NEW YORK -- The students in Howard Budin's democracy and technology class hold spirited discussions and go on course-related field trips. But physical interaction with classmates is strictly optional.

A research team that is building free course-management software plans today to release the first technical standards that provide the framework of its forthcoming software. Although the group is ...

Students tend not to mind when their colleges levy annual technology fees. But when they have to pay individually for every class that uses WebCT’s course-management software, they start feeling as if ...