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The Electronic Portfolio Consortium, or ePortConsortium, is an association
of individuals from 68 countries and more than 800 higher educational and
IT commercial institutions from around the world, a group of people interested in the
development of
academic ePortfolio software systems and the establishment of
interoperability standards for such systems. We invite you to explore our
site and to join us in that endeavor (see menu at left to register).
We are also very pleased to offer ePortConsortium members our
newest feature, a complimentary RSS feed-enabled collaboration site,
The ePortGroup, where you can post your announcements, share your projects, discuss your ideas, and collaborate with others interested in the subject of ePortfolios. Membership to this group collaboration site is free to all members of higher education institutions. Please invite your colleagues and collaborators to visit this site and join with you to further contemplate and refine the concepts and applications of ePortfolios. Click here to join.
Direct inquiries to Coordinator Catherine Kaufman.
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Epsilen, LLC, Announces New Executive Officer
Epsilen, the online education company of The New York Times, has named Jim Bowler as chief executive officer. Bowler joined Epsilen in January as an executive consultant working with the company’s board of directors. Prior to joining Epsilen, he was chief executive officer and president of two online entities: Classroom Connect and Harcourt Connected Learning. He has served as chief executive officer of Kids123 and senior vice president of marketing for Computer Curriculum Corporation, a division of Pearson Education. Epsilen (www.epsilen.com) offers professors tools to post ePortfolios, communicate with colleagues or students, and to create materials -- many drawing from the Times archives -- for classroom use. In March 2008, The New York Times Company became the majority owner of Epsilen, previously known as BehNeem, LLC.
"The New York Times Company has a long history in education and we view this initiative as central to our core mission, " said Stephen Hirsch, vice president of corporate planning, The New York Times Company and a board member at Epsilen. "We are proud to be associated with a company that shares our standards for delivering high quality content and creating high quality environments. Now more than ever, academic institutions and organizations are looking for an eLearning platform that puts education as the heart of its service. We believe Epsilen is well positioned in the rapidly evolving eLearning market." Click above to see PRWeb announcement.
- Posted On:
5/14/2009
by
Catherine W. Kaufman
Blackboard Buys Angel
Blackboard announced that it was purchasing Angel Learning, shaking up the course management industry...Michael Chasen, president and CEO of Blackboard, said that the acquisition was part of a continuing effort to "improve and get better as a company." He acknowledged a need to do a better job than was done a few years ago...Ray Henderson, chief products officer at Angel, said that "we're realistic that folks who have recently left Blackboard to come to Angel are going to look at this with some skepticism. We're realistic about that, and plan to address this." ...Officials of Desire2Learn and Sakai did not respond to requests for comment and eCollege/Pearson declined comment.
Felice Nudelman, executive director for education of The New York Times, the parent company of Epsilen, said "Congratulations to Blackboard" on the news. But she saw the announcement as encouraging not just for Blackboard.
"The higher education market is in an exciting phase of development with many colleges and universities looking for the next iteration of e-learning," she said. "Epsilen and the New York Times Knowledge Network are excited about being in this space. I think the Blackboard acquisition of Angel creates an opening for Web 2.0 e-learning platforms like Epsilen and others." (by Scott Jaschik, Inside Higher Ed)
- Posted On:
5/7/2009
by
Catherine W. Kaufman
California Virtual Campus (CVC) and Epsilen enter into agreement to offer ePortfolios for Students, Faculty and Staff via the Epsilen Platform
NEW YORK, April 23, 2009 – The California Virtual Campus (CVC) and Epsilen LLC has announced an 18-month agreement to offer ePortfolios and other academic and professional networking services to students, faculty and staff using the Epsilen Environment.
The New York Times Company is the majority owner of Epsilen LLC, creator of the Epsilen Environment, a centrally-hosted platform that offers a wide range of ePortfolio, course delivery, assessment and collaboration services. The CVC is sponsored by the California Community Colleges System Office, and provides distance learning technology services and programs to support K20 public education institutions.
