UT Tyler Moves Beyond “An Expensive Note-Taking Platform” to a Student Success Partner

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The Challenge: UT Tyler’s existing solution was “the most expensive note-taking platform,” storing advisor notes but lacking the real-time insights and integrations needed to proactively support students and improve retention. 

The Strategy: A cross-functional committee built a rigorous evaluation process, prioritizing daily data updates, accessibility compliance, proven integrations (Canvas, Anthology, Maxient, Handshake), and institutional data ownership. After reviewing multiple vendors, the team found Civitas Learning’s holistic student view and collaborative approach best aligned with their needs. 

The Outcomes: UT Tyler selected Civitas Learning as its student success partner. The adoption ensures real-time, institution-specific insights; seamless integrations; and alignment with the university’s strategic priorities—student success, teaching excellence, and community impact.

At a Crossroads

For Dr. Colleen Swain, Associate Provost for Academic Success and Dean of Undergraduate Studies at the University of Texas at Tyler (UT Tyler), the decision to find a new student success platform was driven by both necessity and vision.

The existing solution, while functional in some ways, had become—in her words—“the most expensive note-taking platform that can be seen by other people.” It could store advisor notes and send communications, but it lacked the ability to deliver real-time, actionable insights that could drive proactive support for students.

With the current contract ending, UT Tyler saw an opportunity to choose a platform that could do more, not just for advisors, but for every stakeholder in the student success ecosystem.

Building the Right Evaluation Process

The journey began with a cross-functional committee representing undergraduate and graduate advising, career success, enrollment management, disability services, the registrar, and the dean of students.

Together, they outlined the key criteria that any new platform must meet:

  • Proven integration capabilities with core systems like Canvas, Anthology Engagement, Maxient, and Handshake, without requiring beta testing.
  • Daily, real-time data updates to monitor student progress between official reporting periods.
  • Institution-specific data ownership, ensuring UT Tyler’s insights remained their own.
  • Accessibility compliance for every user-facing component, a non-negotiable in their procurement process.
  • Clear value for cost, especially in comparison to higher-priced competitors.

Swain and her team also defined the types of questions they would ask every vendor, from “How does your platform handle messy LMS data?” to “Can you show examples of how different stakeholders use the system daily?”

Comparing Options

UT Tyler evaluated five to six vendors, narrowing down to two finalists. Competitors offered features like career simulations, but Swain recognized these weren’t a fit for her students’ needs. Others lacked the proven integrations or real-time capabilities that would allow UT Tyler to act before students reached critical risk points.

One incumbent provider was ultimately priced out of the market, offering less functionality at a significantly higher cost. When the evaluation team shared Civitas Learning’s capabilities and pricing, campus leadership quickly recognized the value.

Why Civitas Learning Stood Out

For Swain, three differentiators made Civitas Learning the clear choice:

  1. Proven track record with integrations, especially with Canvas.
  2. Holistic daily view of each student’s engagement, academic progress, and support interactions.
  3. Collaborative partnership model that is responsive, transparent, and free of high-pressure sales tactics.

She emphasized how Civitas Learning’s team supported them throughout the process: “The Civitas Learning team made sure we had clarity at every step, walking us through the process and ensuring we had what we needed to move forward.”

Aligned with Strategic Priorities

The decision to choose Civitas Learning was about more than technology — it was about aligning with UT Tyler’s strategic plan:

  1. Student Success – Proactive interventions to improve retention and completion rates.
  2. Excellence in Teaching – Using data to identify curriculum pain points and improve learning outcomes.
  3. Impact on the Community – Increasing credential attainment in East Texas to strengthen the region’s economy and wellbeing.

“Civitas (Learning) allows me on a daily basis to work with students toward that final goal of earning a degree, which makes East Texas a better place,” Colleen says.

Advice to Other Institutions

When asked what she’d recommend to peers evaluating student success platforms, Colleen offers three key tips:

  • Start with a broad, cross-functional committee to capture every stakeholder’s needs.
  • Ask vendors to prove their claims with live demos, examples, and customer references.
  • Don’t underestimate the importance of the process — a platform can’t create value if it can’t get through procurement or meet accessibility requirements.

Looking Ahead

As UT Tyler implements Civitas Learning, Colleen anticipates not only better retention and completion rates, but also a cultural shift toward using data as a daily driver of student success.

“This is about having the right information, at the right time, in the right hands,” she says. “That’s how we help our students cross the finish line.”

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