ANN ARBOR, Mich. (AP) — Four U.S. research universities have formed a consortium to improve the way in which educational content is shared among schools.

The partnership called Unizin announced Wednesday includes Indiana University, the University of Michigan, Colorado State University and the University of Florida.

Organizers say it will provide a common digital infrastructure that will allow participating schools to work together to strengthen their missions of education and research. It will allow instructors to store and share material while keeping control over its use.

Students will get expanded access to course materials in a number of formats, from large open online courses to classes with online lectures. Institutions involved in the effort also will be able to collect and analyze information to provide assessments of learning.