STATEMENT OF WORK

Overview:

Proposal Objective:

The objective of this proposal is to obtain and implement a Curriculum Management System (CMS) at Western Nevada College (WNC) that can run articulation & curriculum changes through a more automated process.

Background:

Currently, WNC’s process to add or update courses and programs is completed through pdf forms and an email process that is submitted to multiple offices and committees at WNC, and all institutions within the Nevada Higher System of Education (NSHE). Completed forms are not readily accessible to all parties which creates varying submission types often missing key elements and required paperwork. Data is manually entered which leaves opportunity for error.

WNC’s goal is to create a streamlined, efficient, and uniformed process to complete, submit, and process course and program changes. WNC is looking for a curriculum management solution to allow for drafting, editing and tracking courses and programs; provide a workflow for the process; and integrate with PeopleSoft SIS and OMNI CMS.

Current Process for Course Management:

Faculty and Directors currently draft a course outline, complete the Common Course Numbering (CCN) & Articulation forms, and submit it to the Vice President of Academic & Student Affairs (VPASA) office for review. Once reviewed, the form is emailed to all NSHE Institutions for review and approval to adhere to the CCN policy and procedure guidelines ( https://ir.nevada.edu/ccn.php ). After the course has been vetted by sister NSHE institutions, all paperwork is submitted to the WNC Curriculum Committee Chair and Director of Admissions & Records. It is then added to the next Curriculum Committee monthly meeting agenda for review and approval. Once courses are approved by the Curriculum Committee, the Director of Admissions and Records emails them to NSHE to add to the CCN Database. Once in CCN Database, Director of Admissions and Records or designee will manually enter course information (Course number, title, units, prerequisites, course description, funding category, CIP code, course attributes) into Peoplesoft (SIS), and update course information on WNC website through Omni CMS. Course outlines, which include course objectives and student learning outcomes, as well, are stored in alternate methods throughout various departments, and we do not have one common database or filing system which holds all existing outlines.

Current Process for Program Management:

As the official publication of curriculum requirements, the catalog is also a reflection of a complex curriculum approval process that must be tracked by multiple institutional units, including faculty, departments, academic directors, the Curriculum Committee, Admissions & Records office, and the VPASA.

Currently faculty and academic directors draft program proposals in varying submission types, often missing key elements. This inconsistency creates significant lag time in review of program proposals. Proposals are submitted by email to the Curriculum Committee Chair and Director of Admissions & Records and then added to the next monthly Curriculum Committee meeting. Once reviewed and approved by the Curriculum Committee the submitting faculty completes and submits the proper NSHE program change/proposal forms to submit for the NSHE Academic Affairs Council (AAC) approval. These have not consistently been submitted to the Curriculum Committee with the initial request, which creates room for error. The Director of Admissions & Records will track minutes for the Nevada’s Board of Regents (BoR) meetings for approval. Once approved and recorded in BoR minutes, the Director of Admissions & Records will put the program information into catalog format to submit for printed catalog, and manually enter new degree programs and changes to existing programs on WNC website through Omni CMS on timeline for next catalog year. Admissions & Records staff will then build the program within Peoplesoft for degree audits/advising reports. For approvals that don’t require BoR approval, the VPASA office emails the Director of Admissions & Records with notice of approval.

Scope of Work

Catalog Management Application

Access to the system:

The system must be web based and be accessible via standard internet browsers, mobile web devices (smart phones) and tablets.

The system must support single logon user account management.

The system must provide an automated mechanism for authentication with WNC ‘s account provisioning system, Active Directory. We prefer to have the same login/password as WNC’s Active Directory (e.g. SAML or secure LDAP) for system users to streamline efficiency and improve user experience.

The system should be hosted remotely and provide a 99% threshold for uptime and outages. Response time on a per click basis should not exceed 3 seconds unless the operation is server intensive and proper feedback is given. The vendor will address response time in their submission.

Communication must be provided for expected outages due to maintenance and upgrades.

Management of users within the system:

The system must provide role-based permissions. Please describe the set-up and maintenance of this feature, and give examples of roles (i.e. administrative, editor, read-only). Please describe the level of flexibility of the system to allow users to have varying roles within the workflow.

The system must provide user-based permissions. Please describe the set-up and maintenance of this feature.

The system must provide field level permissions.

Approval process management:

The system must provide the ability to define standard approval paths for catalog edits.

The system must provide the ability to define exception-based approval paths for catalog edits. If this is not inherent to the system, please explain how this is achieved.

The system must provide the ability to set up a custom route for a single or multiple occurrences of exception routes. If this is not inherent to the system, please explain how this is achieved.

The system must provide a multi-tiered workflow that supports parent/child approval processes (co-approvals).

The system must provide a method for voting or hierarchical approval.

