Provision of a Virtual Learning Environment

The University of Surrey is looking to engage a third party supplier to work with it in order to provide its community with a virtual learning environment (VLE).

The University offers a number of ‘non typical’ open access short courses, such as Continuing Professional Development (CPD) courses, which are typically short term in duration and involve people external to the University (i.e. not previously registered) in both teaching and learning capacities.

The University is keen to build on improvements that have been made in the provision of online content, online assessment and collaboration methods since it introduced its VLE in 2012.

There is a high level of engagement from staff and students across all subject areas at the University.

It is expected that the VLE will enable students to learn in a manner that suits their learning style, at a time of their choosing, from any device in any location.

As well as the student focus of this activity, the University is cognisant of the implications of this vision on the academic and central services communities.

The University expects the chosen supplier to work with these communities to understand their processes and systems, to build interfaces where appropriate, and to support the migration and creation of content in the new VLE and any new ways of working engendered by the new system.

It is expected that the VLE will integrate with other systems throughout the University where appropriate.

As one may expect given the diverse nature of activities undertaken by the University, the amount of stakeholders it engages with and the diverse forms of this engagement, there is a lot of data and there are multiple systems (some bespoke) which will require interfacing into the new VLE.

Indications are that this may be a relatively technically complex task.

A key user requirement is that the VLE must be simple and straightforward to use, both in terms of the processes sitting behind key aspects of the functionality and in terms of the ease of use of the system.

One of the key success criteria for the VLE is the extent to which is it is embraced by the user community, so questions relating to Potential Provider team qualifications and training will be held in appropriate regard, and the ITT will contain a considerable support element.

The University currently has over 13,000 FTE students (~9,800 undergraduates and ~3,300 postgraduates), around 1,500 academics and just under 1,000 support staff in the UK, based on its campuses at Stag Hill and Manor Park in Guildford.

It is anticipated that this total figure will rise during the term of this contract to c.17,600 FTE’s by 2020.

These individuals are split across the following faculties: • Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences • Faculty of Engineering and Physical Sciences • Faculty of Health and Medical Sciences Many departments work closely with, or have plans to work in a collaborative fashion...