Expanding IAM Knowledge & Community: What’s Next from InCommon Academy in 2025

By: Jean Chorazyczewski, InCommon Academy Director

Estimated reading time: 5 minutes

Identity and Access Management in higher education isn’t just about managing identities — it’s about enabling seamless collaboration, securing critical infrastructure, and adapting to an ever-expanding digital ecosystem. Keeping up with IAM challenges can feel like trying to hit a moving target for many institutions that may be juggling competing priorities. This is where InCommon Academy comes in. More than just training, InCommon Academy is evolving into a connected learning experience — one that can meet institutions and IT professionals at every stage of their IAM journey.

Whether you’re laying the groundwork for Federation participation, refining access management, or leading an institution-wide IAM modernization, we’re developing programs designed to move you forward to:

• Build foundational IAM knowledge and community connections
• Advance technical skill development and infrastructure operations
• Accelerate IAM planning through peer learning and expert guidance
• Stay ahead of emerging trends through thought leadership and insights

What’s New and Next from InCommon Academy

We are delivering more flexibility, expanded learning opportunities, and interactive experiences across our learning and engagement portfolio. Here’s a look at what’s coming:

BaseCAMP – June 2-6, 2025

New to IAM? New to the InCommon Community?
BaseCAMP is for you.

Our five-day virtual event is an excellent starting point for IT professionals navigating identity management, Federation, and the InCommon community. Expect interactive sessions, expert guidance, and networking with peers tackling the same challenges.

Grouper Training – Live Courses Start May 2025

We are rolling out a new on-demand learning experience alongside live training focused on real-world use cases. The Grouper learning pathway now features several self-paced courses for your convenience. Our live Grouper course — Grouper  Implementation: Practical Use Cases & Applied Solutions — kicks off May 14-16.

Whether you’re just starting or looking to optimize your skills using Grouper, there are comprehensive training options to fit your needs.

Instructors:

• Chris Hyzer, application architect, University of Pennsylvania
• Chad Redman, IAM consultant, Unicon

midPoint – Multi-Affiliation Management – May 2025

We’re evolving our midPoint learning path. InCommon Academy now offers MidPoint: Multi-Affiliation Management Training — a new advanced course focused on configuring midPoint to manage multiple identities and affiliations. This 3-day course builds upon the midPoint learning pathway to tackle complex identity scenarios common in academic institutions.  

Instructors:

• Ivan Noris, expert identity engineer, Evolveum
• Peter Balčirák, identity engineer, Evolveum

Shibboleth Training – September 22-26, 2025

A must-attend for those managing identity federation and SAML authentication. This hands-on training covers Shibboleth fundamentals, deployment best practices, and a live demo of the SAML Metadata Configuration Manager.

Instructors:

• Paul Riddle, senior middleware architect, University of Maryland – Baltimore County
• Paul Caskey, IAM architect, Internet2

COmanage Training – Community-Activated Learning

Does your institution need COmanage training? You tell us, and we can deliver. In 2025, we’re continuing with a community-activated training model — when we reach a minimum cohort number, we’ll spin up a live training session to meet demand. Available upon request here.

Instructors:

• Laura Paglione, Partner | SCG
• Shayna Atkinson, Partner | SCG

IAM Online – Mostly Monthly Webinars

Almost every month, we bring together IAM leaders, practitioners, and community subject matter experts for practical, timely discussions on the latest trends, challenges, and best practices. From social engineering threats to passwordless authentication to compliance standards, our IAM Online webinars aim to keep you informed.

Other Programs on the Horizon

We’re taking the experience of our Collaboration Success cohort-based programs to the next level.  Our new Accelerator programs will be designed to help institutions move faster, smarter, and more strategically in IAM and Federation.

Stay tuned for more details as we get ready to launch these offerings!

InCommon Federation Resources – Q2/Q3 2025

InCommon Federation enables institutions to access and share services, streamline research collaborations, and ease identity management burdens. To help institutions get started and maximize their participation, we’re developing new resources covering why federation matters, key concepts, technical foundations, and practical steps for onboarding and optimization. Stay tuned for details.