Content editing:

The system must provide a WYSIWG editor that allows for adding, editing and deleting of catalog content in real time. (Edits are realized as soon as approval is secured and the website is updated by the Web Services team.)

The system must provide a historical view of edits, including user, date/time, and action.

The system must provide a mechanism for streamlining content edits by allowing users to make edits in one content area and apply them to multiple locations where the content is impacted.

The system must maintain a historical history of edits in archived catalogs.

The system must allow for management of multiple versions of the catalog, such as in development and in production.

Any element of content can be linked to other web pages.

Content management:

The system must provide a systematic approach to managing end editing catalog content.

The system must provide an effective way to make changes to catalog data. It is preferred that this is database driven and that changes will be made one time and distributed throughout the catalog.

The system must provide a variety of status options for displaying material. Please describe what options you provide (i.e. active, inactive, etc.).

The system must provide a mechanism for cross-listing course data. The functionality should be available to link multiple courses as well as one-to-many courses to multiple programs. Please describe how this is set up, maintained and edited.

College website and branding integration:

The system must share the branding with WNC’s existing website to allow for the same “look and feel.” i.e. with the ability to be formatted to match the WNC’s website.

The system must provide a method for displaying the entire catalog.

The system must provide a method for displaying the catalog data by search criteria (ex. program, course, college, degree type, etc.)

The system must provide a method for searching by multiple criteria (ex. advanced search uses multiple components to narrow search).

Curriculum management integration:

The system must seamlessly integrate with the vendor’s curriculum management application. Please explain how this is achieved.

The system may provide or allow for building an articulation and transferability management module, at least for institutions within the Nevada System of Higher Education (NSHE) system.

Printing:

The system must provide a mechanism to print an acceptable standard of pdf version of the catalog.

The system must provide a mechanism to print a pdf version of the catalog by specified search criteria (college, degree, program, course, etc.).

Historical data:

The system must provide a mechanism for the storage and display of an unlimited number of historical catalogs.

The vendor must provide a method to reproduce the current pdf catalog in the application.

Reporting:

The system must provide good business intelligence reporting on the data object / entities it contains. Web Analytics for site usage must be provided.

The system must provide a user interface to run non-­ standard reports. Please define the mechanism for how this is achieved. (i.e. utilizes web services, etc.).

The system must provide a comparison report to the college SIS data.

The system must provide error reporting.

The system must provide data access for ad hoc reporting needs. Please describe the format by which this is achieved.

Implementation:

The system should be designed in a way that does not demand extensive coding or programming expertise from WNC to construct and execute.

The vendor should offer analysis and guidance on creating standard templates for the catalog. Best practices advice must also be provided for this purpose.

Prior to implementation, WNC will conduct an analysis on the required data and provide standard and non-standard template ideas.

The vendor is required to provide a plan and timeline for implementing a sample.

The vendor is required to detail the resources needed from WNC, including estimated time and skill level.

The vendor is required to provide thorough initial training for administrators and a designated group of campus end users who will subsequently train other campus end users.

Curriculum Management Application

Access to the system:

The system must be web based and be accessible via standard internet browsers, mobile web devices (smart phones) and tablets.

The system should have the capability to manage user accounts with a single login. Additionally, it should have an automated authentication mechanism that integrates with WNC's account provisioning system, Active Directory. Ideally, system users should be able to use the same login/password as WNC's Active Directory (e.g. SAML or secure LDAP) for increased efficiency and a better user experience.

It is important to note that this capability is contingent on the hiring of a Server Administrator who can implement Active Directory. If a Server Administrator is not available, a System Administrator will be appointed to manage the users within the system. Once Active Directory is in place, the system will be able to seamlessly integrate with it to provide a streamlined and efficient user experience.

It is recommended that the system be hosted remotely and offer a minimum uptime threshold of 99% to ensure minimal outages.

It is important that this system includes Multi Factor Authentication (MFA) to enhance security measures and protect against unauthorized access to sensitive data. MFA adds an extra layer of security by requiring users to provide additional information, such as a code sent to their mobile device or a fingerprint scan, in addition to their username and password. This helps to prevent identity theft, data breaches, and other security threats.

The system should include communication protocols for planned maintenance and upgrades that may result in outages. Furthermore, it is expected that the response time for user clicks should not exceed 3 seconds unless the operation is server-intensive, and clear feedback is provided. The vendor should address the response time requirements in their submission.

Management of users within the system:

User management is an essential aspect of the system's functionality. It is required to provide role-based and user-based permissions. The setup and maintenance of these features, as well as the flexibility of the system to accommodate varying roles within the workflow, should be described. Examples of roles may include administrative, editor, or read-only access.

Additionally, the system should provide field-level permissions. The setup and maintenance of this feature should also be described.

