Kent State University seeks proposals from qualified vendors for the purchase of a web-based system by which the University can manage public-facing syllabus documents in accordance with the requirements of the Advance Ohio Higher Education Act (Section 3345.029). Under the bill, a “course syllabus” is a document produced for students by a course instructor that must include the following: • The name of the course instructor; • A calendar for the course outlining what materials and topics will be covered and when they will be covered; • A list of any required or recommended readings for the course; • The course instructor’s professional qualifications. By the start of the 2026-27 academic year, Kent State must make a syllabus for each undergraduate course offered for college credit publicly available no later than on the first day of classes for the semester in which the course is offered. The syllabus must be (a) accessible from the main page of the state institution’s web site by use of not more than three links; (b) searchable by keywords and phrases; and (c) accessible to the public without requiring user registration of any kind. REQUIREMENTS At a minimum, proposals will be evaluated on the following requirements: 1) The system must be capable of supporting syllabus postings for more than 10,000 course sections each semester, and archive syllabi for two years; 2) The syllabus postings must be on a publicly available and keyword searchable website that meets the requirements of the Advance Ohio Higher Education Act in terms of inclusion of the required components of a “course syllabus” as stated in the Act, and of the provision that all syllabi may be searched by keywords and phrases; 3) The system must integrate with Canvas (LTI 1.3) to allow automated syncing with syllabus materials posted on that platform. The system must also function independently of Canvas, using SSO for Kent State credentials; 4) The system needs hierarchical controls to permit university-level, college-level, department, and course level requirements to be included and/or locked for editing automatically with syllabi; 5) The system must support built-in workflows with an approval hierarchy, ensuring that syllabi are reviewed and approved by designated personnel at various organizational levels—such as department, college, or university administrators—before they are published publicly. 6) The system must be able to track syllabus publication in real time and send automatic reminders to instructors and unit administrators on real-time compliance; 7) The system must be able to create custom-built regular reports that export all syllabus data simply, in support of compliance requirements; 8) Integrations with Ellucian’s Banner 8/9 ERP and Kent State’s course scheduling system. Please explain how the data integration will function in both directions as appropriate.