Epsilen has been selected by the CVC as one of the applications to be a part of the ePortfolio California Project, which provices ePortfolio tools for all of California's public education institutions -- including K12, community colleges, and four-year institutions.
Six pilot campuses will begin using the application with students this summer.
Applications to join the pilot project are being accepted until May 4. Information about the pilot is available at: http://eportfolio.cvc.edu/join-us/epsilenpilot.
- Posted On:
4/24/2009
by
Catherine W. Kaufman
News from insidehighered.com, by Elizabeth Redden
Blackboard Inc., unveiled Release 9.0 of Blackboard Learn on January 27. Blackboard bills the newest iteration as more open and flexible — allowing colleges to use the platform “as an open foundation for whatever complementary technologies they need to support their approach to teaching and learning.”...Another player in the e-learning space, Epsilen, has emphasized social learning and e-portfolios. “Blackboard has held market share for a long time, and they’ve built their brand on CMS, and they’re adding some new functionality,” said Felice Nudelman, executive director of education for The New York Times Company, which has an investment in Epsilen. “But the sense I get is it is not at its core a Web 2.0 environment.”
- Posted On:
1/29/2009
by
Catherine W. Kaufman
Blackboard sues Patent and Trademark Office
From Washington Business Journal - by Darlene Darcy, Staff Reporter: Despite the Feb. 22 decision by a federal jury in Texas to award Blackboard Inc. $3.1 million in damages from competitor Desire2Learn’s for infringing on its patent, D.C.-based Blackboard has sued the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office and its Director and Under Secretary of Commerce for Intellectual Property Jon Dudas to stop the office’s re-examination of the company’s patent.
The PTO began its re-examination of the 44 claims that constitute Blackboard’s patent more than a year ago at the request of the Software Freedom Law Center, a New York nonprofit that pursues legal action on behalf of the open-source software community. By this March, the PTO had discredited all of the patent’s claims, at least preliminarily. That decision was non-final, and the re-examination still continues while Desire2Learn pursues its appeal to the February court ruling. The complaint Blackboard filed on Nov. 21 in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia argues that the PTO’s decision to continue its re-examination after the court decided the patent was not invalid and Desire2Learn had infringed was improper. In an amended complaint filed Dec. 1, Blackboard claims that the law says that after a court’s final decision has been made and no proof of a patent’s invalidity has been found, the PTO is “prohibited from maintaining an inter partes re-examination.”
[Click link above to read more...]
- Posted On:
12/2/2008
by
Catherine W. Kaufman
The New York Times Knowledge Network Shows Strong Growth in Year Two
The New York Times Knowledge Network (http://www.nytimesknownow.com) announced the launch of its second year of online programs, with 47 programs at 15 educational institutions and organizations across the country....The Knowledge Network, which uses the Epsilen(TM) platform, was launched in September 2007 to deliver lifelong learning programs on timely subjects, pairing a rich array of Times articles, archives, graphics and multimedia content - and the participation of Times reporters, columnists and editors - with faculty course material at participating colleges and universities. These programs are a significant expansion of a program that has provided copies of the paper, accompanied by curriculum guides, to faculty at colleges and universities for several years, bringing the resources of The Times into classrooms as part of the learning experience. With this new component of the Knowledge Network, Times resources are readily available to students online, whether they are enrolled in an on-campus course or continuing their education through a distance learning program. The New York Times Company is the majority owner of BehNeem, LLC, a company that has secured a license to the Epsilen(TM) Environment.
- Posted On:
9/11/2008
by
Catherine W. Kaufman
"ePortfolios signal a digital dawn" by Andrew Trounson
"In a sign of the accelerating trend towards the digitization of tertiary education, using ePortfolios for student assessment is firmly on the teaching and learning agenda.
A report commissioned by the Australian Learning and Teaching Council, formerly the Carrick Institute, is due next month to complete its investigation of ePortfolios and the project team is expected to recommend steps to encourage their use.
It also may recommend seeking government help in developing national systems or ensuring inter-operability across institutions." Click above to read more.
