The Sloan Consortium Launches Premier Virtual Symposium Powered by Mediasite

MADISON, Wis. - June 15, 2009 - Sonic Foundry, Inc. (NASDAQ: SOFO), the recognized market leader for rich media webcasting and knowledge management, today announced that through continued partnership with Sonic Foundry, The Sloan Consortium has selected the Mediasite platform to webcast all session at the International Symposium on Emerging Technology Applications for Online Learning. The event will be held June 17 - 19 at the Hyatt Regency in San Francisco, California, and is collocated with the Moodle Moot user conference.

The Symposium highlights research, application and best practices of important emerging technological tools related to social networking, assessment, open educational resources, new media and support services. Designed to bring together individuals interested in the technological aspects of online learning, Sloan-C has expanded its conference offerings to include both the Virtual Symposium and the new Localness Initiative. Virtual attendees will participate in more than 40 multimedia presentations between the Sloan-C Symposium and Moodle Moot events, including keynote, expert panel, plenary and closing sessions, which will be streamed and archived with Mediasite. Remote attendees will also have access to a virtual exhibit hall, discussion forums and the ability to ask real-time questions through Mediasite's ask feature.

Under the Localness Initiative, higher education institutions provide conference materials - both live and recorded - to members of their institution and the community at large. The blended program provides the opportunity to incorporate faculty professional development for online learning at a time when training dollars are stretched.

The Symposium is the third international conference Sloan-C has webcasted with Sonic Foundry. The impetus to put presentations online stemmed from research Sloan-C conducted with its members which found 95 percent of respondents were interested in having access to conference sessions online, and over half stating they would not only attend the conference on-site, but also sign up to watch the streaming presentations at a later time.

"We know colleges and universities are facing travel and budget restrictions, and while attending in person is ideal, disseminating conference material and the knowledge presented online is now essential to the professional development of our members," said John Bourne, Executive Director of Sloan-C. "In keeping with our mission to integrate online education into the mainstream of higher education, we're excited to offer our Emerging Technologies Symposium via Mediasite, and we look forward to building this knowledge base by leaders in online learning for the online learning community."

The patented Mediasite webcasting and content management system quickly and cost-effectively automates the capture, management, delivery and search of rich media presentations that combine audio, video and accompanying graphics for live or on-demand viewing. The platform is increasingly used for events where organizations seek to complement the conference with viewing over the web.

To view conference sessions from the 2008 Sloan-C International Symposium, visit www.sonicfoundry.com/sloan2008.

About Sloan-C
The Sloan Consortium (Sloan-C) (www.sloanconsortium.org)supports the collaborative sharing of knowledge and effective practices to improve online education in learning effectiveness, access, affordability for learners and providers, and student and faculty satisfaction. Sloan-C maintains a catalog of degree and certificate programs offered by a wide range of regionally accredited member institutions, consortia, and industry partners; provides speakers and consultants to help institutions learn about online methodologies; hosts conferences and workshops to help implement and improve online programs; publishes the Sloan-C View, the Journal of Asynchronous Learning Networks (JALN), and annual volumes of applied research studies; and conducts research, annual surveys on online learning and forums to inform academic, government and private sector audiences. Sloan-C also offers an awards program and an effective practices database so members can share the lessons they have learned. Members include (1) private and public universities and colleges, community colleges and other accredited course and degree providers, and (2) organizations and suppliers of services, equipments, and tools that practice the Sloan-C quality principles.