Digication Blog

We're excited to announce that we are expanding! Due to the overwhelmingly positive response we've received regarding our new Assessment product, we are anticipating an increase in usage over the next 12 months. For this reason, we will be performing some data center upgrades.

We will be performing the upgrade on August 22nd at 8 AM EST. For some  people (particularly those whose ISPs cache DNS entries) there may be a downtime of 1-2 hours. These people will see a message explaining what's going on.

We hope this change doesn't inconvenience anyone too much. We'll be in a much better position to sustain the kind of growth we've seen over the last several years once this upgrade is completed.

If you have any questions or concerns, please contact us at support@digication.com or call us at 1-888-342-3444.

We are excited to announce that the Digication UI has been updated:

Login Page
The layout has been updated. There is now a larger area including a video tutorial that introduces Digication to users as they login.

Personal Dash Board (Home Page)
The overall UI has been updated to be more consistent with the rest of the site. All the existing functionalities have not changed.

Course / Community Tab Interface
We have added a tab interface to all courses and communities:

-Notifications
This is the "landing page" when a user clicks on a course or community. For faculty, it shows a small "Checklist" that allows for quick adding of discussions. For both faculty and students, it also shows a list of discussions that contains unread posts so that they can get to them quickly.

- Discussions
This tab has the same features as the existing discussion topic listing, with some enhancements to the UI.

- Students
This tab shows a list of all the students that are within a class, along with any relevant information about the student.

- Settings
This tab is for faculty only. It contains a number of administration tools for managing the course or community, user access, attendance, and grade book.

We hope you like the new user interface. As always, we look forward to your feedback.

Note: No changes have been made to e-Portfolios.

Digication Announces New Assessment Management System: A Solution for Tracking, Comparing, and Reporting on Student Progress and Performance

Providence, R.I. – August 4, 2008 – Digication™, Inc., a leading provider of e-Portfolios, today announced its release of a new web-based Assessment Management System (AMS) for tracking, comparing, and reporting on student progress and performance in grades K through12 and in schools of higher education. The Digication AMS integrates tightly with the company’s award-winning e-Portfolio system, providing students with an online learning community to easily record, publish, and archive learning outcomes using customizable, media-friendly templates.

Faculty and students at more than 2,000 schools use the Digication e-Portfolio solution. The web-based e-Portfolios enable educators and students to share ideas and achievements, improve communication, and expand the educational experience beyond the classroom. With Digication, teachers can easily archive assessments of classroom progress for future reference. Students can use e-Portfolios as a workspace for learning and to showcase work for all to see.

“In the past, Digication e-Portfolios were commonly thought of as a tool for schools to build learning communities and for students to create interactive resumes,” said Jeffrey Yan, CEO of Digication. “The new assessment management system brings increased benefits by correlating student work to standards and institutional goals via assessment.”

Educators have modeled the Digication AMS from the ground up with a strong focus on assessment for learning through both summative and formative assessment. The system gives faculty and administrators the tools they need to assess a class, department, or institution based on their standards, goals, or objectives. A flexible and unique “workflow builder” enables users to adapt the software to the way learning happens at the school, rather than requiring teachers to change.

Major features of the Digication AMS include:

Flexible Workflows: Tailor assignments, evidence, and assessment requirements based on a specific program or on course processes and specifications. Use the Digication AMS as a stand-alone system or integrated with Digication e-Portfolios.

Rubric Builder: Easily apply rubrics, either by building them from scratch or using existing rubrics from a school-specific library. Rubrics enable users to customize each assessment criterion and the level of achievement for that criterion.

Standards/Goals Manager: Create customized sets of standards, goals and objectives to facilitate mapping of standards to outcomes. Retain and use each set of standards or goals for assessment through a school-wide library.

Formative and Summative Assessment: Facilitate formative assessment (via written feedback) and summative assessment (via rubric) for any piece of student work. Faculty can create assignment workflow that includes peer review or self-reflection as well as faculty review. Use rubrics for all summative assessments, with the ability to correlate student work to standards or institutional learning goals.

Reporting: Customize reporting based on school-wide or departmental requirements for managing, aggregating, and presenting assessment results. Schools and departments can use reports for accreditation, data analysis, and curriculum development.

