GakuNin LMS

What GakuNin LMS is

GakuNin LMS (学認LMS) is a learning management system run by the National Institute of Informatics (国立情報学研究所, NII) for Japan's higher education institutions. Its home page describes it as "a learning management system that provides common educational content and institution-specific course records for higher education institutions," and gives its start date: it was "Officially launched on June 14, 2021." The tagline sums up the two jobs it does: "Supporting sharing of educational content and learning management for each institution in higher education."

The reader is a university or college, and specifically the person in charge of the service at that institution. Individual students use it, but they reach it through their institution: the site says plainly that it cannot take inquiries from individual users, and that students should contact the person in charge at their own institution. Day-to-day operation sits with the GakuNin LMS Support Team in NII's Academic Infrastructure Promotion Department (学術基盤推進部).

The name ties it to GakuNin, the academic authentication federation (学術認証フェデレーション) that Japanese institutions use for shared login. The LMS offers "a variety of optional features in collaboration with the academic authentication federation (GakuNin)."

Two kinds of course

The platform carries two layers of content.

Common courses are prepared centrally and available to every participating institution. There are three series:

• Information Security Course (情報セキュリティ講座). The site describes it as a way to "Learn information security easily through daily campus conversations," and it is offered in Japanese, English, Chinese and Korean. A new course in the series, 倫倫姫の情報セキュリティ教室 (Princess Rinrin's Information Security Classroom), was announced in February 2026.
• Research Data Management Course, NII Series. Learning materials on GakuNin RDM and related services from NII's research data infrastructure, NII Research Data Cloud (NII RDC). Recent additions include a GakuNin RDM analysis function support course in two editions, one for users and one for teachers and administrators (both available only in Japanese), a GakuNin RDM support course for research labs, and a basics course on research data management in the era of open science. A September 2026 notice on the site points researchers to NII RDC for meeting immediate open access requirements.
• Research Data Management Course, JPCOAR Series. Materials from the Japan Consortium for Open Access Repositories (JPCOAR), which the Japanese page describes as micro-content learning materials (マイクロコンテンツ教材). An archived course on research data management in the era of open science sits in this series.

Individual courses by institution are limited to one university. The site explains, "You can study courses limited to your affiliated institution. When you log in, a list of courses available at your institution will be displayed." The course list on the home page shows what this looks like for NII itself, which publishes its own internal training there: a 2026 security training for project segments, a facilitation workshop, a presentation workshop and a copyright study session for project staff.

Six reasons institutions choose it

The home page lists six features under the heading 選ばれる理由 (reasons it is chosen):

1. Ready-made materials on information security, in four languages, and on research data management, "that you can use right now."
2. Optional features in collaboration with the GakuNin federation.
3. "Teaching materials created by user institutions can be registered and made available only to their own institution (sharing among multiple institutions can also be specified)." An institution can keep its courses private, or name other institutions to share them with.
4. "By adding synthesized voice to slides, you can easily create video teaching materials." This is the job of PtM (Presentation slides to Movie), a companion system that turns slide decks into narrated videos.
5. "By consolidating teaching materials into GakuNin LMS, you can reduce costs such as administrative effort and time."
6. "Curricula can be created by combining teaching materials, enabling planned human resource development." An institution can assemble a program from the common courses and its own material.

Learning records, badges and related services

The phrase "institution-specific course records" in the product description is borne out by the site's notices. GakuNin LMS held an online briefing in August 2025 on its function for retrieving learners' course history (受講履歴取得機能), and in November 2025 it changed how the history of comprehensive and comprehension tests is displayed. Completion badges are issued too: a June 2025 notice announced course completion badges for the GakuNin RDM support course.

Three related services are linked from the home page:

• a learning analytics platform portal (ラーニングアナリティクス基盤ポータルサイト);
• LTI-MC, a micro-contents function with a manual in a June 2026 edition and an update notice from June 2026;
• PtM, the system for making videos with synthesized narration from presentation slides.

The site also links two related NII projects: work on formulating information security policies at higher education institutions, and a program for developing a research data ecosystem that promotes data-driven science.

Languages, support and access

The interface can be switched between English, Japanese, Simplified Chinese and Korean. Support runs through a dedicated user support site "to support institutions that are using GakuNin LMS or are considering applying," plus a user manual and a frequently asked questions page. The site posts maintenance notices, such as a one-hour emergency maintenance window for a system update in September 2026, and terms of use (国立情報学研究所学認 LMS 利用規程) that visitors accept.

Access is arranged by institutions, not individuals. Organizations considering the service, and institutions already using it that want optional features or course sharing with other institutions, are asked to contact NII through their institution's designated contact person. The site also states that it cannot accept direct inquiries from contractors or vendors. No fees appear on the site.

Who it suits

GakuNin LMS suits a Japanese university or college that needs to deliver standard training, above all information security and research data management, to students, faculty and staff without building those courses itself, and that wants a record of who has completed them. It also suits an institution that wants a place to host its own short courses, keep them private or share them with named partner institutions, and turn slide decks into narrated videos with PtM. Researchers and research administrators using GakuNin RDM will find the platform's RDM series a practical way to learn the tools. Institutions outside Japan's higher education sector are not the audience, and every access request goes through an institution's own contact person rather than an online sign-up.