NOI-noncompetitive-purchase-MSU-25-001.docx

STATE OF NORTH DAKOTA

Minot State University 500 University Avenue W Minot, ND 58707

NOTICE OF INTENT TO MAKE A

NONCOMPETITIVE PURCHASE

January 27, 2025

The State of North Dakota intends to make a purchase for which we believe there is no competition. The purpose of this notice is to determine if other sources are available and whether the procurement method is appropriate.

Vendors are permitted to submit bids or proposals for equivalent commodities or services in response to this notice. A party interested in providing these commodities or services is instructed to submit a written response to the Procurement Officer by the response deadline.

PURCHASING AGENCY: Minot State University

PURCHASE DESCRIPTION:

The State intends to make a noncompetitive purchase for assessment and placement monitoring, tracking, and reporting for education degree programs.

Assessment activities:

· Send clinical assignments to teacher candidates (accessible by mentor teachers and university faculty as well) using a workflow system that enables levels of transparency

· Support a variety of types of responses in one clinical assignment (rubrics, checklists, text responses, attachments, videos, other visual file types)

· Support up to 10 different activities and forms in one activity in the system

· Mentor teachers and university faculty must be able to evaluate student work in the software system and preserve those results

· Assessment activities must be able to be assigned to clinical experiences or to university coursework Assessment Reporting:

· Ability to generate user friendly assessment reports by assessment tool or by educational standard

· Reports must include demographic variables that allow for disaggregation of data when needed Progress tracking:

· Track progress of teacher candidates towards program completion using a Minot State University specific set of predefined completion markers

· Allow teacher candidates to demonstrate fulfillment of those completion markers with statements of acknowledgement or uploading of files or images.

Placements:

· Manage placements for teacher candidates in regional schools, tracking teacher candidates and mentor teachers

· Provide information gathered from IPEDS regarding placement sites in relation to demographic characteristics

· Track all placements over time for all teacher candidates and mentor teachers Applications:

· The system must be able to provide application templates that allow candidates applying for admission or student teaching to provide needed information including uploading of files and visual images.

Integration:

· The system must integrate with our LMS and with Campus Connect to import student information, faculty information, and course information.

Delivery Location: Digital

Contract Terms:

· Start July 1, 2025 for term of three (3) years to end on June 30, 2028.

INTENDED SOURCE:

Watermark 10900 Stonelake Blvd Quarry Oaks II, Suite B350 Austin, TX 78759

PRICE:

Three-year contract total price of $80,287.08.

JUSTIFICATION:

Currently under contract with Watermark and began under a service called "TK20." As this product reached end of life, we transitioned to Student learning and Licensure (SLL), a product also owned by Watermark. We are currently in the last few months of this latest contract with Watermark. SLL provides us with the ability to make placements for over 300 students per semester (at the undergraduate and graduate levels), collect and report assessment data on those placements, monitor the placement history for each student, allow faculty to assess student reflections and journals, allow faculty and our school partners to complete rubrics in relation to student performance, assign and evaluate course based assessments, track student progression through the program through the Gateways application, and easily revise placement templates and assessment rubrics. The SLL product also connects easily to our Power BI system, allowing us to maintain the Quality Assurance System required by our accreditor. SLL is crucial to our ability to offer rigorous and outstanding teacher education programs, by supporting our clinical process as well as our accreditation processes.

QUESTIONS

A vendor may contact the Procurement Officer to discuss whether its proposed solution meets the requirements. Submit any questions or requests for clarification to the Procurement Officer as soon as possible and before the response deadline.

Sheila Latham Procurement Officer E-mail: Sheila.latham@minotstateu.edu Telephone: 701-858-4145

RESPONSE FORMAT:

Vendors interested in submitting a response to this notice must provide the following information for consideration:

· Company Information: Provide the name of the firm, address, and website, if available.

· Contact Information: Provide the name of a contact person, telephone number, and email address.

· Specifications: Vendors are instructed to examine the Purchase Description included in this notice. When preparing your response to this notice, provide a point-by-point response to each of the described requirements. Provide detailed specifications demonstrating that the offered solution meets or exceeds the requirements stated in this notice. Provide any available documents and links to information available on the vendor’s website.

· Value-Added: Vendors may provide information about value-added features, functionality, alternatives, and additionally available components or services that are not specifically identified in the purchase description within the notice.

· Cost: Provide detailed cost information, including any applicable shipping and handling. Responses may include pricing for any offered value-added options.

RESPONSE DEADLINE: February 3, at 3:00 PM CT

RESPONSE INSTRUCTION:

ELECTRONIC SUBMISSION REQUIRED: An interested party must electronically submit their response through the State Procurement Office Online system (SPO Online) by the response deadline. This solicitation is posted on SPO Online: https://apps.nd.gov/csd/spo/services/bidder/main.htm. Upload instructions are provided below. Make sure to include your name and e-mail address when uploading responses to SPO Online.

DO NOT WAIT UNTIL THE “LAST MINUTE” TO SUBMIT A RESPONSE. We recommend uploading responses 24 hours prior to the response deadline.

Bidder must begin the electronic submission process well in advance of the response deadline to allow for transmission and resolution of any technical difficulties. Be advised that the STATE is not responsible for a vendors failure to timely submit a response due to any technical difficulties. If you experience any technical difficulties, contact the Procurement Officer listed in this notice or the State Procurement Office at infospo@nd.gov or 701.328.2740.

If documents are in the process of being uploaded when the response deadline occurs, the upload process will stop. The attempted submission will not be uploaded successfully and is ineligible for consideration. The STATE takes no responsibility for electronic submissions that are captured, blocked, filtered, quarantined, or otherwise prevented from uploading by any anti-virus software or other security software.

1. This solicitation is posted on SPO Online at: https://apps.nd.gov/csd/spo/services/bidder/main.htm

2. Select “Recent Solicitations” and find this solicitation. Solicitations are listed by close date.

3. Use “Upload Response” to upload a maximum of five (5), clearly labeled documents before the response deadline.

4. Offerors must upload their response as requested in the response instruction section of this notice.

5. The maximum file size allowed is 50mb per file.

6. There is a 50 character file name limitation for the document being uploaded.

7. There is 75 character limit in the TITLE field within SPO Online.

8. All SPO Online field entries must be alphanumeric. Dashes and underscores are allowed; however, the system does not accept other special characters such as apostrophes, & symbols, or quotation marks, etc.

9. DO NOT submit documents that are embedded (zip files), movies, wmp, encrypted, or mp3 files.

10.The vendor will receive an email confirmation from infospo@nd.gov that the upload response was received including the “File Description” for the uploaded files. Review this email to ensure all files were successfully uploaded. If the vendor does not receive an email confirmation, the upload was not successful, and you will need to upload the files again. If the vendor does not receive an email confirmation after the reattempt, contact the Procurement Officer listed in this notice or the State Procurement Office at infospo@nd.gov or 701.328.2740.

Visit https://www.omb.nd.gov/sites/www/files/documents/doing-business-with-the-state/procurement/spo-electronic-response-external-job-aid.pdf for the SPO Electronic Response Job Aid which describes how to submit an electronic response.