Encyclopedia Database.pdf

REQUEST FOR INFORMATION

K-12 General Encyclopedia Database

1.0 Description

1.1 The Department of Defense Education Activity (DoDEA) seeks information on how interested contractors could provide a standalone general encyclopedia database for our school information centers systemwide. It shall possess the following characteristics:

Commercial, off-the-shelf (COTS), standalone online general knowledge encyclopedia that supports DoDEA’s K-12 curricula; that is, one that addresses the essential information, literacy, and library research needs of our elementary and secondary students.

Accessibility of all online electronic resources throughout the school building and from remote locations.

Note: DoDEA will provide IP (Internet Protocol) ranges for automatic authentication and a password structure for remote user access.

Product licensing based on a per student/staff model. Products shall be licensed for all students/staff in order to meet the needs of students who may be located in either an elementary or secondary building.

Note: DoDEA will not accept a site-based or per-building licensing model.

1.2 This request for information (RFI) is issued solely for information and planning and does not constitute a request for quote (RFQ) or a promise to issue an RFQ in the future.

The Government will not pay for any information or administrative costs incurred in response to this RFI;

i.e., all costs associated with responding to this RFI are solely the responder’s responsibility.

Not responding to the RFI does not preclude a contractor from responding to a future RFQ/RFP. If a solicitation is released, it will be synopsized on the SAM.gov website. Potential responders are responsible to monitor the relevant site for additional information pertaining to this requirement.

2.0 Overview

2.1 Agency: For school year 2024-25, the Department of Defense Education Activity (DoDEA) will provide PK-12 instruction in 161 schools to approximately 67,000 dependents of active-duty military and civilian employees. In the Americas, DoDEA operates 50 schools located in seven states, Puerto Rico, and Cuba. In Europe and the Middle East, DoDEA operates 64 schools located in Germany, England, Netherlands, Belgium, Spain, Italy, Turkey, and Bahrain. In the Pacific, DoDEA operates 46 schools located in Korea, Japan (mainland and Okinawa), and Guam. DoDEA also operates a fully accredited virtual high school with teaching hubs in each DoDEA region.

DoDEA's curriculum, resources and student achievement scores on standardized assessments compare favorably to those of high-performing US public school systems.

2.2 Background

School Information Centers: All sites with over 100 students are staffed by a certified school library information specialist. Each regional office is staffed by an Information Center Specialist who serves as the coordinator for school library information center programs in that region. Our schools use a union catalog which has approximately 450,000 bibliographic records and 2,500,000 item records. Authority records, which were updated in 2024, are used.

Supervision: The proposed contract provides a standalone general encyclopedia database for DoDEA information centers systemwide. The Government will not exercise any supervision or control over the contract service providers performing the services herein. Such contract service providers shall be accountable solely to the Contractor who, in turn, shall be responsible to the Government.

Acquisition and Enrollment History: DoDEA is recompeting the current, expiring contract, per federal regulations. Based on historical trends, enrollment is expected to decline slightly each year.

2.3 Requirements

2.1.1 Annual Licenses—The Contractor shall:

1) Provide an enriched multimedia version of a print encyclopedia or a multi-media encyclopedia created specifically for the Web environment. Note: The encyclopedia may not be limited to an electronic text representation of a print encyclopedia, a text-only database, or a collection of public domain Web sites or encyclopedias. Product shall be updated monthly as a minimum.

2) Provide an encyclopedia with that enables users to do the following:

o Access/use the resource easily—no more than 3-4 clicks from initial search to obtaining information. View colorful, intuitive interfaces with graphics that are appropriate for the age-level being served.

o Access and search the encyclopedia based on grade bands, such as Elementary (K-5), Middle (grades 6-8) and High (grades 9-12). Conduct simple and advanced searches. All students shall have capability to access each grade band due to varying reading/ developmental levels. Students in grades 6-8, e.g., who may be reading at a 10th grade level, shall have ability to access 9-12 grade band to correspond with their reading level.

o Access and view text, images, maps, charts, sounds, animation, and film (moving image).

Access on-demand librarian tools, teacher tips, lesson plans, and user tutorials.

o Save digital elements from the encyclopedia (such as links, articles, images, digital video) and embed them in virtual reference tools and other online tools used to design digital or virtual instruction. Print, email, embed, link and save retrieved items.

o Provide reading level, vocabulary, and conceptual level appropriate for the grade band.

Provide a read-aloud function for text.

2.1.2 User Access—The Contractor shall:

1) Provide scalable user access for all students and staff, with approximately 61,000 K-12 students and approximately 12,500 educators. Note: The number of students, which varies depending on the military’s priorities, has trended downward almost every year for the past two decades.

2) Provide products that can integrate with an integrated library system (ILS), DoDEA learning management system (LMS, currently Schoology) and/or Google drive, and are compatible with a single sign on platform such as ClassLink or Clever.

3) Provide user access as follows:

o By staff and students at their school and their homes.

o To individual databases and/or electronic resource products via one URL which does not incorporate the school’s name.

o Through both username/password and IP [Internet protocol] authentication based on

DoDEA need. Individual schools can require different types of sign-on [one school may require username/password and another school may require IP authentication]. Note: If username/password authentication is required, DoDEA will define them by school. They will be at the school level only—not at the individual student/teacher level, i.e. products may not require use of individual student/teacher usernames/passwords.

2.1.3 Virtual Learning—The Contractor shall provide virtual learning services, employing the webinar option, digital module option, or a combination of the two. Provide age- and developmentally appropriate digital information so that students and staff can use the databases effectively. Note: If a combination is used, it must be clearly described in the narrative quote.

