Virtual Learning Environment (VLE)

A Contract Award Notice
by UNIVERSITY OF MANCHESTER

Source: Find a Tender
Type: Contract (Goods)
Duration: not specified
Value: £3M

Sector: TECHNOLOGY
Published: 15 Feb 2022
Delivery: not specified
Deadline: n/a

Concepts

Location

Greater Manchester: The University of Manchester

Geochart for 1 buyers and 1 suppliers

1 buyer

Manchester University Manchester

1 supplier

Blackboard Rb Amsterdam

Description

Renewal of Blackboard Learn SaaS.

Award Detail

1	Blackboard (Rb Amsterdam) Virtual Learning Environment (VLE) Reference: 004279-2022-2021-1828-vle2022-jl-1 Value: £2,700,000

Renewal Options

3 year contract to commence November 2022, with the option to extend for a further 1 x 12 month period

Award Criteria

price

CPV Codes

48190000 - Educational software package

Indicators

Options are available.

Legal Justification

• The works, supplies or services can be provided only by a particular economic operator for the following reason: • absence of competition for technical reasons The continuity of a Virtual Learning Environment (VLE) is business-critical to the University and renewal of the Blackboard Learn SaaS solution is essential to our student experience. Change to a new environment is not possible at this stage but the University does anticipate undertaking a procurement exercise for a replacement during the calendar year 2022 • Student Experience. Due to Covid there has been considerable disruption to the student experience and it is essential that we have minimal disruption in the short term to ensure the continuity of the online components of teaching and learning. • We are currently undertaking a review of our requirements from a wide range of teaching and support staff across the University. The recommendations of this review is anticipated to be Spring 2022 and will be essential to shaping the specification as part of a competitive tendering process. • Given the time-frame for the review, and the expected length of time to conduct competitive tendering, it is not feasible that a future VLE supplier could be identified much before November 2022, when our existing Blackboard contract expires. • Sufficient time will be required to implement and configure the chosen solution and to migrate all existing course and student/staff data (c. 8,000 courses, 50,000 users). A reasonable estimate for this activity is 2-3 years, during which we will need to retain access to all Blackboard data in order to comply with data retention regulations.