- Posted On:
7/31/2008
by
Catherine W. Kaufman
T.H.E. Journal: "In the Driver's Seat" by John K. Waters
..."The Epsilen Environment is an example of what can fairly be called a new species of electronic portfolios"...
Web 2.0 is turning the traditional electronic portfolio into a diverse personal learning space, putting students at the helm of their academic experience.
When Julie Bohnenkamp, director of technology for the Center Grove Community School Corporation in Greenwood, IN, introduced the Epsilen Environment to her district last August, she expected a few of the more tech-savvy teachers to take the new electronic portfolio system for a spin, and then gradually spread the word. She didn't expect what she calls an "Epsilen epidemic." What began last year as a small pilot project aimed at half a dozen teachers now comprises 495 teachers, 1,908 students, 88 online courses, and 33 online collaborative groups.
"We thought we'd have between five and seven teachers who might like to utilize the system for online learning enhancements to their traditional courses," Bohnenkamp says. "But people really responded to the connectedness designed into it, the way Epsilen combines Web 2.0 technologies with the e-portfolio piece."
The Epsilen Environment is an example of what can fairly be called a new species of electronic portfolios. No longer merely a handy digital means for collecting and displaying student work or the professional achievements of teachers, this new breed adds internet-based applications and services that are fundamental to the Web 2.0 phenomenon-- things like social networks, blogs, wikis, folksonomies, and mashup tools.
"This is a paradigm shift toward progressively richer learning environments…and educators aren't ready for it."
The result is a powerful combination of capabilities that trend watchers say is transforming the e-portfolio into a diversified personal learning space rich with academic opportunities. The most profound effect is likely to be on students, whom these enhancements will effectively place at the helm of their own learning experiences, able to interact online around shared interests with their peers virtually anywhere in the world; report on school projects, news, or events; and edit and modify documents collectively. And both teachers and students can utilize this rich environment to maintain and refine their digital résumés for years to come.
"We have built Epsilen to the specifications of a new online culture," says Ali Jafari, professor of computer and information technology at Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI). "There are a lot of goodies in there to encourage people to continue using and maintaining their Epsilen accounts."
Read more at http://www.thejournal.com/articles/22735.
- Posted On:
6/12/2008
by
Catherine W. Kaufman
ePortfolio & Digital Identity 5-7 May 2008, Montréal
Organizers of ePortfolio Montréal 2008 invite researchers, policy-makers, practitioners and solution providers in the field of learning technologies to submit their contributions to the 2nd Pan-American and Francophone ePortfolio conference that will take place at Concordia University on 5-7 May 2008. This year's focus will be on ePortfolio and digital identity.
The conference is organized in partnership with the Centre for the Study of Learning and Performance (CSLP) at Concordia University and the Centre de recherche en informatique de Montréal (CRIM). Tracks will be run in French and English on the following themes:
1)Lifelong learning and employability ePortfolios;
2) Building systems of recognition and accreditation with ePortfolios;
3) Exploiting the full potential of digital identity;
4) ePortfolio architectures and advanced technologies;
5) Designing ePortfolio strategies within regions and sectors; and
6) Managing knowledge with ePortfolios.
If interested in sponsorship and exhibition opportunities, please contact serge.ravet@eife-l.org.
- Posted On:
4/22/2008
by
Catherine W. Kaufman
Key Competencies - Skills for Life 2008: 18-20 June, City University, London
The 2nd international conference on Key Competencies-Skills for Life, organized by EIfEL in partnership with NIACE, will focus on the following questions and issues:
1) Can we agree on a ‘universal’ set of key competencies that are legible and transferable?
2) Do we distinguish between basic and key competencies, or are they part of a continuum?
3) What implications does this have for how we develop and measure these competencies?
4) How do we assess key competencies, how are they integrated into mainstream assessment, and how do people make their key competencies visible?
5) How do we recognize the outcomes of informal learning?
6) How can technology contribute to learner autonomy and achievement
7) How can we support those who support learners, whether this be the teacher/tutor or line manager/mentor?
