Revel

North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University (North Carolina A&T) is the leading public historically black college and university (HBCU). This renowned institution demonstrates its commitment to diversity and inclusivity with a student body of 13,300, where 89% are underrepresented minorities. Offering an impressive array of 54 undergraduate and 41 graduate degrees, the university provides first-class education to all.

The key figure in this educator spotlight is Dr. Antoinette Maldonado-Devincci, an instructor at North Carolina A&T since 2016. She has made a remarkable impact on her students by incorporating Revel into her Biological Psychology (PSYC 361) course. Her choice to adopt Revel was driven by its contemporary, student-friendly content, which explores emerging areas like epigenetics.

Keeping Students Engaged

However, it's not just the content that makes Revel stand out for Dr. Maldonado-Devincci. She found Revel's interactive features and diverse resources to be highly effective in catering to different learning styles, resulting in increased student engagement. She compares Revel to "MindTap on steroids," highlighting the wealth of resources the platform offers to get students involved in the learning process, such as the shared writing assignments, which replace traditional discussion boards. They foster peer interaction and significantly reduce her grading workload.

Diversity in Assignment Options

One of the core strengths of Revel, according to Dr. Maldonado-Devincci, is the ability to provide multiple avenues for students to earn grades outside of traditional testing methods that are less intimidating than standard exams. The platform's iterative approach to learning, alongside bite-sized chunks of content and in-chapter quizzes, fosters a less punitive assessment process than a single high-stakes exam. This approach not only eases the pressure on students but also creates a more supportive and constructive learning environment.

Diminishing the Grading Burden

Revel's efficiency simplifies content management and diminishes the burden of grading for Dr. Maldonado-Devincci, allowing her to assign content and quizzes without being overwhelmed by grading responsibilities. The platform's intuitive course creation and management features are user-friendly, benefiting experienced users and adjunct instructors. Dr. Maldonado-Devincci appreciates the convenience Revel offers, making her teaching experience seamless.

In Dr. Maldonado-Devincci's words, "I appreciate being able to assign all the content and quizzes, so they get more interaction with the material without overloading me when it comes to the grading aspect of it."

Support for Educators

Pearson's dedicated support has been pivotal in Dr. Maldonado-Devincci's success with Revel. A Pearson representative provided essential support during course creation and the first semester.

Dr. Antoinette Maldonado-Devincci's Revel success story at North Carolina A&T underscores the transformative impact of digital learning platforms. A combinations of Revel's engaging content, diverse resources, and Pearson's support have empowered her as an educator and enriched the learning experience for her students.

Read more about Dr. Maldonado-Devincci's experience with Revel in the full instructor spotlight.

What can Revel do for you and your students?

Learn more about Revel.

Some may think they know Revel; some people call it a digital textbook but they would be wrong. It’s so much more than that. Luckily, Pearson is here to reintroduce you to the real Revel. Revel is a comprehensive, dynamic education platform grounded in the subject matter expertise of world-class authors. Purposefully built to revolutionize the way educators teach and transform the way learners learn. Get ready to discover the incredible world of possibilities Revel offers.

Immerse Students in Learning: Active participation is the key to learning, and Revel achieves this by integrating videos and interactives throughout the narrative, enabling students to analyze and apply key concepts actively while reading.

“The video quizzes are a really good way to see how they apply the information, how they take it to the next level, and not just regurgitate or repeat what they’ve learned.” – Shawn Davis, The Chicago School of Professional Psychology

Improve Student Performance: Revel's quizzes and educator dashboard help measure progress and adjust teaching strategies to support student success. The Revel Mobile app lets instructors monitor their students’ progress away from the classroom.

“I like the ability to see how much of my class is submitting their assignments and where there’s low activity.” Those are very helpful. I like being able to identify what is challenging them.” – Daniella Cope, Pennsylvania Highlands Community College

Enable Anywhere, Anytime Learning: With the Revel app, students can learn on the go, because students today need flexibility and accessibility.

“Being able to open their textbook on their smartphone or tablet, having earbuds and listening to the text, highlighting something to export later, those things help. Having the textbook at their fingers and being able to listen to something really reinforces what they have already read. It is a great benefit to students, and it provides reinforcement to what they are learning, so that’s the most successful part, I would say.” – Dr. Erica Wattley, The Chicago School of Professional Psychology

Deliver World-Class Content: Revel enlivens expert subject matter with interactive elements, promoting an immersive experience that helps students better understand and apply what they're learning.

“I always look for the Cadillac version of something because that will give me all the bells and whistles that I need to be able to use and be very proficient in the course. If I don’t have the instructor resources, then I am spending all my time just reading the book and tailoring the course to this particular text. I don’t have enough time, then, to actually do the engagement aspect that makes the course more beneficial to the students. Having those resources as a baseline and then elevating from there is why I keep coming back to Revel, over and over again.” – Dr Antoinette Maldonado-Devincci, North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University

Learn more about Revel >

Take a look at our new Revel video below.

During his more than two decades of teaching, Shawn Davis has spent years searching for the most comprehensive online learning solution for higher education. Now, he believes he’s found it.

With Revel, Shawn is able to leverage high-quality tools and resources that support his teaching practices as well as his students’ learning processes.

Support for educators

Shawn is currently using Revel in his Fundamentals of Psychology course at The Chicago School of Professional Psychology (TCSPP). Though he has worked with a variety of online learning platforms over the years — including WebCT, Canvas, and Connect — Revel stood out to him from day one. “It’s a lot smoother platform than I gave it credit for,” he says. “Revel is intuitive to the point where I could really just step right in as an instructor.”

The combination of a user-friendly interface and Pearson’s comprehensive instructor support materials helped Shawn dive into Revel immediately. This head-start was especially beneficial when the template he was supposed to use for his course suddenly disappeared — on the night before the first day of classes — forcing him to rebuild his entire course from scratch in just a few hours.

Shawn says that knowing the Pearson support team was available to help him, even in the middle of the night, gave him the confidence to take on this considerable challenge. Though it’s not an experience he wishes to repeat, he was able to get his course up and running in time for his first class.

Support for students

One of the most significant obstacles of teaching an online course is keeping students focused and interested. As Shawn has discovered, Revel can help educators address this issue by providing relevant materials and targeted support for students.

With Revel, instructors can decide how granular they want to go in their course customization. They can “set it and forget it,” or pick and choose the content they want to include. “There are so many parts and pieces with Revel that it gives students the impression that I am extremely engaged and hands-on with them,” Shawn says.

Revel’s video quizzes feature is one example of a customizable content option that encourages student engagement. The quizzes give students a brief review of key concepts and then have them apply those concepts to novel problems. Based on the results of these quizzes, Revel helps students identify areas of strength and opportunities for improvement.

Instructors can see students’ video quiz results on the Educator’s Dashboard and then adjust their teaching practices accordingly. “It is a really fast indicator of who is struggling,” says Shawn, “and I have used it to be able to reach out to those students to try to bring them back into the fold.”

Revel rises to the top

By efficiently delivering the tools, data, and content that support Shawn and his students, Revel has made the online teaching and learning experience more engaging and effective.

Read more about Shawn's experience with Revel in the full spotlight.

What can Revel do for you and your students?

Learn more about Revel