Curriculum content management:

The system must provide a systematic approach to managing end editing curriculum content.

The system must provide an effective way to make changes to curriculum data. It is preferred that this is database driven and that changes will be made one time and distributed throughout the catalog.

Intuitive edit capability that tracks users by color and allows users to view the proposal in its original state, its current state, and to remove edits by individual users.

The system must provide a mechanism for selecting the effective date for curriculum modifications. It is preferred that it be both standard and exceptions based (i.e. standard effective terms like fall 2015 or variable like a specific date). Please describe your process for handling this feature to include details on how this can be modified and configured from within the system.

The system must provide a mechanism for cross-listing course data. The functionality should be available to link multiple courses as well as one-to-many courses to multiple programs. Please describe how this is set up, maintained and edited.

Approval process management:

Complete control over forms and workflow allowing administrators to quickly modify or add approval processes at any time.

The system must provide the ability to define standard approval paths for curriculum edits or new curriculum submissions.

The system must provide the ability to define exception-based approval paths for curriculum edits or new curriculum submissions. If this is not inherent to the system, please provide an explanation on how this is achieved.

It is preferred that the system is easily modifiable from the user interface. Please provide a description and example of how the user would modify an approval path.

The system must provide the ability to set up a custom route for a single or multiple occurrence of an exception route. If this is not inherent to the system, please provide an explanation on how this is achieved.

The system must provide a multi-tiered workflow that supports parent child approval processes (co-approvals).

The system must provide a method for voting or hierarchy for approval.

It is preferred that the voting functionality is available for committee use. Please describe the functionality available in this feature. Include a description of the set-up, maintenance and application (i.e. defining thresholds, expiration, tallying, etc.).

The system must provide a mechanism that distinguishes varying levels of access for each step in the workflow process. Please explain how this is achieved.

Curricular process management:

The system must provide the ability to create curricular approval paths for courses and programs, including degrees and degree emphases, certificates of achievement, and skills certificates.

Degrees, emphases and certificate programs should be constructed from course data elements built elsewhere in the system with checks and notifications that should occur if a program's courses are changed or deleted.

The system must provide the ability to create an infinite number of curricular approval paths. This refers to the number or variations of paths. If this is not inherent to the system, please provide a description of how this is handled.

The system must provide the ability to manage the approval process down to the field level.

The system must provide an interface that allows for the modification of its own existing curricular approval processes.

The system must provide a mechanism for the creation of new curricular approval processes. If this is not inherent to the system, please provide an explanation on how this is handled.

The system must provide a historical view of all actions related to the workflow (i.e. date edited by user, reviewers’ edits or comments, actions performed, etc.). Please explain how this is handled and what data is included in the historical record.

The system must provide for an unlimited amount of curriculum workflow processes (forms). As business processes are added, the forms must be able to be modified to accept the additional data. Please note if this is inherent to the system or if this is provided through additional development efforts.

The system must provide for an unlimited amount of data to be included in the forms. Please describe your process for managing changes to the form data (adding, deleting and managing existing). Note if this is a configurable feature or if it requires up front design.

Conditional logic that can automatically invite the appropriate participants based on form criteria and decisions.

Forms should allow for the attachment of external documents, such as required Nevada System of Higher Education forms, preferably as binary files in their native format.

The system should provide a mechanism for creating a pdf version of the curricular approval processes (form) and emailing the pdf export of the form outside of the application.

The system should send an automated confirmation when a submission is made to the submitter and to the persons at the next levels in the approval process.

The system should send an automated confirmation when a submission is reviewed to the submitter and the person in charge of the curriculum review process.

The system should send automatic notifications for status changes, edits, comments, deadlines, reminders, and system notifications, with preferences that tailor the frequency and amount of emails and provides only the information that the user needs.

Reporting:

The system must provide standard reports and a user interface to run such reports Please describe the standard reporting features of the system and specifically address the ability to.

The system must provide a user interface to run non-­ standard reports. Please define the mechanism for how this is achieved (i.e. utilizes web services).

The system must provide a comparison report to the college SIS data.

The system must provide error reporting.

The system must provide data access for ad hoc reporting needs. Please describe the format by which this is achieved.

Built-in reporting should provide insightful views of the curriculum management process at a given point in time, the users involved, the impact of proposed changes, and the process over multiple management cycles.

Agenda management:

The system must provide the capability to create an agenda from curricular action items.

The agenda should be printable to a pdf or word processing document for emailing or file sharing.

The system may provide the capability to use a working agenda during a meeting.

The system may provide a working agenda that can be viewed via a standard web browser, mobile device or tablet.

The system may provide functionality to view, edit and approve/disapprove curricular actions within a meeting environment. We would prefer a system that can group proposals and allow for approval of proposals as a group. Please describe this feature if present.

