E-learning (Blackboard Learn Software User License Expansion)

The Department of Veterans Affairs (VA), Veterans Health Administration (VHA) Telehealth Services requires 8,000 additional term user licenses for their current installation of Blackboard Learn software, the Telehealth E-Learning Platform. VHA Telehealth Services overarching goal is to use health informatics, disease management, and TeleHealth technologies to target care and case management and to improve access to care, thereby improving the health of our nation s Veterans. Tied to this goal is the need to effectively and efficiently train VA healthcare workers on the necessary Telehealth policies and procedures, and to do so in a way that allows for a high degree of interactivity between the trainer, learner, facilitator, and peer while minimizing costs, travel, and time out of the field. The purpose of this sole source requirement is to support the Telehealth Service E-Learning solution. The inclusion of a new and larger multi-community has several needs that are not fully met by the current deployed system.



VA intends to award this requirement as a sole source under the General Services Administration (GSA) Federal Supply Schedule (FSS) GS-35F-0554M schedule 70 to Blackboard, Inc. (a large business), 650 Massachusetts Avenue, 6th Floor, NW, Washington, DC 20001-3796. By the end of the business day on August 30, 2017, the Request for Quotation, Product Description, and redacted Sole Source Justification will be issued to this FBO pre-solicitation notice, and will close at 11:59pm EST on September 7, 2017.



Though the vast majority of this requirement is being procured via Blackboard s GSA contract, one line item, Blackboard s ICM - Self-Registration Module (part number AS-ICMCUSDV), is no longer available via their GSA catalog, and must be procured via the open market. The statutory authority permitting other than full and open competition is 41 U.S.C. 1903 as implemented by the Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) Subpart 13.501, entitled Special Documentation Requirements .