Award

Supply, Installation and Support of Canvas Virtual Learning Environment

  • THE UNIVERSITY OF BIRMINGHAM

F15: Voluntary ex ante transparency notice

Notice identifier: 2024/S 000-018665

Procurement identifier (OCID): ocds-h6vhtk-04708f

Published 17 June 2024, 4:37pm



Section one: Contracting authority/entity

one.1) Name and addresses

THE UNIVERSITY OF BIRMINGHAM

Edgbaston

BIRMINGHAM

B152TT

Contact

Nicola Handley

Email

N.J.Handley@bham.ac.uk

Country

United Kingdom

Region code

UKG31 - Birmingham

Companies House

RC000645

Internet address(es)

Main address

www.birmingham.ac.uk

one.4) Type of the contracting authority

Body governed by public law

one.5) Main activity

Education


Section two: Object

two.1) Scope of the procurement

two.1.1) Title

Supply, Installation and Support of Canvas Virtual Learning Environment

Reference number

FRAM299/18

two.1.2) Main CPV code

  • 72000000 - IT services: consulting, software development, Internet and support

two.1.3) Type of contract

Services

two.1.4) Short description

This is a license renewal of an existing key product used to facilitate Student Learning. Instructure has been supplying the Canvas VLE System to the University of Birmingham for over ten years following a thorough options appraisal.

two.1.6) Information about lots

This contract is divided into lots: No

two.1.7) Total value of the procurement (excluding VAT)

Value excluding VAT: £25,000,000

two.2) Description

two.2.3) Place of performance

NUTS codes
  • UKG31 - Birmingham

two.2.4) Description of the procurement

This is a license renewal of an existing key product used to facilitate Student Learning. Instructure has been supplying the Canvas VLE System to the University of Birmingham for over ten years following a thorough options appraisal.

Canvas is fundamental to Students' daily interactions with their learning materials, and we have worked with Instructure and our in-house teams to ensure the system has been developed to meet Birmingham's requirements. There are multiple connections and integrations between Canvas and other university systems and platforms including data import feeds from the student record system (Banner) via an in-house VLE administration platform 'Canvas Admin' in order to manage student course enrolment; data import and export to the 'Canvas Admin' platform in order to support VLE administrative functions, manage student enrolment, course creation, lecture capture automated processes, and reporting functions; student engagement analytics data export to in-house data warehouse and analytics dashboard; calendar export to our MyUoB student app; and integration with several additional tools and platforms used for teaching and learning including, Panopto Lecture Capture, Zoom Conferencing, Roll Call attendance, and a suite of assessment tools. The system is in use across the whole institution, on distance programmes and on our trans-national programmes and campuses.

In addition, Canvas holds current and past course learning materials, assessment content, and manages access to current and past lecture recording content. The size of this archive is significant.

The plans to extend the current contract for a maximum period of up to five years. This time will be used to fully assess and review the requirements on our full VLE ecosystem allowing a full review of our existing digital estate and a consideration of the benefits of other tools which we have enterprise licensing for such as the Microsoft 365 suite of tools. This work will be overseen by our Digital Learning Advisory Group (DLAG), Digital Steering Group (DSG) and senior academic and professional services sponsors.

A significant amount of internal investment in terms of developing training materials and supporting users has taken place since adoption.

Removing or replacing Canvas at this stage would adversely impact our immediate strategic goals, would directly have a detrimental impact on the staff and student experience and would require significant time and staff resourcing. Since Canvas is integrated with Banner (our student record system) we also need to plan any change around our ongoing Institutional student administration upgrade programme (StARS).

Business ownership of Canvas across University of Birmingham is managed by our Higher Education Futures Institute (HEFi) with Service Ownership managed by IT Services.

The Business Owner will need to undertake an options re-appraisal and associated procurement process 18 months before the end of this five-year period in order to obtain the best future fit in terms of requirements and also value for money

two.2.11) Information about options

Options: No


Section four. Procedure

four.1) Description

four.1.1) Type of procedure

Negotiated without a prior call for competition

  • New works/services, constituting a repetition of existing works/services

Explanation:

This is a license renewal of an existing key product used to facilitate Student Learning. Instructure has been supplying the Canvas VLE System to the University of Birmingham for over ten years following a thorough options appraisal.

Canvas is fundamental to Students' daily interactions with their learning materials, and we have worked with Instructure and our in-house teams to ensure the system has been developed to meet Birmingham's requirements. There are multiple connections and integrations between Canvas and other university systems and platforms including data import feeds from the student record system (Banner) via an in-house VLE administration platform 'Canvas Admin' in order to manage student course enrolment; data import and export to the 'Canvas Admin' platform in order to support VLE administrative functions, manage student enrolment, course creation, lecture capture automated processes, and reporting functions; student engagement analytics data export to in-house data warehouse and analytics dashboard; calendar export to our MyUoB student app; and integration with several additional tools and platforms used for teaching and learning including, Panopto Lecture Capture, Zoom Conferencing, Roll Call attendance, and a suite of assessment tools. The system is in use across the whole institution, on distance programmes and on our trans-national programmes and campuses.

In addition, Canvas holds current and past course learning materials, assessment content, and manages access to current and past lecture recording content. The size of this archive is significant.

The plans to extend the current contract for a maximum period of up to five years. This time will be used to fully assess and review the requirements on our full VLE ecosystem allowing a full review of our existing digital estate and a consideration of the benefits of other tools which we have enterprise licensing for such as the Microsoft 365 suite of tools. This work will be overseen by our Digital Learning Advisory Group (DLAG), Digital Steering Group (DSG) and senior academic and professional services sponsors.

A significant amount of internal investment in terms of developing training materials and supporting users has taken place since adoption.

Removing or replacing Canvas at this stage would adversely impact our immediate strategic goals, would directly have a detrimental impact on the staff and student experience and would require significant time and staff resourcing. Since Canvas is integrated with Banner (our student record system) we also need to plan any change around our ongoing Institutional student administration upgrade programme (StARS).

Business ownership of Canvas across University of Birmingham is managed by our Higher Education Futures Institute (HEFi) with Service Ownership managed by IT Services.

The Business Owner will need to undertake an options re-appraisal and associated procurement process 18 months before the end of this five-year period in order to obtain the best future fit in terms of requirements and also value for money

four.1.8) Information about the Government Procurement Agreement (GPA)

The procurement is covered by the Government Procurement Agreement: Yes


Section five. Award of contract/concession

A contract/lot is awarded: Yes

five.2) Award of contract/concession

five.2.1) Date of conclusion of the contract

17 June 2024

five.2.2) Information about tenders

The contract has been awarded to a group of economic operators: No

five.2.3) Name and address of the contractor/concessionaire

Instructure Global Ltd

London

Country

United Kingdom

NUTS code
  • UK - United Kingdom
Companies House

08938689

The contractor/concessionaire is an SME

No

five.2.4) Information on value of contract/lot/concession (excluding VAT)

Initial estimated total value of the contract/lot/concession: £25,000,000

Total value of the contract/lot/concession: £25,000,000


Section six. Complementary information

six.4) Procedures for review

six.4.1) Review body

University of Birmingham

Edgbaston

Country

United Kingdom