SIS integration:

The system must provide integration ability that is compliant with SIS core technology.

The system may provide an open database architecture that allows for integration with PeopleSoft.

The system must provide a mechanism for producing output that can be added to existing PeopleSoft tables. Please define if this is automated or requires manual data entry.

The system must receive data updates from existing PeopleSoft data tables.

The system may have built in, out of the box Integration with PeopleSoft.

The system may provide XML, JSON, and / or restful service or integration.

Catalog and Curriculum System Integration:

The Curriculum Workflow Management System and the Catalog Management System must be integrated.

Curriculum Management System should integrate seamlessly with PeopleSoft and the Catalog Management System in such a way that allows for regular data flow in both directions.

Implementation:

Please address the ability to import from our current MCO/DEC databases (i.e. CSV, XML, Restful post service).

The program will not require highly specialized coding or programming experience from the WNC to build and implement a system.

The system must be implemented in a timely and accurate manner.

The vendor must provide an onsite project team for assessment, implementation, and support. Please describe the various roles and team members that will be deployed during this process.

Please provide a sample project implementation plan and timeline.

Please include a brief summary of your project management process or methodology.

Please include an explanation on how scope creep and sliding deliverables are handled.

The vendor must specify resources required by WNC (these should include skill level and time estimates).

Comprehensive initial user training must be provided. Please provide an explanation of the services you provide and the timeframe they are executed within.

Technical support must be supplied. Please define expectations for deliverables of your staff vs. WNC IT Staff members. Include time estimates.

The vendor must work with WNC's Web Services and Marketing and Communications groups to adhere to WNC branding.

Support (both Catalog Management and Curriculum Management Systems)

The vendor must provide ongoing technical training and support. Please define the expectations for this relationship.

System upgrades must be included as part of the annual maintenance agreement.

Bug fixes and patches must be included.

A system or process must be provided for logging and resolution of bugs, errors, etc.

Custom development services should be available.

Cost estimates for custom development must be provided in the financial response document (hourly consulting rates are fine).

Environment

Please describe your development environment and best practices.

Please describe how you test for multiple environmental factors (i.e. multiple browsers).

Please provide details on how you ensure a quality user experience.

Please provide a description of your corporate disaster recovery methods.

Please describe your network security practices to safeguard access to the system.

Custom Modifications

Please provide a description on how you handle items that are identified as out of scope or that require custom development work.

A fee schedule by role must be supplied as part of the financial response for time and materials support. Provide in a separate sealed envelope, marked with RFP number.

General Information

The catalog management and curriculum management systems should be adaptable and extendable by utilizing industry standards or best practices in terms of data modeling. Please describe how your company uses industry standards and best practices in terms of data modeling.

The catalog management and curriculum management systems should have a robust data api to extend the system capabilities and provide flexibility as system needs evolve. Please explain how your company achieves this.

Please note any partnerships or integration agreements that you have (i.e. Oracle, PeopleSoft, etc.).

Please mention any user or vendor conferences that your company supports or participates in.

Please provide information regarding your knowledge of, or willingness to participate with compliance efforts towards the Northwest Commission on Colleges and Universities (NWCCU) Accrediting body.

Please feel encouraged to provide any other characteristics about your organization that you feel are relevant to the selection process in this section.

Expected Start and Delivery Dates

The project timeline will include an initial review of submissions by the RFP Draft Group, a live hand on demonstrations with two participants, the RFP Review Committee actively attending and all faculty and staff viewing the demonstration, and vendor rankings as follows.

If this deliverable date is acceptable, please provide a timeline with milestones that adhere to this timeframe.

If this deliverable date is not acceptable, please state why not and provide an alternative timeline with milestones that adhere to the proposed new time frame.

SECTION 3: PROPOSAL REQUIREMENTS AND MEASURES OF EVALUATION

PROPOSAL SUBMITTAL REQUIREMENTS:

Proposers interested in submitting a response to this Request for Proposal should provide responses with specific examples, where possible, for all areas within the Scope of Work.

Proposers interested in submitting a response should provide a succinct summary content to be shown at demonstrations of the catalog management and curriculum management products and suggest dates for product demonstrations.

Evaluation criteria

Vendors will be evaluated on the following criteria:

Scope of Work: The vendor will provide responses with examples and adequate detail to all areas outlined in the Scope of Work

Demonstration: The vendor will prepare and deliver an in-person or webinar demonstration of the areas outlined in the Scope of work. During or following the demonstration, the vendor will respond to any follow-up questions

Reference Check: The vendor will provide the name and contact information of at least 3 references. We would prefer to hear from client institutions that have implemented both curriculum management and catalog management solutions from the vendor and are similar to Western Nevada College.

Price: The vendor will provide separate pricing; comparative value will be evaluated against competing vendors.