Norco College Chooses Epsilen to Improve Student Success and Learning Outcomes

INDIANAPOLIS, June 5, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- Interested in selecting an online tool for capturing student work, faculty and administrators at Norco College evaluated a half dozen different platforms before selecting Epsilen's ePortfolio as the best option for its campus community.

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"We were looking for something that was easy to use, easy to train our students to use, but still offered enough flexibility to go beyond the basic ePortfolio," said Associate Professor of Business, Dr. Gail Zwart. "After careful review, we came to the conclusion that Epsilen's social learning environment best met our collective needs." 

Located in Southern California and part of the California Community Colleges System, the two-year public institution was awarded a Department of Education Title V grant three years ago, primarily for the purpose of improving the success of its Hispanic and low-income students. Administrators intended to use the award to integrate the use of games into its classrooms as well as to introduce the use of e-portfolios as an effective tool for assessing both the college's programs, and student learning outcomes.

Based on statistics for the 2009-2010 academic year, Hispanics represent nearly 40 percent of the college's student enrollment, and almost one in four students overall is considered low income. By focusing on student success, Norco realized the importance of a tool, such as Epsilen's ePortfolio, to help students create self-efficacy and prepare them for their careers.

"With the average success rate of students at Norco trending around 68%, there was a definite drive to improve these ratios," Evan Nisonson, CEO of Epsilen, said. "We've seen other community colleges facing similar challenges to student success and retention implement non-traditional solutions like e-Portfolios and social learning environments with compelling results."

"As a team, we spent several months comparing and evaluating different platforms," said Cathy Brotherton, professor of Computer Information Systems (CIS), who teaches information technology courses at the college. ". Epsilen met our pricing and file size requirements. We were looking to maximize grant funds by offering a tool that fit a college-size budget."

Norco began using Epsilen's ePortfolio in a few of their classes last fall in order to get a feel for the product. Zwart said that overall, her students were intrigued and found the tool easy to use. The platform has since been used by thousands of Norco students in classes as varied as: gaming, business, computer information systems, manufacturing, engineering, accounting, and career & technical education.

The fact that Epsilen's ePortfolio is available to students for life, and portable if they wish to transfer to another institution or on to their respective careers, was an added benefit, said Zwart. "If students put a great deal of time and energy into building their portfolios and have great examples they can share with potential employers, and then it's no longer accessible, it's not of very much value to them. We wanted something that had a long-term shelf life."

Gustavo Oceguera, Norco's Associate Dean for Grants and College Support Programs, said that in addition to supporting the college's use of e-Portolios, Epsilen's consulting team are facilitating discussion among college administrators in an effort to ensure the institution's use of technology is properly aligned with its overall strategic mission and objectives. "Although we're not there yet, we want to explore the possibility of using the platform to capture analytics which the college can use to make data-guided decisions."

"With Epsilen, we're looking to assess program learning outcomes, which we're required to do for accreditation," added Zwart. "When a student graduates with a certificate or degree, we have to assess that they've met defined outcomes."

About Epsilen, LLC
Serving educators and students in over 600 institutions worldwide, the Epsilen Environment is a hosted online learning solution that focuses on learner engagement and the teaching and learning experience. It situates a robust set of learning tools within a learning community, offering the advantages of both.  Additionally, Epsilen offers clients access to The New York Times Content Repository, a rich collection of digital resources and learning objects. Epsilen is majority owned by The New York Times Company. Visit: www.epsilen.com

About Norco College
Norco College is one of three colleges within the Riverside Community College District. Located on a 141-acre campus in Southern California, it serves a diverse enrollment of more than 10,000 students yearly. Visit: www.norcocollege.edu.

Media contact:

Meghan VanSpriell
VP, Global Marketing
Phone: 484-639-7220
[email protected]

SOURCE Epsilen, LLC