About

Higher education is facing a crisis of access, quality, and outcomes. Across the country, universities have invested in similar initiatives to reform their models of course design, delivery, measurement, and improvement. Unizin seeks to generate solutions that serve all consortium members. Along with researchers and thought leaders from Unizin’s membership, a variety of next generation learning tools and systems are being constructed to create the most effective learning environment. Our founders believed that a nonprofit organization funded by member investments and governed by those institutions would more closely align with their digital teaching and learning needs than relying on a commercial vendor. We want to support faculty and universities by ensuring that institutions and instructors have control of their own content, data, and communications. As we build upon the rapidly growing and changing infrastructure that enables digital learning, we want to incorporate open standards, interoperability, and scalability so that our campuses can utilize digital teaching and learning tools to their fullest potentials. Education technologies are here to stay, and they are only going to keep expanding. We see the value of digital learning, and we want to best serve students using these new technologies. Together, we can implement and start utilizing tools and services much faster than universities can on their own. Whether it’s innovative ways to find and share digital content, delivering course materials more affordably, or providing insights to help students succeed, Unizin is committed to improving the learning experience.

In response to the rapid growth of higher education technologies, a number of leading research institutions formed Unizin. Our member universities collaborate and share resources to adapt to the ever-changing digital learning landscape and incorporate new education technologies into their existing teaching and learning strategies. Unizin is a means for the Academy to shape its own future in ways that best serve students and that positively impact pedagogy.


Unizin is intent on making digital teaching and learning central to the academic experience by providing a network of content, systems, and tools to facilitate this vision. A central aspect of our mission is to improve the accessibility and affordability of digital course materials through the use of publisher proprietary content, open educational resources (OER), and faculty-generated content.


Our member institutions can use our products and services for a range of modern instruction scenarios, including in-person and online courses, massive open online courses (MOOCs), or flipped classrooms. Using digital teaching and learning tools also allows for a better customized and engaging classroom experience for students, opening up improved and more personal lines of communication between instructors and learners.


Together, the Unizin consortium is taking on the major issues facing higher education institutions: affordability, access, and learner success. We believe if you want to go fast, go alone; if you want to go far, go together.

Unizin is membership-based and governed by those institutions as a nonprofit 501(c)(3). It is currently composed of 22 institutions and more than 850,000 students, making it one of the largest educational system in the country.

What can Unizin do?

• Provide a platform for universities to share open source tools developed in-house
• Share digital teaching and learning materials that may be hard to find otherwise (e.g., a set of videos on classroom management)
• Find solutions to common pedagogical problems (e.g., how to peer review) and to common digital media support issues
• Facilitate cross-institutional partnerships for special courses (e.g., law courses or certain language courses)
• Give better context for the bigger picture (e.g., allowing faculty to ask, “Does this particular learning activity or sequence of learning activities make a difference in student retention?”)

What can Unizin do differently than other LMS platforms?
Unizin is unique for several reasons. First, we are accountable to our university members. As owners, they can set the vision and have ownership of the tools. Our members don’t have to rely on individual vendors or third-parties to respond to their needs, and they retain control of their own content.
Currently, nothing in the market captures students’ full interactions with faculty and other students. Unizin can provide analytics and reports to better adjust content to meet the needs of all learners.
Most importantly, Unizin is all about collaboration. We are not just a consortium but a true community with a shared vision and goals. We are stronger together.

What can Unizin do for faculty?
Unizin is an innovative approach to content discovery. Faculty contribution to Unizin’s content repository enables ownership over their own resources and the ability to see data around the usage of those resources. Unizin protects intellectual property by putting faculty in control of how their content is shared and gives universities holistic control of our learning laboratory.
By promoting standards and encouraging interoperability, Unizin is eliminating communication and technological barriers and fostering an unprecedented level of faculty-to-faculty innovation.
Faculty choice is one of our top priorities. Digital teaching and learning can be overwhelming, but Unizin is responsive to the wants and needs of faculty. Ultimately, Unizin wants to help faculty do what they do, better.

Who can join Unizin?
Unizin membership – as either a founder, a system member, or a subscriber – will be by invitation. Interested parties will be sponsored for membership by founding institutions.

Why grapes?
The grapes are a visualization of Unizin’s identity as an organization that unites universities under a common goal. Like a cluster of grapes connected on the same vine, a single mission connects Unizin’s individual institutions: improving learner success.