How EduNext Delivers Accredited Online Degrees for 35 Italian Universities on One Custom-Built Learning Ecosystem

About EduNext

EduNext — Next Education Italia — is Italy’s national hub for innovation in digital higher education. It was created under the National Recovery and Resilience Plan (PNRR), Mission 4 “Education and Research,” and is funded with over €22 million by the European Union – NextGenerationEU.

It is not a single university going online. EduNext is a network of 35 Italian universities and 5 AFAM institutions (the higher institutes of arts, music and dance), supported by 52 partners — including five Regions, the CNR (National Research Council) and INDIRE. Together they deliver 45 accredited Bachelor’s and Master’s degree courses online, alongside Masters, professionalising courses, MOOCs, podcasts, and Open Educational Resources.

The academic backbone is EduNext’s own ECOBI model — Educational Cluster, Open Badge, Blended Intensive Program — established under Italian Ministerial Decrees 1154/2021 and 773/2024. Teaching is modular (3-CFU modules grouped into 12–21-CFU “Educational Clusters”), delivered as short studio-recorded video lessons plus interactive teaching and weekly live virtual classrooms, and blended with intensive in-person weeks. At the end of every module and cluster, students earn Open Badges aligned to the EU-ESCO framework — building a European-recognised e-portfolio of verified skills.

For learners, the promise is flexibility without compromise: study online, around work and life, and still graduate with an accredited degree. Delivering on that promise, for an entire national network, is a serious technology challenge.

The Challenge

EduNext needed far more than a place to upload lectures. Delivering accredited degrees across dozens of autonomous institutions raised problems that no standard, off-the-shelf platform was built to solve:

• One platform, many universities35 universities and 5 AFAM institutions — each with its own identity, courses, and rules — had to operate on a single shared learning environment, without losing institutional autonomy.
• Federated, secure identity at national scaleStudents and staff had to log in seamlessly with their home-university credentials, across the whole network — not yet another separate account.
• Video at the heart of teachingThe ECOBI model is built on studio-recorded video lessons and recorded virtual classrooms — thousands of hours of streaming, delivered reliably, affordably, and with European data sovereignty.
• European micro-credentials, not just gradesEvery module and cluster issues Open Badges aligned to EU-ESCO, feeding a portable e-portfolio — so the platform had to certify and verify skills, not merely track completion.
• A whole ecosystem, not one appDegree learning, professional training, open/MOOC content, live video, a knowledge base, and a credentials passport each needed their own experience — yet had to feel like one connected EduNext.
• Public-sector grade trustAs a PNRR-funded national initiative, the platform had to meet high standards of accessibility, privacy, reliability, and openness — sovereign, not locked to a foreign Big-Tech stack.

The Vision: A Custom-Built Learning Ecosystem

Generic, one-size-fits-all platforms force institutions to bend their model to the software. EduNext’s mission was the opposite — the technology had to bend to a brand-new, nationally-defined model of higher education.

So, as EduNext’s learning-technology partner, we designed and engineered a fully custom learning ecosystem from the ground up: built around the ECOBI model, owned by the network, sovereign by design, and deeply integrated with the wider Italian research-and-education infrastructure. Six purpose-built portals, one identity, one connected experience.

The Solution — Six Connected Portals, One Ecosystem

We built and operate the complete EduNext learning ecosystem — a set of integrated, purpose-built portals that share identity, data, and design.

LEARN — the degree-learning core

The heart of the ecosystem: the platform where students follow their accredited Bachelor’s and Master’s courses. It implements the ECOBI model natively — modular 3-CFU units, Educational Clusters, sequenced video lessons, interactive e-tivities, assignments, formative assessments, and weekly live virtual classrooms — with continuous progress feedback and tutor support.

Visit learn25.edunext.eu →

PRO — professional & continuing education

A dedicated portal for professionalising courses and lifelong-learning programs, serving working professionals with the same rigour and a workflow tuned to their needs.

Visit pro.edunext.eu →

OPEN — MOOCs & open education

The open learning gateway for MOOCs and Open Educational Resources — widening access to high-quality university content far beyond enrolled degree students.

