Request For Information (RFI) - SALT

Request for Information MVU11222006
Due Date (Verbal Intent to Participate): Wednesday, November 15, 2006
Due Date (Written responses): Wednesday, November 22, 2006
This RFI has been released to solicit vendor information regarding sources
and products for replacement of the current Web-based Learning
Management System (LMS) used for the Michigan statewide teacher and
administrator professional development online learning portal.
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Web-based Learning and Course Management Systems
I. GENERAL INFORMATION
The Michigan Virtual University (MVU) is issuing this Request for Information (RFI) to identify
potential sources and products for replacement of the current Web-based Learning Management
System (LMS) used for the Michigan statewide teacher and administrator professional
development portal known as Michigan LearnPort (for information on Michigan LearnPort visit the
Web site: www.learnport.org). Selected vendors will be requested to supply written information
and to participate in a demonstration of their products. Vendors must be prepared to demonstrate
and answer questions from MVU staff that will write the work plan and draft the Request for
Proposals (RFP) that will follow.
Michigan Virtual University intends to issue a RFP after receiving and evaluating vendor
responses regarding online professional development products which will best meet the need to
disseminate professional development opportunities throughout the state. Responses to this RFI
will assist MVU in drawing up the scope of work for an RFP to be issued. Response to this RFI
will ensure that your products and services are not excluded from consideration. MVU intends to
enter into a multi-year contract with a single vendor to provide an LMS for the delivery of Internetbased
professional development programs and related professional development functions.
II. OVERVIEW
Michigan LearnPort is a statewide communication and professional development portal designed
for use among Michigan's educators. Michigan LearnPort:
• Delivers quality online professional development to the desktop;
• Fosters teachers’ communication with mentors, principals, and other teachers with
common interest;
• Enables teachers and administrators to keep track of professional development;
• Provides other school employees with online training to meet job requirements;
• Assists in aligning teacher development plans to district and school improvement goals;
and
• Provides a delivery vehicle for content developed by a variety of content providers,
including schools, districts, intermediate school districts, universities and the private
sector.
This multi-year development effort significantly expands the capacity of Michigan’s educational
community to deliver high quality, online professional development services to Michigan teachers,
administrators and paraprofessionals on an anytime/anywhere basis. Michigan educators are
able to earn State Board Continuing Education Units (SB-CEUs) or college or university credit by
participating in the online seminars, workshops and courses made available or linked through
Michigan LearnPort.
As Michigan LearnPort has been promoted across the state to school administrators and
educators, it is becoming the backbone of a statewide system that provides an integrated platform
for:
• Managing individual educator development plans;
• Linking professional development to school achievement goals;
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• Supporting local, regional and statewide special interest learning communities;
• Providing access to training and education resources; and
• Documenting compliance with No Child Left Behind (NCLB) professional development
requirements.
Currently Michigan LearnPort provides a single point of access for all Michigan teachers,
administrators and paraprofessionals in Michigan’s public and private schools to locate and
access professional development offerings. This aggregation of learners provides unprecedented
opportunities for schools, colleges and universities, statewide organizations and associations, and
private sector providers to reach all Michigan educators to:
• Build awareness of professional development and continuing education offerings;
• Promote credit and noncredit learning opportunities;
• Support training needs on a local, regional and statewide basis;
• Use the Michigan LearnPort learning management platform to locally mentor novice
teachers and student teachers; and
• Provide a single professional development record and reporting system capable of
exporting professional development data for state reporting purposes.
III. FINANCIAL CONSIDERATIONS
No formal price quote is requested as part of this RFI, however, we are requesting information
that will allow us to understand the pricing approach your company will take to respond to our
needs in the subsequent RFQ. For scaling and pricing purposes please use the following user
base figures in your response.
Estimate of Potential Michigan LearnPort Users
Approximate Number of K-12 Michigan teachers 96,464
Approximate Number of K-12 Michigan administrative staff 6,847
Approximate Number of K-12 paraprofessional instruction staff 9,088
Total 112,399
Approximate Number of K-12 bus drivers, food service staffers 10,000
Estimate of Student Teachers 25,000
Total of Possible New Michigan LearnPort Users 35,000
Maximum Total with Additional Users 147,399
Current Reported Michigan LearnPort Users (as of 10.2.06) 13,016
2006-07 User Metric 30,000
• Please describe your pricing model(s) and indicate how each scales with an
increasing number of active users.
