Unizin Makes Its Analytics Platform Available through Google Cloud to All Universities

IBL News | New York

The Unizin university non-profit consortium made its Data Platform available via the Google Cloud Marketplace to any higher-ed institution beyond its 14 members.

An example of usage is the University of Minnesota’s NXT GEN MED project, which leverages the work completed by the institution’s technologists and data analytics.

As a Platform-as-a-Service solution, the Unizin Data Platform (UDP) allows universities and colleges to share and analyze data from LMSs and Student Information Systems, such as video management tools, proctoring tools, and assessment platforms.

The UDP collects, cleans, models, curates, and stores all teaching and learning data to create a holistic view of each student. It will ultimately allow institutions to deliver more effective and engaging student experiences and improve learners’ achievement and retention.

The integration is via LTI. The UDP enforces the use of two data interoperability standards: IMS Global Caliper and the Unizin Common Data Model.

“It’s not easy for higher-learning institutions to aggregate, analyze, and use learning data at scale—nor can many institutions, except for the very largest, operationalize learning data in advising, business intelligence, and machine-learning initiatives,” said Cathy O’Bryan, Unizin’s CEO.

“The UDP frees up colleges and universities from the technical challenges of integrating, normalizing, and managing data, so they can focus on using data for insights to enable student success during and post-college years.”

“By partnering with Unizin, Google Cloud helps institutions make a large leap in their digital transformation, helping enable smarter decision-making at scale,” said Steven Butschi, Head of Education for Google Cloud.

“The data-informed academic mission must play an essential role in helping every student reach their potential. Every week, we see our institutions leveraging the Unizin Data Platform to engage, enrich, and empower their students and instructors with data, analytics, and insights,” explained Etienne Pelaprat, Chief Technology Officer at Unizin.

Unizin Data Platform Dashboard