(520) 515-0500
(800) 966-7943

About EPICC

EPICC, the Electronic Portfolio Initiative at Cochise College, is dedicated to investigating the rapidly emerging theory and practice of academic electronic portfolios and exploring the ways in which electronic portfolios may be integrated into the Cochise College curriculum.

The information, recommendations, and examples of Cochise College student portfolios made available on this website result from years of intense research, reflection, discussion, and work by faculty, staff, and administrators involved with EPICC in various ways.

To learn more of these activities and the history of EPICC, please check out the following timeline that highlights, in chronological order, some of the activities conducted by EPICC over the last few years:

An EPICC History
Note: Every attempt has been made to provide accurate dates and descriptions of activities; nonetheless, no claim can be made for achieving absolute accuracy, for exact records are not available for all activities.

Date	Activity
Aug 2000	The Convocation of fall 2000 featured Dr. Geoff Chase, Dean of Liberal Studies and Assessment at NAU, who spoke on the topic “Assessment as an Intellectual Activity.” Dr. Chase spoke of the benefits of using electronic portfolios to assess student learning. Following his keynote address, faculty broke into disciplinary-related groups to discuss assessment of the college’s general education program. The collective voice of the faculty was that, of the various measures reviewed, they liked the Academic Profile best for short-term use, with the understanding that for the long-run, the preference was clearly for the electronic portfolio approach.
Jan 2001	Beginning of online research. Helen Barrett’s (University of Alaska) extensive work first noted.
Oct 2001	Conference on Technology in Education, Central Arizona College: John Paddison and Jeff Ross of CAC showcased their Electronic Multimedia Portfolio (EMP) Project. Carol Hammond of Yavapai College, involved in her college’s English Department Portfolio Project, demonstrated her work using MS Word to construct eportfolios.
Jan 2002	Implementation of English 101 Electronic Portfolio Project. Students in a Cochise College English 101 class collected and submitted their written work electronically.
Mar 2002	Website established as the Electronic Portfolio Discussion Forum. It was meant to be a place for faculty, staff, administrators, and students to engage in a discussion regarding a potential electronic portfolio system to be established at Cochise College.
Apr 2002	First and only meeting of the original Electronic Portfolio Committee, formed to lay the groundwork for further exploration of electronic portfolio assessment of the general education program.
Aug 2002	Roy Lea joined Jeff Sturges on the Assessment Committee to become its two members charged with initiating a pilot project to test electronic portfolio implementation at Cochise College. With administrative support from Dr. Joanna Michelich and Title V funds made available with the help of Janet Martinez-Bernal, the GEEPP, CSEPP, and CTC Pilot Projects were planned. George Self, Jeff Sturges, and Gail Shaughnessey teamed up to plan CTC.
Oct 2002	Roy Lea and Jeff Sturges attended ePortfolio Dialogue Day at The Maricopa College District Center for Learning and Instruction. Jeff Sturges presented the results of his English 101 Electronic Portfolio Project. This, among other things, began an exploration of the possibility of joining the ePortfolio Consortium and using Epsilen Portfolios, its electronic portfolios management system, developed at the IUPUI CyberLab. This initiated contacts with other venders of proprietary software, such as iWebfolio and ePortaro, to investigate their relative merits.
Nov 2002	Mark von Destinon and Jeff Sturges attended The 2002 Assessment Institute in Indianapolis, Indiana. They attended presentations and workshop conducted by Jeffrey Seybert, the keynote speaker for Cochise College’s fall 2004 convocation. They also attend presentations on Documenting Improvement and Achievement in Learning Through Electronic Student Portfolios and the Urban Universities Institutional Portfolio Project.
Jan 2003	EPICC made contact with OSPI, The Open Source Portfolio Initiative, joined their discussion groups, and investigated the benefits of Cochise College using this free software.
Apr 2003	Members of the Assessment Committee attended the Higher Learning Commission Meeting in Chicago. Jeff Sturges attended sessions dedicated to Assessment of Student Academic Achievement and brought back ideas relevant to electronic portfolio assessment of student learning.
Jul 2003	Jeff Sturges attended and presented a poster session on Course-Specific Electronic Portfolios at Syllabus 2003 Conference in San Jose, California. (Note: to scroll through the presentation, when it opens, you will need to click your mouse on the down arrow on the scroll bar window; right-click to access other options.)
Aug 2003	Work completed on Electronic Portfolio Handbook and templates for use in the GEEPP, CSEPP, and CTC pilot projects. Pilot projects began. Blackboard sites established for all projects.
