So I spec'd out a system that would be easy to build. David Weaver (physics faculty) asked to use it in his class -- he wanted to begin using it two weeks after the first mockup! I agreed and spent the next two weeks in feverish development. That was the birth of the ePortfolio Pilot.

David's class went very well; several improvements ensued based on user experience. The ePortfolio Institute happened the first week of June. Everyone who participated created an ePortfolio using the pilot application. One morning was spent brainstorming enhancements, improvements, etc.

I spent several weeks during the summer of 2003 implementing these enhancements and hooking the application up to our enterprise metadirectory so the system would be secure and robust.

The ePortfolio Institute resumed on 8/14/2003 to "show and tell" their ePortfolios. I really liked the ePortfolios I saw presented. During the fall semester, several faculty integrated ePortfolios into their curriculums (see Samples).

Beginning in Spring, 2004 ePortfolio was ported to an MCCD district machine so that other colleges can use it. This growth is very exciting.

During the Fall, 2004 the software was installed on a Unitec New Zealand server for use during 'Alan Levine's New Zealand jaunt'.

There have been lots of new features and enhancements since the pilot including a Survey (or Quiz) page, automatic resizing of images, support of RSS for Collection Items and Weblog entries. The list goes on and on. Building an ePort is the best way to learn ... it is easy to learn and to use.

During the summer of 2005, a Wiki page type was added plus support was put in for multimedia streaming, podcasting and an RSS sidebar. Several schools have contacted me regarding sharing ePortfolio. It will be fun to see how it all plays out.

Fast forward to 2007.  A Discussion Board page type has been added along with the lastest page type, the Composite Page (allowing other eport pages to be combined in a variety of ways include a familiar 2 column layout).  At CGCC, an eportfolio variant (called webport) is hosting the entire Chandler-Gilbert ollege website (which is a total of almost 200 webports).  Webport is just ePortfolio rendering content in the CGCC template instead of the eport template (it is really the exact same system). 

Please feel free to contact me with questions and ideas .