Foliotek
Foliotek is an electronic portfolio web application that supports Standards-Based Assessment, Career Portfolios, College and University Accreditation, and Faculty Tenure Review & Promotion. The system provides tools for both formative assessment and summative assessment.
Foliotek is written in an Agile software development environment where new features go live whenever testing is completed rather than being combined with many other features over a long period of time until a major release date is reached.
Foliotek is developed in Visual Studio using C#, Microsoft SQL Server, JavaScript and jQuery.
Foliotek is typically purchased by institutions of higher learning, although the Career portfolio piece May Be purchased by individuals as well.
Features
Foliotek provides students with an assessment portfolio, a scrapbook portfolio (file repository), and a presentation portfolio.
Foliotek provides administrators with the ability to create their own portfolio structures, evaluations, scoring guides, forms, surveys, and standards. Administrators also have access to a wide-range of reports.
History
Foliotek, Inc. was founded in 1989 by Christopher M. Miller in Columbia, Missouri, as a provider of custom information technology solutions. In 1995 the company began branching into Web application development. Clients included: IBM Global Services, Boeing, Gen Re, Miller’s Professional Imaging, Tnemec, and the Missouri State High School Activities Association.
In the summer 2001, Foliotek was contracted by the University of Missouri - Columbia College of Education, to develop an electronic portfolio system for their undergraduate teacher preparation program. The system was completed in January 2002. Following the completion of the first system, the University of Missouri contracted with Foliotek to supply two additional customized electronic portfolio systems for their school counseling program, and their education leadership and policy analysis program. Instead of creating three different customized electronic portfolio systems to meet the needs of these programs, Foliotek undertook an effort to create a single configurable electronic portfolio system for all three programs.
As part of the design process to build this new system, Foliotek invited education professionals from other institutions to participate as an advisory group. The design process included meetings, spanning a two-year period, which began in November 2002. The schools participating included: Central Methodist University, Drury University, Evangel University, Fontbonne University, Lincoln University, Missouri Southern State University, Missouri Western State University, Northwest Missouri State University, Southeast Missouri State University, University of Missouri - Columbia, University of Central Missouri, Webster University, and William Woods University.
Product design meetings included the advisory team early in the design process. The Foliotek design team was focused on collaborating with the advisory team in ideation meetings managed according to IDEO design methodologies. The advisors identified their institutional needs in the areas of assessment, data collection, reporting, professional development, and accreditation.
Important Dates
Foliotek released its student assessment and program accreditation product “Foliotek Assessment” in the fall of 2003.
In 2006, Foliotek partnered with eCollege, now a division of Pearson PLC, to be the electronic portfolio solution for its family of colleges and universities.
In 2006, Foliotek released its institutional accreditation management solution “Foliotek Accreditation.”
In 2009, Foliotek released its “entry level” portfolio solution “Foliotek Presentation”. This product can be obtained by individual users not associated with an educational institution.
In 2010, Lanit Consulting Inc. sold its custom technology services unit and changed its corporate name to Foliotek, Inc.
In 2010, Foliotek, Inc. changed its mission statement to, "We help people reach their full potential through improvements in education, revolutionizing professional placement, and supporting more effective practices in professional development", highlighting its new focus on portfolio-assessment solutions.
In 2011, Foliotek partnered with Cengage Learning to be the electronic portfolio solution for its college and university clientele.
Today, it is estimated that Foliotek is used by more than 100 institutions of higher learning and serving 150,000 users.