8) How do we ensure the engagement of employers and worker representatives in the lifelong acquisition and maintenance of key competencies?
9) How can we ensure that policies value the culture and contribution of individuals?
10) How do we support the development of those working in micro-enterprises?
EIfEL will put in place a knowledge base and encourage contributions as a pre-conference activity.
Join others at this conference in London to explore these vital issues. Proposals welcomed for presentations and workshops. For sponsorship and exhibition opportunities, please contact serge.ravet@eife-l.org.
- Posted On:
4/22/2008
by
Catherine W. Kaufman
"ePortfolios: Hot Once Again" by Trent Batson
"ePortfolio conference - March 28 at Eastern Connecticut State University, co-sponsored by NERCOMP (Northeast Regional Computer Program) and the Connecticut Distance Learning Consortium (CTDLC). It was 'sold out.'
ePortfolio conference - April 9 in Newport, RI, co-sponsored by IBM and RINET (Rhode Island Network for Educational Technology). It was focused on the statewide ePortfolio requirement for high school students in RI but drew attendees from around the country.
ePortfolio conference - April 11 at LaGuardia Community College in Queens, NY, co-sponsored by The New York Times, planned originally for 150 to 200 attendees it but got close to 400.
Not only were these conferences all within a 2-week period of each other; they were all within a 160-mile-wide region, and all receiving more attendees than planned. What's going on? People are realizing that:
- ePortfolios are not one thing, but many things, and can be applied for purposes in all academic activities. 'ePortfolio' is a multitude of similar-function applications all sharing a name.
- All campuses need at least one and perhaps many ePortfolios of varying capabilities.
- ePortfolios are a native technology for Web 2.0 and the semantic Web."... (by Trent Batson, Campus Technology)
- Posted On:
4/16/2008
by
Catherine W. Kaufman
SMARTHINKING and ANGEL Learning Announce Single Sign-On Integration
SMARTHINKING®
(http://www.smarthinking.com), provider of online tutoring, and ANGEL®
Learning (http://www.angellearning.com), provider of enterprise e-learning software and
services, have announced an alliance so students in institutions that use the
ANGEL Learning Management Suite (LMS) as their e-learning environment and SMARTHINKING to
provide on-demand tutoring can access SMARTHINKING from within the ANGEL LMS.
- Posted On:
3/4/2008
by
Catherine W. Kaufman
In age of e-learning, Yale’s peers open classrooms to public
..."Recent years have seen the rise of e-learning opportunities offered by the nation’s top colleges and by institutions around the globe. Initiatives such as MIT’s OpenCourseWare Web site and the popular Epsilen Environment (www.epsilen.com) networking site integrate technology into educational systems and help open up university material and resources to a wider, cyberspace community...The Epsilen Environment, a networking site that describes itself as an 'academic Facebook,' boasts 10,118 members from 727 institutions, including Yale and much of the Ivy League. The site — created six years ago — allows users to create ePortfolios and share their resumes, research and course materials with students, faculty and potential employers." (By Hilary Faxon, Yale Daily News)
- Posted On:
1/23/2008
by
Catherine W. Kaufman
Handbook of Research on ePortfolios is #14 on top 20 best sellers of IGI Global
IGI Global has announced that the Handbook of Research on ePortfolios, co-edited by Ali Jafari and Catherine Kaufman, achieved 14th place on their top 20 best seller list for 2007. IGI Global, formerly Idea Group Inc., is a publisher of Information Science Reference (ISR) and a premier source for authoritative reference tools, providing complimentary unlimited online access for the life of the edition on a 24/7 basis to libraries that purchase the print version of any ISR title.