1) Webinar Option: Provide 2-hour synchronous webinars during normal school hours based on the time zone of the DoDEA schools in the Americas, Europe, and Pacific—a total of six hours per year for each year of the contract. Each presentation shall have approximately 90 minutes of instruction followed by a question-and-answer period lasting up to 30 minutes in length.

Record each webinar and provide to DoDEA for placement on our LMS. Note: Delivery dates and times will be determined post-award by DoDEA in consultation with the Contractor.

2) Module Option: Provide digital modules, which include video clips of actual instruction. Ensure each year’s modules are equivalent to six hours of instruction. Package and deliver all online content for publishing and reusability in Sharable Content Object Reference Model® (SCORM®) packages for placement on our LMS.

2.1.4 General Requirements—The Contractor shall:

1) Technical Support: Provide industry-standard technical support for its digital resources for the life of the contract via telephone or email within one business day from the initial contact to include but not limited to assisting with service problems, product setup, upgrades, and troubleshooting.

2) Technical Requirements for Digital Resources—The Contractor shall:

Provide digital resources designed to run in DoDEA’s learning management system (LMS, Schoology), which operates within our virtual learning environment (VLE).

Deliver digital instructional resources in one of the following formats:

o Integrated via DoDEA’s LMS to the digital resources hosted by the Contractor.

o Hosted externally by the Contractor but accessible via DoDEA’s LMS to the digital assignments and assessments imported, hosted, and maintained in the LMS.

Ensure the course content meets the following specifications:

o Conforms to IMS Learning Global Consortium (IMS) content packaging specifications.

Uses imported content, if required, conforming to IMS content packaging specifications.

o Uses code that does not disable LMS features when digital resources are accessed.

o Requires single—not multiple—authentications to access content via DoDEA’s LMS.

o Incorporates, where applicable, assessments that are IMS Test & Question Interoperability

(QTI)-conformant.

o Uses content-hosted externally that conforms to any of the existing versions of IMS

Learning Tools Interoperability (LTI), per www.imsglobal.org.

o Provides teacher and student access to the Contractor’s digital resources through a single sign-on platform that uses one username and password to access what is needed, specifically, via DoDEA’s identity, rostering, and management platform (currently, ClassLink).

2.1.5 Third-Party Programs, Software, and Applications: Ensure its own and its subcontractors’ (third-party) programs, software, and applications meet—at a minimum—the same technical requirements as the Contractor must meet, such as single sign on (SSO) and Federal Risk and Authorization Management Program (FedRAMP) Level 2. On a case-by-case basis, DoDEA may honor requests to waive the FedRAMP Level 2 requirement.

2.4 Anticipated Period of Performance: January 21, 2025 – January 20, 2035

3.0 Responses

3.1 Interested parties are requested to respond to this RFI using Microsoft Word or a compatible format. We fully realize that you will be able to give a much more refined answer once the solicitation is released, but we hope you can provide some general information. In that regard, please include the following information:

3.1.1 Administration & Subcontracting

1) Company name, DBA name (if applicable), mailing address, and CAGE code.

2) Company’s North American Industry Classification System (NAICS) codes. Note: The current contract’s NAICS code has been changed from 511120 to 513120 (Periodical Publishers).

3) Designated point of contact name, title, phone number, and email address.

4) Business type based upon the NAICS codes your business uses to provide the requested services, e.g., large business, small business, 8(a)-certified business, etc. (Refer to Federal Acquisition Regulation 19 for additional information on small business size standards.)

5) Describe, if applicable, any subcontracting possibilities. Note: The prime must perform at least 51 percent of the work.

3.1.2 Capability: Briefly describe your organization’s capability to provide the required resources. That is, the way your database will address the general informational needs of our elementary and secondary students.

3.1.3 Professional Learning: Briefly describe your experience providing virtual professional learning to show both students and educators how to use the database effectively. If available, please provide a link to professional learning examples (asynchronous webinars and/or digital modules).

3.1.4 Pricing: Provide a non-binding price estimate or estimated range—that will be kept confidential— using the following breakdown for each of the ten years of the contract. If desired, submit this information on an Excel spreadsheet.

Categories Base OY1 OY2 OY3 OY4 OY5 OY6 OY7 OY8 OY9

Subscriptions - 61,000 students

Virtual Learning – Lot

Technical Support - Monthly

Total

3.1.5 Recommendations: Please provide any recommendations you believe might improve the Government’s performance work statement.

3.2 Please limit responses—not including pricing information—to 15 pages.

3.3 Proprietary information, if any, should be minimized and be clearly marked. Please segregate the proprietary information. Note: All submissions become Government property and will not be returned.

4.0 Industry Discussions

If discussions, to get greater clarification on such things as capability and pricing are needed, DoDEA representatives may contact potential offerors.

5.0 Questions

Questions regarding this announcement shall be submitted in writing by email to contract specialist Ms.

Allessandrea Bethea and contracting officer Ms. Hillary Turnbull at allessandrea.bethea@dodea.edu and hillary.turnbull@dodea.edu, respectively. Verbal questions will not be accepted. Questions will be answered via email and will not contain proprietary or classified information. The Government will not respond to questions received after 4:00 PM EST, Monday, May 20, 2024.

6.0 Summary

This RFI is issued solely for information and planning and does not constitute an RFQ/RFP. The information herein is subject to change and not binding on the Government. Release of this RFI is not a commitment that DoDEA will issue an RFQ/RFP in the future or that it authorizes costs to be incurred for which reimbursement would be required or sought. All submissions become Government property and will not be returned.

SUSPENSE: Submit your RFI response no later than 1PM EST on Friday, May 24, 2024. Email your response to contract specialist Ms. Allessandrea Bethea and contracting officer Ms. Hillary Turnbull at allessandrea.bethea@dodea.edu and hillary.turnbull@dodea.edu, respectively.