TEX

Ditching textbooks for iPads within The University of Texas System

Tex iPad home screen

Client

University of Texas

Product

Learning platform for undergraduate degrees

Human Need

Knowing that only 60% of students in the US complete their bachelor’s degree programs within six years of starting, The University of Texas System wanted to offer their students a new way to learn. Their goal was to increase persistence and retention by making earning a degree more convenient, affordable, and engaging.

Assorted Tex screens

Digital Solution

UT teamed up with Robots & Pencils to develop TEx—a data-driven, mobile-only learning platform designed to provide an individualized, accessible and affordable college experience for UT students.

With TEx, students use an iPad to interact anytime, anywhere with learning, competency-based assessments, group discussions and one-on-one messaging. TEx entirely eliminates the need to buy or carry around heavy textbooks, while providing a central resource for everything from tracking academic progress to requesting academic support. Using real-time data and integrated social tools, faculty and staff can also personalize students’ learning experiences and provide targeted, timely interventions which are continually improved as additional data is collected.

A Far Better Way

126 students in the biomedical sciences program at The University of Texas Rio Grande Valley piloted TEx.

86 students advanced through the biology course on an accelerated track with a C or above, with 80% earning a B or above.

Half of the remaining 40 students in the normally paced track also earned a C or better.