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October 9, 2026
October 9, 2026
Powered by the Unizin Data Platform (UDP), Panorama Provides Macro and Micro Views Across a Sprawling Learning Environment
Congratulations to Unizin member Penn State University and its Panorama Instructional Analytics Platform which received the 1EdTech Learning Impact Award as the top Learning Environment Infrastructure for 2026.
1EdTech's Learning Impact Awards celebrate the most innovative and transformative products, services, and partnerships impacting teaching and learning worldwide. Penn State and Panorama were recognized at the recent 1EdTech Learning Impact Conference in San Francisco.
Panorama is a data and insights platform designed to support instructional designers, accessibility professionals, and IT service managers across Penn State’s highly complex and distributed academic ecosystem.
With course development and delivery spanning multiple campuses and modalities including in-person, hybrid, and fully remote instruction, instructional design workflows were becoming increasingly complex, lengthening the distance between insight and application. Likewise, the continuous expansion and growing complexity of a sprawling learning ecosystem have made it increasingly difficult to keep tabs on the deployment and use of learning tools, as well as to assess, compare, and address accessibility issues within digital learning environments.
By providing a centralized enterprise-level view of Canvas activity, course structures, learning tool usage, and digital accessibility metrics, Panorama enables Penn State’s instructional support community to make informed decisions that enhance teaching quality, ensure compliance, and promote operational efficiency. In this regard, Panorama is more than just an analytics tool. It is a framework supporting more agile decision-making.
Panorama is one of a suite of data analytics platforms developed at Penn State University that leverage the UDP and Unizin data mart functionality to aggregate and model vast quantities of LMS and learning tool data in near-real time. Aperture is Penn State’s enterprise-level analytics platform designed to provide a unified "lens" into complex institutional data. Elevate provides academic advisers with timely, actionable insights into a student’s online course activity in order to support proactive academic advising that better supports student success. Course Insights, which provides instructors a holistic view of the student learning experience, was recognized by 1EdTech in 2023.
The UDP and data marts play an important role in aggregating the data necessary to provide comprehensive visibility across the entire Penn State learning ecosystem. But that’s not all. Panorama can also dynamically zoom in on specific courses, learning tools, and accessibility scores. The ability to toggle between panoramic and granular data views sets Panorama apart and ensures utility across the learning continuum.
Comprehensive Course Visibility enables instructional designers to analyze official, manual, and master courses across campuses with real-time enrollment, usage, and lifecycle data.
Learning Tool & LMS Insights allow IT services to monitor LTI integrations and Canvas feature adoption to identify trends, champions, and optimization opportunities.
Accessibility Intelligence provides accessibility staff with aggregated Ally accessibility scores at course and unit levels to prioritize remediation efforts in collaboration with faculty.
Panorama's Ally Acessibility Lens
These capabilities have also proven useful in time-sensitive operational situations. During a recent LMS outage, Panorama provided Penn State IT with a clearer picture of system- and course-level learning-tool usage, enabling teams to identify where the affected tool was used and focus remediation efforts accordingly.
“Panorama provided actionable insight during a recent security incident by showing system- and course-level tool-usage information,” said Andy Fisher, interim director of Learning Solutions in Penn State IT. “That context helped us quickly understand the scope of use, prioritize remediation, and communicate with the units and courses most directly affected. It is a strong example of how learning-environment data can support both strategic planning and responsive operational decision-making.”
Panorama’s capabilities are already paying real dividends for Penn State.
Automating the visualization of complex data points has dramatically reduced the time spent by instructional designers to manually wrangle data. Instead of cross-referencing spreadsheets, instructional design staff can provide faculty support for course improvement.
Enterprise-level insights into LTI tool adoption provide IT and academic leadership with the hard data needed to inform contract renewals, optimize platform usage, and execute courseware consolidation efforts with direct financial benefits.
To learn how Panorama supports data-driven instructional design and IT decision-making, join Mr. Analytics for an overview of the platform and its functionality or check out the Panorama paper from 1EdTech Learning Impact Awards.
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