University of Incarnate Word Selects Epsilen to Help Drive Student Retention and Success

INDIANAPOLIS, March 15, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- When The University of the Incarnate Word (UIW) administrators began looking for an ePortfolio platform for its students, they wanted a vendor that was agnostic and also provided a single source solution.

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"As we started looking at the various options, Epsilen immediately rose to the top," said Marshall Eidson, UIW's chief information officer. "What really caught our attention was Epsilen's association with Project Share here in Texas, providing us the ability to engage with approximately a million and a half high school students and leverage the fact that they were already working with Epsilen's ePortfolio. The vast majority of our students come from public schools in Texas. If they're able to come to us with Epsilen experience and continue developing their online artifacts as they progress with us to graduation, it makes the transition from high school to college that much more seamless."

Founded in 1881 by the Sisters of Charity of the Incarnate Word, UIW provides a high quality residential and online education to students pursuing degrees in more than 40 undergraduate programs. The 154-acre main campus is located near the heart of downtown San Antonio, and also offers programs at 10 other locations, including China, Mexico, and Germany. With an enrollment of more than 8,000 students, UIW also offers professional schools in nursing, pharmacy, optometry, and, beginning in the fall of 2012, physical therapy. UIW also manages two local parochial schools serving about 1,000 students.

UIW administrators were also attracted to the Epsilen Environment because the toolset and functionality align with the university's mission and several of its institutional strategic objectives.

"One of our goals is to improve the employability of our students, and we see a direct correlation in the ability to use Epsilen's ePortfolio with our Career Services in order to enhance their ability to compete in the marketplace," said Eidson. "For example, if a student were to apply to four different employers, he or she could personalize the content to make the information being shared most relevant for each individual employer.  This way employers see only the information that is most valuable for their business and selection process."

Eidson said one thing that surprised him the most was, "All the ways people here have thought to use the Epsilen tool, many of which had not occurred to me. For example, a faculty member who had been using LinkedIn to incorporate materials into her MBA course is now using Epsilen's ePortfolio to capture and organize that content."

Another example is with the faculty tenure and review process. "Instead of having notebooks filled with material about where someone has been published, where they have presented, or what research they have conducted, artifacts can be stored in Epsilen and more readily shared among peers during the review process."

Epsilen's mobile application also aligns with UIW's objective of providing its students with anytime, anywhere access to learning materials and other learners within the platform's global network. "It supports the university's objective," Eidson said, "of enhancing student success and remaining engaged with students and faculty both within and outside the classroom."

Epsilen's CEO, Evan Nisonson, added, "At Epsilen, we stand for student engagement and retention and our toolset is focused specifically on that – whether it's Epsilen's ePortfolio, our social network, Advising solution or our mobility components – we look to gain the greatest ROI for our clients."

Eidson said that in the near future, UIW plans to integrate Epsilen's tools into the university's portal platform so that users can access the application with single sign-on capability. He said UIW has gotten solid support from Epsilen, not only in assisting with the utilization and ongoing maintenance, but also with strategic support, ensuring that the tools are properly aligned with the university's strategic objectives. "The tool is flexible in ways that allow us to be creative, and also flexible in the ways we'd like to deploy it."

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 exclusive 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

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Meghan VanSpriell
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Phone: 484-639-7220
[email protected]

SOURCE Epsilen, LLC