“This new assessment management system has been under rigorous research and development involving educators from institutions across the U.S. and experts in the field of e-Portfolios,” CEO Jeffrey Yan added. “We believe we’ve developed a solution that will change the way assessments are done, making them easier and more effective. This will ultimately facilitate student learning and achievement while showcasing proficiency.”

The Digication AMS will be made available as an option to all existing “K-12 School & District Edition” and “Higher Ed Campus Edition” customers.

About Digication, Inc.
Designed by educators, for educators, Digication is a leading provider of easy-to-use e-Portfolio solutions for teachers and students at all levels, from grades K through12 to higher education. Students at more than 2,000 schools use Digication e-Portfolios as a workspace for learning and to easily, flexibly and professionally showcase their work and achievements across schools and districts. E-Portfolios create new opportunities for learning, reflection, communication, assessment, and career advancement. Integrated tightly with the company’s award winning e-Portfolio system is the Assessment Management System. The AMS is a web-based assessment solution for tracking, comparing, and reporting on student progress and performance in grades K through 12 and in schools of higher education. Digication is headquartered in Providence, Rhode Island. For more information, visit www.digication.com

Digication Partners with Whipplehill to Provide e-Portfolios for Independent Schools:
Partnership Enables Schools to Integrate e-Portfolios with Whipplehill's Solutions


Digication™ Inc., a leading provider of e-Portfolios, today announced that it has partnered with Whipplehill Communications, Inc., the leader in independent school software systems, to provide its customers with e-Portfolios for students and teachers to showcase work, collaborate on projects and prepare for college admissions.

Providence, RI (PRWEB) July 7, 2008 -- Digication™ Inc., a leading provider of e-Portfolios, today announced that it has partnered with Whipplehill Communications, Inc., the leader in independent school software systems, to provide its customers with e-Portfolios for students and teachers to showcase work, collaborate on projects and prepare for college admissions.

WhippleHill has been helping advance and market private and independent schools through content-management software and award-winning Web designs since 1998, serving more than 300 schools in 30 states, Canada, Europe and Asia. Adding Digication's e-Portfolio solution to Whipplehill's market-leading Podium product, will provide schools a rich and easy to use e-Portfolio platform for classroom, project, college-prep and marketing purposes.

The partnership with Digication will enable WhippleHill customers to seamlessly integrate and display student work on their portals using Digication's e-Portfolios. Using a single sign-on to access e-Portfolios, students can upload illustrations, poetry, short stories, papers, photography, PDFs, HTML, video and Flash projects. A channel in Whipplehill's Podium can pull student portfolios to display thumbnail images on the portal, increasing exposure to student work.

"The idea of e-Portfolios has long been discussed by our clients, but so far we've never had the opportunity for such an integrated solution, where portfolios can be made this easily," Travis Warren, president of WhippleHill, said. "The potential rewards reach beyond the work students have produced in class. From what we can tell, more and more colleges are looking for precisely this in their admission decisions."

More than 2,000 schools have deployed the Digication e-Portfolio solution. Its Web-based e-Portfolios allow educators and students to share ideas and achievements, improve communication and expand the educational experience beyond the classroom. With Digication, teachers can easily archive classroom progress for future reference. Students' work can be published to the Web to be shared with other students and family members. Since Digication is easy to use, teachers and students can instantly become engaged in building an e-Portfolio and work towards college acceptance.

"We're excited about the opportunity to partner with a clear leader in independent school software systems," says Jeffrey Yan, CEO of Digication. "To look at the current generation of learners - their culture, their lifestyles, their needs - we know that they are already engaged in many social networks and communities online outside of school. The idea of a community is not foreign to them. e-Portfolios will help build a rich and engaging online community that is based on authentic work and will provide additional motivation, better engagement and hopefully even better work."

About WhippleHill Communications, Inc.:
Since 1998, WhippleHill Communications has been helping advance and market private and independent schools through content-management software and award-winning Web designs, serving more than 300 schools in 30 states, Canada, Europe and Asia. For more information, visit http://www.whipplehill.com/.

