The rapid pace of technological advancement is having a profound effect on higher education and reshaping the ways in which students learn and universities deliver academic content. In response to this, a number of leading research universities formed Unizin, an inter-university technology service that supports teaching and learning in the modern digital landscape.
Unizin formed around the idea that higher education—and not just private vendors—should own, direct, and share a set of services that further teaching and learning. At its core, Unizin is working to shape an efficient and effective future for higher education’s learning environment.
Unizin was created to help member universities and subscribers customize and unify a wide range of tools for online learning and digital course management. It supports services for educational content, software platforms, and analytics.
Members can use the service for a range of modern instruction scenarios, including in-person courses, online courses, massive open online courses (MOOCs), or flipped classrooms (in which lectures are viewed by students at home, and in-class time is for discussion or projects).
- To manage the content our faculty and students create.
- To share this content across universities at significant cost savings to all.
- To foster interoperability among the various systems for teaching and learning and break down the barriers that exist between platforms.
- To facilitate learning analytics to improve student outcomes.
As educational content, software systems, and learner analytics become increasingly digital, it is important that universities have the ability to quickly grow and adapt. Unizin is a strategic move by universities to assert greater control and influence over the digital learning landscape than would otherwise be possible by any single institution.
Colorado State University, Indiana University, University of Florida, and University of Michigan were the first institutions to join. This list now includes the University of Iowa, University of Minnesota, Penn State, Ohio State, Colorado State, and Oregon State.
Unizin is membership-based and university owned. It is funded by members’ investments and governed by those institutions as a not-for-profit service operator.
Unizin will have a board of directors, comprising representatives from each founding university that makes a significant financial investment.
Members of the Unizin Board meet regularly throughout the year to discuss the strategic direction of the consortium, which includes purchases, acquisitions, Unizin staff hires, policies, processes, etc. These board meetings provide the University of Iowa with a valuable opportunity to influence the learning landscape direction in ways that best support the objectives of our faculty and staff now and in the future.
- Instructors will be able to share their own teaching content and gain access to a repository of shared digital content, from campus colleagues and others at member institutions. Unizin will allow them to assemble and deliver this content to students in a range of ways. Analytics will allow for clearer assessments of student learning.
- Students will have access to the materials and thinking of the best minds in their fields. Instructors will be able to approach and assess learning in new ways that reflect digital lifestyles and learning and that take individual needs and experiences into account.
- Instructional technologists and support staff will gain access to a large and growing toolkit to help instructors transform and improve their teaching practice. Flexibility and adaptability of the environment will not only ease the job, but also ensure greater faculty support.