Iowa-based HLT releases two new education apps, preps for 13 more

Less than one year after launching its first product, Coralville, Iowa-based Higher Learning Technologies is growing quickly, with two new education apps released this week and a bevy of others coming in the next few months. This week the company launched its two newest products …

Dental Boards Mastery: NBDE 2 is one of the newest apps released by Higher Learning Technologies.

Less than one year after launching its first product, Coralville, Iowa-based Higher Learning Technologies is growing quickly, with two new education apps released this week and a bevy of others coming in the next few months. This week the company launched its two newest products—NCLEX PN Mastery and Dental Boards Mastery: NBDE 2—bringing its total number of applications in the Apple App and Google Play stores to five.

“After we released our first nursing app, NCLEX Mastery, we had an overwhelming cry from PN nursing students to create an app for them,” HLT’s director of public relations Jason Nelson told Silicon Prairie News. “PN, which stands for Practical Nurse, is a separate branch of nursing. In just 24 hours we already have hundreds of downloads of our NCLEX PN app.”

The startup’s first dental app—Dental Boards Mastery: NBDE I—helps dental students prepare for their second-year licensure exam. Now the newly released second app will help students study for the licensure exam taken after the fourth year of schooling. 

“We released this app one week ago and already it has 1,000 downloads and has been ranked in the top 100 grossing education apps,” Nelson said of Dental Boards Mastery: NBDE 2. While HLT offers free trial versions of its apps, the full versions retail for between $24.99 and $49.99. 

The startup—co-founded by University of Iowa alumni Alec Whitters, Adam Keune and Ben O’Connorlaunched its first product in November 2012. Less than one year later, its five apps have more than 160,000 downloads in 140 countries around the world. Currently HLT has three apps ranked as top 100 grossing education apps, but Nelson says that after NCLEX-PN has been on the market for a few more days the startup will likely have a fourth. 

In July the startup was awarded $100,000 from the Iowa Demonstration Fund to help build its software infrastructure and expand into new markets. HLT also was prominently recognized at this year’s Silicon Prairie Awards, taking home golden analogs for Mobile App of the Year, Innovation of the Year and New Startup of the Year. 

With these two new apps available for students, Nelson says the startup’s content team is finalizing materials for 13 new apps to be launched over the next three to four months. HLT’s software team also has redesigned its products’ interface for a much cleaner user experience. 

“Lastly, and most importantly, we are about to close a very large investment round that will allow our company to rapidly scale our products,” Nelson said. 

 

Credits: Product photos from Apple App Store

This story is part of the AIM Archive

This story is part of the AIM Institute Archive on Silicon Prairie News. AIM gifted SPN to the Nebraska Journalism Trust in January 2023. Learn more about SPN’s origin »

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