Unizin is a pro-active, offensive approach to pressure mounting inside higher education institutions. It puts Universities in control, and lets them achieve economies of scale by joining together and sharing resources, costs of licenses, assets, services for infrastructure, and leveraging contracts through bargaining power with publishers and other content providers. The founder of the group of institutions is Brad Wheeler, CIO of Indiana University, who had the vision and was able to execute the opportunity. Higher Ed has always focused on independence, rather than interdependence, but that’s the path to scale, he states. So far, Indiana University, University of Michigan, Colorado State, and University of Florida have officially joined (thanks Phil Hill and Michael Feldstein, who uncovered Unizin well before it happened.) Phil and Michael also reported six other universities who are reportedly joining, but it is not public yet. “The Unizin Consortium is universities coming together in a strategic way to exert greater control and influence over the digital learning landscape. It enables each institution, its faculty, and students to draw on an evolving set of tools to support digital learning for residential, flipped classroom, online courses/degrees, badged experiences for Alumni, or even MOOCs if desired. Unizin supports the differing missions and strategies of universities.
via Unizin.
New Images of Education 