Harmonize Partners with Unizin to Deliver More Accessible & Engaging Online Learning Experiences
BOULDER, CO— January 26, 2023 – A new partnership between Harmonize and Unizin will make it easier for institutions to deliver online learning experiences that boost student engagement and promote inclusive learning, while using the data from these experiences to inform student success initiatives. The partnership ensures that learner data from Harmonize’s Engagement Insights platform is integrated into the Unizin Data Platform (UDP). It also provides Unizin consortium members with preferred pricing for the full suite of Harmonize tools, which facilitates student engagement in traditional, hybrid, or fully online courses and ensures these courses are accessible to diverse learners.
As institutions face enrollment challenges, it’s more important than ever to engage and retain students. Many institutions are responding to these challenges by designing modern learning experiences that align with students’ growing demand for flexible online learning experiences.
Thousands of instructors currently use Harmonize’s suite of online discussion and collaboration tools that integrate seamlessly with learning management systems to increase student-to-student and student-to-instructor interactions online. With a focus on increasing student engagement and promoting inclusive learning, institutions like Brown University, Fayetteville State University, University of Michigan, and Southern Arkansas University Tech, among others, have leveraged Harmonize to increase the frequency and quality of online interactions among students and with instructors.
Colleges and universities, like the University of Michigan’s College of Literature, Science, and the Arts (LSA), use Harmonize in Canvas, to drive more meaningful, two-way interaction as well as social connection among students in in–person, online, blended and hybrid courses. Instructors are able to shift seamlessly between synchronous and asynchronous learning in order to deliver a more dynamic learning experience, which includes enabling collaboration and building more pathways for multidirectional communication, all of which have resulted in improved student engagement.
“We decided to use Harmonize because we wanted to provide more collaborative and flexible learning tools for students. Plus, with Harmonize, we can see which students are progressing toward goals, which are actively participating, and which have dropped off in engagement. These kinds of insights help empower our instructors to trust and take action on their gut-feelings about which students are in trouble,” said Emily Ravenwood, Manager of Learning & Teaching, LSA Technology Services, at the University of Michigan — a Unizin member.
Harmonize’s Engagement Insights provide instructors with visibility into how students are engaging in their course so they can identify and support at-risk students. Integrating Engagement Insights data into the UDP will further Unizin members’ ability to inform learning analytics, business intelligence, and research, and to better understand the broad impact of inclusive course design and student engagement on student success across their institutions.
“We’re thrilled to be teaming up with Unizin to deliver better access and data to institutions so they can improve their online learning experience for students,” said Marcus Popetz, co-founder and CEO of Harmonize. “Our goal is to provide students, instructors, and institutions with the tools needed to better engage students outside the four walls of a classroom. This partnership ensures member institutions have access to the kinds of tools that provide more inclusive and collaborative asynchronous learning experiences.”
“At Unizin, we look to empower member institutions with technology to scale the use of data, analytics and digital content in a unified technology ecosystem. Harmonize is focused on improving teaching & learning in higher education, and this partnership will enable institutions to better steer their digital learning ecosystem to improve student outcomes,” said Cathy O’Bryan, Unizin CEO.
To learn more, visit harmonizelearning.com/unizin.
About Unizin
Unizin provides institutions with technology solutions and partnerships that enable them to scale their use of data, analytics, digital content and learning tools to improve outcomes. Unizin is membership-based and governed by its Founding Member institutions as a nonprofit 501(c)(3). It is currently composed of 12 institutions and 900,000+ learners, making it one of the largest educational organizations in the country. To learn more, visit unizin.org.
About Harmonize
Created based on educator and student feedback, Harmonize is a suite of discussion and collaboration tools that seamlessly integrate with learning management systems to create inclusive, engaging online learning experiences. Harmonize increases student engagement, while saving instructors time and eliminating manual tasks. To learn more about Harmonize, visit harmonizelearning.com.
Harmonize Contact:
Marcus Popetz
CEO and Co-Founder
UNIZIN Media Contact
Tony Labriola
tony@thinkinsideout.com