Impact
Timely and accurate data and insights for informed decision-making
Objective:
To improve the quality, immediacy, and availability of data used for education decision making at student, classroom, and system-level.
Approach:
RTI developed an open-source mobile assessment and coaching tool called Tangerine, a first-of-its-kind offline software application to help with skills measurement, continuous and summative assessments, student and teacher feedback, classroom observations, and surveys.
Impact:
Tangerine has changed how learning assessments are carried out in low-resource settings. Beyond academics, Tangerine facilitates non-cognitive assessments, inclusive education, and monitoring of social-emotional learning.
Updated
What is Tangerine?
Tangerine is a first-of-its-kind open-source software application optimized for offline data collection on low-cost Android devices that helps with skills measurement, instructional support, classroom observations, and surveys.
Tangerine can be used to record data from learning assessments for a wide range of subjects and grades; data collection for other educational domains, such as executive functions, inclusive education, social and emotional learning, or dropout prevention; and to enhance coaching feedback for teachers, students, and school administrators.
To date, Tangerine has been used by more than 80 organizations spanning 65 countries and in over 100 languages worldwide. It has become a powerful tool for ministries of education and donor-supported international organizations looking for low-cost, effective solutions to measure the impact of their learning improvement efforts.
How does Tangerine Work?
Tangerine is open source. This means that while RTI offers a subscription model covering the costs for hosting other organization’s data and for providing helpdesk services, Tangerine’s source code can also be downloaded from Github and installed on a server for free. The application was designed to work offline, recognizing limitations to stable Internet connectivity in many parts of the world.
The intuitive and time-efficient application simplifies and bridges data collection and data analysis of learning assessments, classroom observations, and an increasing array of learning metric surveys.
Using Tangerine:
- Data can be accessed immediately after being uploaded from tablets, smartphones, and other mobile devices, rather than waiting several weeks or months for manual entry from paper forms to be completed.
- The quality of learning assessment data is enhanced with an internal timer during assessments, replacing the use of stopwatches by those administering paper assessments, and ensuring the results are comprehensive with minimal discrepancies.
- Data collection efficiency improves by combining student assessments and school survey instruments on the same platform.
- Local partners benefit from a state-of-the-art tool for mobile data collection and gain access to timely and reliable data for making informed educational decisions.
Tangerine is truly a community resource: programmers who make improvements to functionality must share those modifications, improving the source code for everyone.
By the Numbers
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Video: Learn more about Tangerine
Overview of Tangerine: Mobile Learning Assessments, Data Collection, and Teacher Coaching Made Easy
Video: Learn more about Tangerine:Teach
Tangerine:Teach facilitates formative assessment of academic content and integrates non-cognitive assessments, inclusive education, and social-emotional learning items.
Video: Learn more about Tangerine:Coach
Tangerine:Coach supports teacher coaches to conduct classroom visits—recording teacher observations, conducting rapid student assessments, and engaging with teachers in discussion and reflection.
Tangerine is a registered trademark of RTI International.