Sep 2003	Computer kiosks were stationed at both campuses to help students involved in pilot projects develop their eportfolios. Items include, in addition to new computers and software, a Zip drive, webcam, stereo headset, digital memory reader, desktop microphone, and CD-RW drive. The kiosks were made available, in part, with Title V funds.
Oct 2003	Jeff Sturges presented a workshop on "Single-Course Electronic Portfolios" at the Regional Conference of the Two-Year College English Association (TYCA) West in Park City, Utah. Here is the online PowerPoint Presentation used for the workshop. (Note: to scroll through the presentation, when it opens, you will need to click your mouse on the down arrow on the scroll bar window; right-click to access other options.)
Nov 2003	Jeff Sturges completed online course on developing electronic portfolios from Wichita State University taught by Helen Barrett. A faculty portfolio template was developed to demonstrate the ways in which the performance criteria for evaluating full-time teaching faculty at Cochise College were met.
Dec 2003	CTC Pilot project concluded. Students showcase portfolios in end-of-semester conference.
Jan 2004	CSEPP instructors begin implementation of eportfolios in their classes. GEEPP students continue to develop portfolios. Handbook published and distributed to CSEPP instructors and GEEPP students.
Feb 2004	George Self agreed to chair and recruit members for a new electronic portfolio committee charged with making recommendations to the college should it decide to adopt electronic portfolios.
Mar 2004	Jeff Sturges attended the American Association of Colleges and Universities Conference on Assessment and General Education at Long Beach, California.
Apr 2004	Electronic portfolio committee meetings held; discussions continued via email.
May 2004	GEEPP and CSEPP Pilot Projects conclude. Portfolios from CTC, GEEPP, and CSEPP showcased as part of Title V Conexiones exhibit as part of Cochise College commencement.
Jun 2004	Proposal for implementing electronic portfolios at Cochise College completed and submitted to all committee members for review.
Jul 2004	Video, Larry McLive--describing EPICC activities, explaining electronic portfolios, and inviting faculty, staff, and administration to visit EPICC website--completed. George Self and Jeff Sturges attended OSPI conference in San Francisco. Information learned will enable Cochise College to install and use the OSPI software on our servers.
Aug 2004	Conclusion of Summer Bridge Program. This is a Title V-funded program designed to help Cochise County high school graduates make the transition from high school to Cochise College and, eventually, to the University of Arizona South. Check out some student's portfolios, in which students document and reflect upon the things they learned. EPICC website developed and online. Presentation of Larry McLive during convocation. Faculty, staff, and administrators encouraged to explore the EPICC website, read the proposal for implementing eportfolios at Cochise College, and let instructional managers know their thoughts on eportfolios.
Sept 2004	Working with the r-Smart group, George Self installed OSP software, allowing all at Cochise College to experiment with the program and use it to develop portfolios of their own or help students develop portfolios of any kind.
Oct 2004	A charter group proposal for Teaching, Learning, and Assessment accepted by the OSP Board. This means that Cochise College, through its representative, Jeff Sturges, will take part in exploring the possibilities of OSP 2 for teaching, learning, and assessment and will have a chance to directly and significantly impact its use and ongoing development. Jeff Sturges and George Self presented a series of Q&A sessions to faculty and staff. These sessions were intended to clear up any misconceptions about eportfolios prior to the Joint Instructional Manager's meeting in November.
Nov 2004	Roy Lea, George Self, and Jeff Sturges met with the Cochise College Joint Instructional Managers (JIM) to address concerns and answer questions concerning electronic portfolios. Specifically, they discussed how eportfolios can contribute to program and general education assessment, enhance academic advising, deepen learning, and assist in academic transfer or career placement. The JIM decided to revisit this topic during their meeting on January 18. They expressed concerns about instructor involvement, curriculum modification, and software applications which will be addressed at their January meeting.
Dec 2004	Roy Lea, George Self, and Jeff Sturges attended a two-day training seminar sponsored by r-Smart to learn both technical and practical issues concerning our eportfolio software.
Mar 2005	George Self co-presented a session with Jan Smith (from R-Smart) at the annual League of Innovations conference in New York. The session addressed using OSP for eportfolio projects in higher education.
Apr 2005	Jeff Sturges and George Self co-presented a session at the annual Higher Learning Commission conference in Chicago. The session addressed implementation issues found when starting an eportfolio project at a college.
Apr 2005	Jeff Sturges and George Self addressed the Joint Instructional Managers meeting at Cochise College. At that meeting, it was decided to pilot the OSP software with a selected group of students next year.