About Digication, Inc.:
Designed by educators, for educators, Digication is a leading provider of easy-to-use e-Portfolio solutions for teachers and students at all levels, from K-12 to higher education. Students at more than 1,500 schools use Digication's e-Portfolios to easily, flexibly and professionally showcase their work and achievements across schools and districts. e-Portfolios create new opportunities for learning, reflection, communication, assessment and career advancement. Digication is headquartered in Providence, Rhode Island. For more information, visit http://www.digication.com.

Digication at CCSSO’s National Conference on Student Assessment 2008
June 16, 2008

The Council of Chief State School Officers is holding their annual conference on student assessment this week in sunny Orlando, Florida. Jeff Yan, CEO of Digication, will join Angela Fischer of the Omaha Public School District, and Courtney Sivewright of the Shawnee Mission School District in a presentation on using e-Portfolios as part of the formative assessment process in the visual arts.

Here's the session information:

Formative Assessment in the Visual Arts using District-wide, e-Portfolios: Experiences from Two Leading School Districts

Omaha (NE) Public School District and Shawnee Mission School District (KS) are among schools leading the nation in the development of district-based, e-Portfolio, formative assessment. The engaging, skills-based process connects the teacher’s lesson plans with district, state, and national standards and uses the web-based collections of digitized, authentic student work as the evidence of achievement. This session features Jeffrey Yan, creator of the Digication e-Portfolio system, and the visionary art supervisors who have applied the comprehensive process in their schools.

Monday, June 16, 2008
10:45 a.m. – 12:00 p.m.

http://www.ccsso.org/Projects/national_conference_on_student_assessment/

The NorthEast Regional Computing Program is holding their annual conference next week, right here in our neighborhood. If you're attending, please visit us at Booth #309 and at our Tuesday afternoon session.

Here's the session information:

Digication and Rhode Island School of Design - Drawing on Technology: A Blueprint for Adopting E-Portfolios

Tuesday, March 11, 2008
4:15 p.m. - 5:05 p.m.
Room 552 A

Speakers:
John C. Chamberlin, Associate Professor, Art + Design Education, Rhode Island School of Design
Michael J. Vieira, Dean, Division of Business & Info Management, Bristol Community College, Bristol Community College
Jeffrey Yan, Educator & Founder, Digication
Session convener: Beth Du Pont, Director, Academic Technologies, Skidmore College

Although located just 20 minutes apart from each other, Rhode Island School of Design and Bristol Community College are worlds apart. A prestigious art school and a community college are both using Digication’s dynamic e-portfolios to assess student learning and showcase their work.

http://www.educause.edu/NC08/Program/13921?PRODUCT_CODE=NC08/CORP05

On Wednesday November 14th, Digication will be at the NYSAIS (New York State Association of Independent Schools) Unconference for Managers of Information Technology and Librarians.  The "unconference" will be held at the picturesque Mohonk Mountain House in New Paltz, NY.

We're going to be at Educause in Seattle this October and would love to arrange an informal get-together. Email us through our contact page so we can find out how many of you would be interested.

At Educause, some of our users will be talking about how they use Digication in the sessions "Drawing on Technology: A Blueprint of Adopting e-Portfolios". The presentation will be on Thursday, October 25th from 3:55 pm - 4:45 pm in room 2B.
Here's some more information:
http://www.educause.edu/E07/Program/11073?PRODUCT_CODE=E07/SESS102

Haven't been to Educause? It's the annual conference of a "nonprofit association whose mission is to advance higher education by promoting the intelligent use of information technology". For more information, check out http://www.educause.edu.

Hope to see you there!

We'd love to meet our users and anyone interested in Digication. If you're going to be at Educause, drop us a note on the Contact page!

Upcoming Conferences
October: Educause in Seattle, WA
http://www.educause.edu/e07
See some of our users showcase their use of Digication in the session "Drawing on Technology: A Blueprint for Adopting E-Portfolios".

March 2008: NAEA in New Orleans, LA
http://www.naea-reston.org/convention.html

Past Conferences
June: NMC in Indianapolis, IN
http://www.nmc.org/events/2007summerconf/
Digication / OTIS info: http://campus.digication.com/nmc2007

May: AAM in Chicago, IL
http://www.aam-us.org/

February: TCEA in Austin, TX
http://www.tcea2007.org/