• If your pricing model is based on active users, please define "active user" for us.
• If you will offer an ASP solution, please define the parameters and the costs associated
with this as well as your non-ASP licensing costs for comparison purposes.
• What if any costs are associated with maintenance and support of your LMS
• For the past three years, what has been the average price change for your product each
year (percentage change)
• Does you company offer an educational non-profit discount, and if so, what percentage
reduction does this represent
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IV. KEY QUESTIONS TO BE ANSWERED AND DEMONSTRATED
Michigan Virtual University wishes to have written documentation and live presentations
demonstrating a full range of features and functionality. To provide the review team with
comparable information the following scenarios are to be used by each vendor to demonstrate
how their product produces the required result. The interest of the team will be directed toward
the ease and intuitiveness of the LMS and its interface as well as the comprehensive set of
features. Vendors should give an estimate of the time needed to adequately demonstrate their
solutions to these scenarios as well as provide an overall introduction to their product.
Scenarios
1. Demonstrate the registration process for an account to be used in your LMS using the
name Patricia Myers, a teacher at Eastland Junior High School, Roseville, Michigan
(an actual name and district in Michigan).
2. Demonstrate how your platform provides a catalog with information on the contained
courses. How is the catalog updated Please provide detail on the steps needed to
update and access catalog information.
3. Demonstrate how the user will find, select, register in, and complete a course.
4. Demonstrate how a local school principal will access a full report of all professional
development taken by the teachers in his/her building and show how the report
appears within a Web browser and how it is exported to a spreadsheet or other
common office software product.
5. The Michigan Department of Education (MDE) requires all schools to record and report all
professional development taken by teachers. Schools provide professional development
opportunites through Michigan LearnPort, in-school workshops, state sponsored
workshops, credit from university courses, county-level state board CEUs and building
school improvement sessions. Demonstrate both manual input of data and how your
LMS might import data from other record keeping systems Can your platform export to
the MDE Registry of Educational Personnel (REP) reporting system (information on the
REP can be found at https://cepi.state.mi.us/REP/index.aspx)
6. Demonstate how a course is developed, assembled, and published in your LMS. The
course must include discussion boards, chat, text documents, audio files and short
video/flash clips.
7. Demonstrate how the number of active users in the system is determined and then
generated into a report. Can the report information be exported
8. Demonstrate the process for changing course content, including adding modules to an
existing course.
9. Describe how national vendor courses are added to your LMS. Describe the ability of
your product to accommodate single user access authorization. Describe the
e-commerce features native to your LMS and how the LMS can accommodate
purchase orders, secure credit card, or payment by check for fee based courses.
10. Demonstrate how ad-hoc reports are generated within your LMS.
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V. FACTORS TO BE EVALUATED
The team reviewing the responses to this RFI will be assessing, among other factors: cost of the
product, ability to integrate with other MVU systems, ease of use and intuitive interface design,
customer service support, design and features, including the ability to import and export data, and
the ease of maintenance and stability and longevity of the code base and company. At this time,
we will not be selecting products on the basis of your submittals. They are being solicited to
ensure that the RFP that will be developed will appropriately and accurately reflect the products
and services offered in support of this initiative. Selected vendors will be requested to participate
in either a live or on-line presentation concerning the products and services offered.
VI. RESPONSE FORMAT
Responses to this RFI should be concise, straightforward, and prepared simply and economically.
Elaborate presentation and promotional materials are neither required nor desired. Your entire
written response must be provided electronically in the .PDF format so it can be moved easily and
securely, as well as in hard copy format (See Section IX below for detailed submission
requirements).
Please ensure that the following required areas are addressed in your response in the following
order:
1. Company history. A brief history of your company, business focus, and history of sales
in Michigan.
2. Contacts. Detailed contact information for the people within your organization who are
responsible for your submission.
3. Relevant experience. We are most interested in your experience and expertise relevant
to the development and delivery of online professional development and communication
tools.
4. Additional features. Identify any features included as part of your solution not specified in
this RFI. If these features are only available at an additional cost, please indicate the
associated costs.
5. References. Three or more references of current clients with major projects that we can
contact by telephone.