Visit open.edunext.eu →

ON AIR — sovereign video, powered by PeerTube

Video is central to EduNext’s teaching, so we built ON AIR on PeerTube, the open-source, federated video platform. It hosts and streams the studio-recorded lessons and virtual-classroom recordings on infrastructure the network controls — delivering European data sovereignty and freedom from dependence on YouTube or other Big-Tech video services, with efficient streaming at scale.

Visit onair.edunext.eu →

KB — the knowledge base

A unified knowledge and support hub for students and staff across the network, reducing support load and keeping guidance consistent.

Visit kb.edunext.eu →

Passport — Open Badges & EU-ESCO credentials

The credentials portal that issues and stores Open Badges aligned to the EU-ESCO framework, turning completed modules and clusters into a portable, verifiable, European-recognised e-portfolio of skills.

Visit passport.edunext.eu →

See the whole ecosystem live:

LEARNPROOPENON AIRKBPassport

Integrations — Connected to the Wider Ecosystem

A national platform can’t be an island. We integrated EduNext deeply into the Italian and European education infrastructure:

The GARR research & education network (with IDEM federated identity)

EduNext runs in concert with GARR, Italy’s ultra-fast national network for universities and research (the GARR-T backbone spans ~20,000 km of optical fibre and connects onward to Europe’s GÉANT network). Crucially, we integrated federated identity via GARR’s IDEM Federation (SAML/Shibboleth) — so a student or lecturer from any member university signs in with their own institutional account, securely, with no new credentials. One federated identity, 40 institutions.

PeerTube — open, sovereign video streaming

Beyond the ON AIR portal, PeerTube integration means EduNext’s entire video layer is open-source and self-governed — federated, privacy-respecting, and built for the volume of a video-first teaching model.

AI — intelligent learning support

We integrated AI into the learning experience to help students and teachers do more with the platform — assisting with study, navigation, and content across the ecosystem.

Open standards & interoperability

Open Badges and the EU-ESCO skills framework keep credentials portable and interoperable across European systems — and the ecosystem is engineered to connect with the third-party tools each institution relies on.

Implementation, Scale & Reliability

This was a build, run, and scale engagement — not a one-off delivery. As EduNext’s LMS and Learning Technologies partner, we own the platform end to end: architecture and custom development of all six portals, the federated-identity, PeerTube and AI integrations, deployment on sovereign infrastructure, and the ongoing reliability, performance, and support needed to serve a live national degree network across dozens of institutions.

The Impact, Visualised

One platform, a whole national network — the scale of what EduNext delivers, at a glance.

Results & Impact

• A national first, deliveredFor the first time in Italy, traditional universities offer structured, accredited online degrees — running on the ecosystem we built.
• 40 institutions, one platform35 universities and 5 AFAM institutions share a single custom learning environment without losing their autonomy.
• Seamless federated accessGARR/IDEM single sign-on lets every learner and lecturer log in with their home-institution identity across the whole network.
• Video at scale, on EduNext’s termsA PeerTube-based video layer delivers a video-first teaching model with European data sovereignty.
• Skills that travelEU-ESCO-aligned Open Badges give students a portable, verifiable e-portfolio recognised across Europe.
• A connected ecosystemDegree learning, professional training, open education, live video, knowledge base, and credentials — six portals that feel like one EduNext.

Looking Ahead

EduNext set out to reinvent how Italy delivers higher education — and now has a sovereign, custom-built learning ecosystem equal to that ambition. As the network grows its course catalogue and student base, we continue to build with them: extending the platform, deepening the AI and video capabilities, and scaling the infrastructure behind one of Europe’s most ambitious digital-education initiatives. The next chapter is already being written.

Explore our learning platform, our work across higher education and academics, or browse more case studies.

Features & Scope Delivered

Custom-built multi-institution learning ecosystem · Six integrated portals (LEARN, PRO, OPEN, ON AIR, KB, Passport) · ECOBI model support (Educational Clusters, modular CFU, blended intensive, virtual classrooms) · GARR / IDEM federated single sign-on · PeerTube sovereign video streaming · AI-powered learning support · Open Badges & EU-ESCO micro-credentials · MOOCs & Open Educational Resources · Knowledge base & support · Sovereign hosting, scaling & ongoing support.