Proud Sponsor of AACSB's 2026AI-powered curriculum intelligence that helps business schools reveal curriculum gaps, strengthen AACSB assurance of learning, and connect learning across courses.
See Cairnexus in ActionLMS Integration
Compliant by Design
Vendor Assessed
Concurrent Users
Canvas, Moodle, D2L, BB
Built For Three Audiences
Institutional intelligence across the curriculum.
See how learning connects across programs, where silos exist, and how outcomes are reinforced institution-wide.
Cross-course teaching intelligence.
Help faculty connect concepts across courses and make learning feel more integrated for students.
A connected view of education.
Help students understand how courses build toward careers, skills, and real-world applications.
LTI 1.3 certified. Works with Canvas, Moodle, D2L Brightspace, and Blackboard. Seamless launch from within your existing LMS.
Configuration and onboarding handled by our team. Administrators, faculty, and students all start working from day one — minimal IT involvement required.
FERPA compliant by design with enterprise-grade cloud infrastructure and student privacy protections built into every layer. SOC 2 readiness initiatives are currently underway.
Built on proprietary curriculum intelligence architecture with academic guardrails designed to keep insights grounded in each course's actual curriculum.
15 minutes is all it takes to explore how Cairnexus makes connected learning visible.
See it in ActionBuilt for AACSB-accredited business schools. Choose the deployment that matches your institution's infrastructure and support needs.
| Feature | Community Edition (Free) | Concierge Deployment (One-time) | Cairnexus Cloud (Annual) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Cost model | Free under license | One-time engagement fee | Annual subscription |
| Commitment | Annual CELA renewal | One-time setup, then operate independently | Ongoing managed service |
| Hosting | Self-hosted on your infrastructure | Self-hosted (we deploy on yours) | Cairnexus-hosted |
| Data ownership | Yours, on your infrastructure | Yours, on your infrastructure | Yours, managed by us |
| Deployment labor | Your IT team handles | ✓ Our team deploys for you | ✓ Fully managed |
| AI provider keys | You bring your own | You bring your own (we configure) | ✓ Included |
| Full content generation (teaching & learning) | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Multi-AI provider support | ✓ You configure | ✓ We configure | ✓ Active failover |
| Institutional system integration | ✗ Manual data import | ✗ Manual data import (workflow set up by us) | ✓ Live integrations |
| Single sign-on (SSO) | ✗ | ✗ | ✓ |
| SOC 2-attested infrastructure | ✗ (your institution's compliance) | ✗ (your institution's compliance) | ◷ SOC 2 Type I — Q3 2026 |
| HECVAT (higher-ed vendor assessment) | ✗ (your institution's HECVAT applies) | ✗ (your institution's HECVAT applies) | ✓ HECVAT Full 4.1.5 — on request |
| Faculty onboarding workshop | ✗ | ✓ Included in deployment | ✓ Included |
| Named support contact + SLA | ✗ Community forum + docs | ✓ 30-day post-deployment window | ✓ Ongoing |
| Cairnexus + Rowdy branding preserved | ✓ Required by license | ✓ Required by license | ✓ Full, optional co-brand |
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About
Cairnexus was founded by Brent Marinan, a Senior Lecturer in Business Analytics at the University of Arizona's Eller College of Management, and a team of technologists focused on helping institutions connect learning across the curriculum.
The platform was created in response to a persistent challenge in higher education: students experience courses in isolation, while faculty and administrators lack visibility into how learning connects across programs.
Cairnexus combines pedagogical insight with enterprise-ready infrastructure to help institutions make integrated learning visible, measurable, and actionable.
The name Cairnexus combines cairn — a trail marker that guides the way — and nexus — a point of connection. The name also draws inspiration from Rowdy, the founder's cairn terrier, and the belief that powerful learning begins by uncovering connections across disciplines.