- Posted On:
12/12/2007
by
Catherine W. Kaufman
Center Grove K-12 embrace multimedia stations, Epsilen Environment
Technology Director Julie Bohnenkamp and her technology staff at Center Grove Community School Corporation are using Epsilen Environment, an online social
network for academic file sharing. Center Grove's developmental
pilot project for K-12 presently has 245 teachers and 1,663 students enrolled in the Epsilen Environment. They use features such as wikis, blogs, forums and online courses. Presently, 43 online courses have been set up by staff to enhance traditional classroom courses. Teachers are able to add calendars linked to daily class outlines and homework
assignments along with lesson resources and a drop box for assignments.
Bohnenkamp said that this technology push happened because classroom teachers had the drive and persistence to acquire and integrate technology into their teaching experiences.
- Posted On:
12/11/2007
by
Catherine W. Kaufman
"ePortfolios Meet Social Software" (Campus Technology)
..."The result of six years of research and development, Epsilen Environment is being billed as a new model for the next generation of lifelong learners and professionals. It comes bundled with an ePortfolio management system, global learning system, group collaboration software, object repository, blogging tools, wiki application, messaging capabilities, and resume writing software, among other tools...
IUPUI's Ali Jafari, Ph.D., Epsilen's architect and principal investigator, believes that the new ePortfolio/social software hybrid will provide the 'stickiness' needed to expand a true adoption rate and get people to use the technology. 'Conceptually, this is what has been missing from the ePortfolio,' he says. 'We...have built Epsilen to the specifications of a new online culture, and there are a lot of goodies in there to encourage people to continue using and maintaining their Epsilen accounts.'" (Article by John Waters in Campus Technology, October 1, 2007)
- Posted On:
10/1/2007
by
Catherine W. Kaufman
The New York Times Introduces Online Initiative using Epsilen Environment
The New York Times introduced today a new online initiative that pairs Times content with faculty course material for both credit-bearing and continuing education courses. Educators will now have the opportunity to select Times articles, archival content, graphics and multimedia content, including videos and Webcasts, gathered around specific subjects, and make them available to students online, along with other course materials. Students will benefit from access to thematic content that is drawn from the vast array of Times reporting on a countless number of issues. This new component of Knowledge Network is available via the Epsilen™ Environment (www.epsilen.com), a newly developed Web-based software package that provides a wide range of tools and services for faculty members and students, including ePortfolios, Global Learning System (courseware), group collaboration, object sharing, blogs, messaging, and social and professional networking. Users receive a lifelong identity on the Epsilen™ system, enabling them to maintain their academic and professional ePortfolios throughout their careers, regardless of their affiliation with individual institutions. The New York Times Company is an equity investor in BehNeem, LLC, a company that has secured a long-term exclusive license to the Epsilen™ Environment from the Indiana University Research and Technology Corporation.
- Posted On:
9/6/2007
by
Catherine W. Kaufman
"ANGEL: From Academia to Real World" by Diane Brown
ANGEL Learning, Inc., headquartered in Indianapolis, took home one of 23 coveted Codie awards in the education category of this year's competition. Read more of this article contained within IUPUI Magazine.
- Posted On:
3/31/2007
by
Catherine W. Kaufman
Patent Office Asked to Review and Revoke Blackboard Patent
The Software Freedom Law Center (SFLC), provider of pro-bono legal services to protect and advance Free and Open Source Software, has filed a formal request with the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) for re-examination of Blackboard's e-Learning patent, which was awarded on January 17, 2006. If successful, the request will ultimately lead to the cancellation of all 44 claims of the patent. Blackboard, Inc., maker of Web-based educational software, announced the patent award in a press release on July 26, 2006. U.S. Patent No. 6988138, "Internet-based education support system and methods," grants Blackboard a monopoly on most educational software that differentiates between the roles of teacher and student until the year 2022.
The SFLC filed the re-examination request on behalf of Sakai, Moodle and ATutor, three open source educational software programs. Patents corresponding with the U.S. patent have been issued in Australia, New Zealand and Singapore and are pending in the European Union, China, Japan, Canada, India, Israel, Mexico, South Korea, Hong Kong and Brazil.
