------------- 
Of interest to editors and journalists covering the 
Schools/Education, Teaching/Educators, Software, Internet, Technology


BACK TO SCHOOL: MICROPORTALS ALLOW EDUCATORS TO TURN TRADITIONAL CLASSROOM
INTO INTERACTIVE RESEARCH AND COLLABORATION CENTER

Making Learning Process More Productive, More Practical and Fun

STERLING, VA - August 14, 2003 (Send2Press Newswire) -- College professors
are getting ready for the fall semester, and will appreciate the new
Virtual Classroom System, the latest offering from the Alfa-XP Web
Software Company, LLC (www.alfa-xp.com), the maker and operator of the
Microportals.NET(tm) Web application service.

Virtual classroom is a "portal-on-demand" service that offers everything
needed to teach a class. It's template-based, reliable and secure. Social
science professors with minimum computer skills can easily customize and
manage it in real-time, using nothing but Web browsers. No hardware,
software or programming are necessary. Built exclusively on the Microsoft
.NET platform and open XML standards, it can be easily integrated with
other popular e-learning software (e.g., Blackboard).

Within minutes, anyone can create a full-featured personal intranet,
complete with Web templates, multiple secure workspaces for the professor
and students and visual tutorials. Authorized users can create and edit
Web pages, upload, organize and share files, images and Web links, look up
contact information and photos of classmates, access class schedule and
make appointments, participate in public and private discussions, read
relevant, automatically updated news feeds selected from thousands of
reputable sources and topics, set up private and shared workspaces for
group projects, create and participate in online polls and surveys.
Professors get email, mailing lists, customizable datasheet templates
(e.g., attendance, assignments, etc), notepad, private folders, and site
administration tools.

Research center is one feature that really sets this product apart from
competitors. It allows collaborative use of automated content collection,
ranking and annotation tools for purposes of creating a shared,
topic-oriented, recommendation-based knowledge base. Students work on
research assignments running queries using multiple search gateways (e.g.,
Google) while guided by subject categories (taxonomies) created by the
professor. The results get bookmarked, ranked, annotated and stored in the
shared library.

Pricing starts at $50 per month for a 10-license academic edition ($10 per
month for an additional user). Discounts, branding options and custom
templates are available for colleges and resellers. 30-day free trial:
http://classdemo.microportals.net.

Alfa-XP Web Software Company, LLC is a privately held company located in
Virginia. Since 1998 the company has provided solutions for Federal
agencies and corporate clients in the U.S. and Western Europe.

Media Contact: 
   Sergey Chapkey, President and CEO
   Alfa XP Web Software Company, LLC
   +1-877-838-3448
   alfa@alfa-xp.com




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