Revel from Pearson supports students with note taking, assessments, and other classroom tasks, and integrates with commonly used LMS.
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Alta from Knewton, a Wiley brand
Score 8.0 out of 10
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Alta is Knewton’s product for higher education. Alta is a courseware solution that combines Knewton’s adaptive learning technology with content, and is designed to deliver a personalized learning experience that is affordable, accessible and improves student outcomes. Knewton is a Wiley brand (acquired 2019).
In my opinion, Pearson Revel isn't a bad product. It works as intended. However, the customer service at Pearson Revel is very poor (at least based on my personal experience. Others may have better success with their customer services). I tried to contact the Pearson representative numerous times via email and phone calls to set up Pearson Revel for my class. In my experience, the representative never returned my emails or phone calls. I am very disappointed by their lack of customer support.
I think any computational based math class will greatly benefit from [alta from Knewton, a Wiley brand]. It simplifies the professor's work in terms of grading while also increasing the student's ability to get real time help on homework problems if they are struggling. I like that the questions are at a deep level and not all multiple choice. If a student gets a problem wrong they get a growth mindset message of encouragement.
Unfortunately, there are some videos that do not play, or situations where the video does not match the question content. These are bugs that should be attended to by Pearson, but although I have reported them (along with students), they have not been remedied.
Instructors who would prefer to use only the digital text do not have the option to purchase the text without the platform.
Because the text and software are integrated, there are no "page numbers" as in other digital texts which makes it hard to reference a particular section in a lecture, assignment, or presentation.
I have used Pearson MyPsycLab in the past. I believe it was a better overall product than the REVEL system because the text and learning activities were separated, Students could view the text, then complete the activities. Overall, I think that both printed texts and systems like REVEL will be obsolete in the near future as content is readily available on the internet at no cost to the student.
Compared to competitors, the Knewton system is much more adaptive and designed for mastery and learning rather than assessment. If those are your goals, then this is a good system to use. The complexity of the problems is generally lacking, so you will need to supplement with more difficult problems for your students to tackle, whereas many other systems have these more difficult problems built-in.
NEGATIVE: The platform is less expensive than a printed text, but students can use OER's for free. This is especially important at the community college level where students tend to have less financial resources for education.
NEGATIVE: After the course completes, the student has nothing to use as a reference. They cannot go back and view the content, nor can they print any of the content.
NEGATIVE: The student pays for the learning platform and content which includes a large number of activities and resources. While this seems to be a positive thing, students (and instructors) can get overwhelmed with the number of activities and resources available. Some students won't use any of the resources at all.