- Posted On:
12/1/2006
by
Catherine W. Kaufman
WEBINAR: MERLOT and Epsilen Collaborate on Nex-Gen Smart Repository Environments Oct. 25
On Wednesday, October 25, 2006, at 8:30am PDT (11:30 EDT), the IUPUI CyberLab and MERLOT (www.merlot.org) will present this Webinar to elaborate on the scope of their collaboration and to demonstrate how MERLOT resources can be dynamically integrated into the Epsilen ePortfolio and course management system that provides the framework for the next generation of eLearning environment.
The technology features a smart search engine as well as advanced applications that are being developed and integrated into the Epsilen Environment. To request a reservation for this Webinar, please contact the MERLOT Webmaster at webmaster@merlot.org or Barbara Sperling at bsperling@calstate.edu.
- Posted On:
10/3/2006
by
Catherine W. Kaufman
Free Epsilen ePortfolio accounts offered to all USA college students and faculty
The IUPUI CyberLab is offering free Epsilen ePortfolio accounts to students and faculty members within USA colleges and universities. Members from more than 140 educational institutions have already created their ePortfolio sites, and anyone maintaining an e-mail address ending with .edu may similarly register at www.epsilen.com. As part of the research collaboration MOU with Multimedia Educational Resource for Learning and Online Teaching, or MERLOT (see www.merlot.org), Epsilen features ePortfolios which dynamically integrate MERLOT learning objects matching the user’s profile. Epsilen Environment is the prototype for the next generation of eLearning environment and offers personal tools for ePortfolio, CMS, social networking, peer review, object repository, blog, and more, all within a single hosted account. Faculty members may request the Epsilen Assignment Task Sheet to guide their students in the creation of their ePortfolio sites.
- Posted On:
8/21/2006
by
Catherine W. Kaufman
"Proof of Learning at College" -- The New York Times editorial
This 2/26/06 New York Times editorial discusses the most recent findings from the National Assessment of Adult Literacy, which revealed distressing declines in literacy, especially among those with the most education. For example, fewer than a third of college graduates — down from 40 percent a decade ago — were deemed "proficient" in terms of literacy as defined by the ability to read and understand lengthy passages placed before them. A small but still alarming percentage of college graduates scored "below basic," meaning that they were incapable of all but the simplest tasks.
Colleges and universities should join in the hunt for acceptable ways to measure student progress, rather than simply fighting the whole idea from the sidelines. Unless the higher education community wakes up to this problem — and resolves to do a better job — the movement aimed at regulating colleges and forcing them to demonstrate that students are actually learning will only keep growing. [Printed in The New York Times]
- Posted On:
3/2/2006
by
Catherine W. Kaufman
"Notes on the Past and Future of Digital Portfolios and Student Learning"
Kathleen Yancey, who directs a graduate program in Rhetoric and Composition at Florida State University and is tri-director of the National Coalition for ePortfolio Research, wrote this article, reflecting on the development of electronic portfolios. [Printed in Campus Technology]
- Posted On:
2/16/2006
by
Catherine W. Kaufman
ETS Partners With TaskStream to Provide Centralized, Online Tool
ETS and TaskStream have formed strategic alliance to provide educators with an enhanced, Web-based professional development management system, marrying ETS’s professional development content, instructional intervention and data management platform with TaskStream’s technological ingenuity to create a single, online solution for implementing, managing and tracking professional development within schools and districts. Beginning in spring 2006, three ETS professional development programs will be available through the online platform, called ETS’s System 5TM Online Professional Development Solution.
- Posted On:
2/2/2006
by
Catherine W. Kaufman
Boston Globe: College careers go online -- 'E-portfolios' display personal growth
Jenna Russell, Boston Globe Staff, reports on the New England ePortfolio Project, which has 22 member campuses, including Brown, Dartmouth, Tufts, Northeastern, MIT, Mount Holyoke, Lesley University, and the Universities of Rhode Island and Connecticut. Most use electronic portfolios in some way on campus, or plan to implement them by mid-2006.
- Posted On:
8/14/2005
by
Catherine W. Kaufman
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Members:
1213
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Institutions:
916
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Countries:
72
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