Research partnership will help shape a reference implementation for Open edX platform to meet the growing demand for skills-based and flexible learning models.

MESA, Ariz., May 6, 2025 /PRNewswire-PRWeb/ -- Unicon, a leading technology and digital learning enablement firm, today announced a new strategic partnership with Axim Collaborative, steward of the global Open edX platform, to drive innovation in skills-based and competency-based education (CBE) at scale.

Building on over thirty years of leadership in the open source community, Unicon is joining forces with Axim to help inform a reference implementation of the Open edX platform to better serve higher education institutions that are shifting to skills-first learning models. The collaboration marks a significant milestone in Unicon's ongoing commitment to expanding access to flexible, future-ready education.

Through this partnership, and in collaboration with the Competency-Based Education Network (C-BEN), Unicon is conducting a comprehensive research initiative, gathering insights from community colleges, four-year universities, and other education stakeholders. The goal is to identify key functional priorities and operational challenges facing institutions offering competency-based and/or skills-forward programming — informing the development of new capabilities in an Open edX reference implementation to enable institutions to deliver scalable, skills-based learning programs.

"Bringing Unicon and Axim Collaborative together is a natural evolution in how both organizations are supporting skills-based and competency-based education," said Kate Valenti, CEO at Unicon. "At Unicon, we believe the future of learning lies in enabling institutions to teach, validate, and credential skills at scale. This partnership demonstrates our deep commitment to the open source community and to building practical, high-impact solutions for higher education."

This collaboration comes at a pivotal time as Unicon continues its work with institutions focused on innovation and skills advancement. The partnership with Axim strengthens Unicon's positioning as a trusted partner for organizations aiming to create innovative, flexible, career-connected learning experiences.

In a further demonstration of its commitment to open source and the global skills community, Unicon recently announced its sponsorship of Open edX 2025 in Paris as a Premier Sponsor. This sponsorship not only expands the reach of the new partnership with Axim but also showcases Unicon's leadership and deep investment in the future of open, skills-based education. Conference attendees will have the opportunity to meet with Unicon's expert team to share insights on building scalable, future-ready learning platforms.

Ed Zarecor, Vice President of Engineering, Open edX, says of the partnership, "We see enabling a skills-forward approach to delivering non-credit and credit courses as a powerful way to deliver Axim's mission at scale. We believe the platform's ability to scale in a robust way along with the affordability that provides for low resourced institutions has powerful potential to drive impact. Given Axim's mission around driving economic mobility, we see community colleges as powerful enablers of economic mobility, enabling rapid skills acquisition, and allowing students to connect in demand skills with employer needs. We're excited to partner with Unicon to gather critical feedback from the higher education community and advance the Open edX platform to better support skills-based learning models globally and to reach an underserved market with a compelling value proposition to uniquely serve learners and their unmet needs."

Learn more about Open edX 2025 and Unicon's sponsorship at: https://con.openedx.org/

About Axim Collaborative

Axim Collaborative is a nonprofit that transforms education to work pathways by facilitating collaboration and innovations to build an ecosystem of solutions to drive better outcomes for millions of learners. With a mission to make learning more accessible, relevant and effective for all learners, we seek to catalyze new digital and education practices that engage students in their course of study and enable them to persist through their programs and excel in their careers to realize greater social and economic mobility. Axim is a non-profit, co-founded by Harvard and MIT and is the successor to edX, the pioneering online learning platform that launched in 2012.

About the Open edX Project

The Open edX platform is an open-source learning management system that is used across the globe to teach and learn online. The Open edX platform powers more than 70,000 courses and supports more than 100 million learners. It has been deployed to support everything from single classrooms to university-wide education to government-sponsored nationwide learning initiatives. The Open edX project and its community pursue innovative approaches to learning and pedagogy; promote the adoption of best practices across the education continuum; and share the vision that everyone, everywhere should have access to high-quality education.

Press Contacts

Eric Kuennen

Unicon, Inc.

ekuennen@unicon.net

Annabel (Annie) Cellini

Axim Collaborative

acellini@axim.org

Media Contact

Eric Kuennen, Unicon, Inc., (480) 558-2400, ekuennen@unicon.net, https://www.unicon.net/

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SOURCE Unicon, Inc.