VII. TERMS
1. Response Preparation Costs. MVU is not liable for any costs incurred by potential
providers in the preparation or delivery of responses to this RFI.
2. Form and Content of Response. Responses should be concise, straightforward, and
prepared simply and economically. Elaborate presentation and promotional materials are
discouraged.
3. Confidentiality of Responses. Contents of responses are confidential and will not be
disclosed to any parties outside of MVU, with the exception of personnel from the MDE.
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MVU, as a private non-profit corporation is not currently subject to Freedom of Information
Act.
4. Nondiscrimination. In the performance of the work which may ultimately be performed,
the vendor organization agrees not to discriminate against any employee or applicant for
employment, or any applicant or recipient of services, on the basis of race, color, religion,
national origin, ancestry, age, sex, height, weight, marital status, physical or mental
handicap or disability. If the vendor fails to comply with this provision, any agreement may
be canceled.
5. Response Validity. Responses submitted will be considered valid for a period of 90 days
from the date of acceptance.
VIII. PROJECT TIMELINE
Release of RFI October 15, 2006
Due date for Verbal Intent to Participate November 15, 2006
Written materials due November 22, 2006
Presentations by Vendors December 15, 2006 -January 15, 2007
Release of RFP February 15, 2007
Due date for response to RFP March 15, 2007
Vendor presentations March 22 – April 15, 2007
Award Date April 30, 2007
LMS implementation date (full switch over)
July 1, 2007 or sooner
IX. ABOUT MVU
Michigan Virtual University
MVU is a private, not-for-profit Michigan corporation established in 1998 to deliver online
education and training opportunities to the citizens of Michigan. It is the parent organization of the
Michigan Virtual High School, Michigan Virtual Career Services and Michigan LearnPort. The
primary motivation for creating MVU was to support the state's economic development by
providing convenient, cost-effective education and training to Michigan's current and future
workforce. For nearly six years, MVU was the leading proponent of e-learning in both the
commercial and education fields. Today, the vision is for MVU to become a learner-centered,
solution-based organization that will create a long-lasting partnership with the K-12 community.
X. SUBMISSION and CONTACT INFORMATION
All vendors interested in presenting information under this RFI must indicate their intent to
participate no later than close of business, Wednesday, November 15, 2006, by calling
Elizabeth Elliott at 517-664-5467. MVU may invite vendors to give oral or Web conference
presentations in support of their response or to exhibit or otherwise demonstrate the information
contained therein. Vendors may arrange for date(s) and time(s) of any such oral or Web
conference presentations by contacting Elizabeth Elliott at eelliott@mivu.org or by phone at
517-664-5467. MVU will do everything it can to accommodate the timing of all presentations
relative to the vendor’s availability.
Written responses are due in MVU’s office in Lansing by close of business on
November 22, 2006. E-mail the electronic version to eelliott@mivu.org and send two (2) hard
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copies of your response, for delivery prior to close of business (5:00 p.m.) on November 22, 2006,
to the address below.
Any questions by interested vendors concerning this RFI should be made in writing to David
Myers, Director, Michigan LearnPort, 3101 Technology Blvd., Suite G, Lansing, Michigan 48910
or by e-mail to dmyers@mivu.org.
Requests for additional information or clarification must be made in writing by facsimile or
email and may be submitted up to October 31, 2006. The request must contain the vendor’s
name, address, telephone number, facsimile number, and e-mail address. Electronic facsimile
will be accepted at 517-664-5395 or by e-mail at dmyers@mivu.org. Facsimiles must have a
cover sheet that includes, at a minimum, the vendor’s name, address, number of pages
transmitted, telephone number, and facsimile number. E-mail inquiries must include, at a
minimum, the vendor’s name, address, phone number, facsimile number, and e-mail address.
MVU will issue responses to inquiries and any other corrections or amendments it deems
necessary in written addenda issued by close of business on October 31, 2006. Vendors
should not rely on any statements or explanations other than those made in this RFI or in any
addendum to this RFI. Where there appears to be a conflict between this RFI and any addenda
issued, the last addendum issued will prevail.
Deliver Hard Copies to:
David Myers
Director, Michigan LearnPort
RFI MVU11222006
Michigan Virtual University
3101 Technology Blvd., Suite G
Lansing, MI 48910
517-664-5468 or dmyers@mivu.org
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