CALIFORNIA COMMUNITY COLLEGES,
CHANCELLOR’S OFFICE
STUDENT SERVICES DIVISION
PART ONE OF A TWO-PART
REQUEST FOR APPLICATIONS (RFA) Process
RFA# 13-0287
SOLICITATION OF INTEREST
for
Distance Education Captioning & Transcription for
California Community Colleges
PART ONE: SOLICITATION OF INTEREST
The purpose is to determine which districts are interested in participating in a
competitive application process (i.e., RFA 13-0287) for a multi-year grant award
of approximately $500,000 per year to facilitate the provision of live and off-line
captioning and transcription services for distance education in the California
community colleges, as the Distance Education Captioning and Transcription
(DECT) project. The final grant award dollar amount will be approved by the
Board of Governors at a later date. Letters of Interest are due by 5:00 p.m.,
Monday January 14, 2013. If the Chancellor’s Office does not receive more than
one qualified applicant under Part One of this Request for Applications (RFA), it
reserves the right to award the contract to the single qualified applicant.
Applicants must demonstrate experience sufficient to manage grants or contracts
with a State of California agency.
Part Two: RFA Process
If more than one district submits a signed Solicitation of Interest letter by the
deadline established above, the Chancellor’s Office will conduct a standard
competitive process for the award of the above-noted grant. The participants in
this process will be limited to the community college districts that respond in the
requested manner to Part One. A full RFA packet, including instructions, forms
and a deadline to submit would be sent only to the responding districts, at a later
date.
Project Duration
The grant, which would be awarded upon completion of the RFA process and
executed prior to July 1, 2013, will be awarded for up to a five-year period. The
grant is renewable, based on satisfactory performance and the availability of
funds, each year for up to four additional years after the initial grant year.
The grant recipient will be required to complete quarterly progress reports during
each year and an annual final report in a format specified by the Chancellor’s
Office. Additional reports and data must be provided, when requested by the
Chancellor’s Office, for monitoring and planning purposes. Unless otherwise
directed by the Board of Governors, the grant will be competitively bid among the
districts during the final year of this multiple-year award. It is expected that
subsequent grant awards will be for up to five years.
Purposes/Uses of the Funds
The purpose of the grant is to provide assistance to all California community
colleges in the facilitation of live and off-line captioning and transcription services
for distance education and hybrid courses through the Distance Education
Captioning & Transcription for California Community Colleges (DECT)
program. The program is intended to aid California community colleges in
improving their capacity to serve their disabled student populations and to ensure
the accessibility of aural information used in the delivery of distance education.
Services will be provided to colleges through a process whereby the grantee
contracts with outside captioning vendors (and is billed directly by the vendor) to
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provide assistance to any community college that elects to use these vendors. In
addition, the grantee will establish mechanisms to reimburse colleges that contract
for these services directly with a captioning vendor not under contract with the
grantee. All requests for reimbursement must meet criteria that will be established
by the Chancellor’s Office to ensure that funds distributed to colleges are used to
increase access to instructional and educational activities for students with
disabilities.
Project Background
In 2003, the Captioning of Live Distance Education Program grant was awarded
to Butte College. It was a five-year award, renewed annually, and the grant
expired on June 30, 2008. In November 2007, the list of allowable expenditures
was expanded to include captioning of asynchronous video. Therefore, the grant
project was re-titled "Distance Education Captioning & Transcription for
California Community Colleges.” A competitive RFA process was conducted prior
to the expiration of the Captioning of Live Distance Education Program and the
DECT grant was awarded to the Santa Clarita Community College District,
beginning with the 2008-09 academic year. The current grant award expires on
June 30, 2013.
Need
The Chancellor’s Office Management Information System (MIS) data indicates
that there were 121,427 students with disabilities receiving services through the
Disabled Students Programs and Services (DSPS) within the California
Community Colleges during the 2011-12 academic / reporting year. Based on data
and reports provided by DECT and confirmed through discussions with various
statewide advisory groups, there exists a significant, continuing need for both
local and centralized resources to support the captioning and transcription of
instructional content delivered in various modes. This need exists both in 100%
web-based courses, as well as “hybrid” courses, which combine both an on-line
and in-person component.
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Objectives
The grantee will meet the following objectives:
1.
Provide the staff necessary to accomplish the activities associated with
this grant.
2.
Establish program processes and procedures, incorporating sound
accounting practices that provide for the reimbursement of claims
submitted by colleges for captioning services and the creation of a
direct billing system with established vendors.
3.
Prepare and fiscal and program activity reports and other
documentation, as requested by the Chancellor’s Office.
4.
Develop a strategic regional and state coordination and
implementation plan, including any meetings, conferences or
workshops that might be required to implement this program.
5.
Establish an electronic intake and order processing system, including
an on-line application form and a tracking system to monitor college
participation in the program.
6.
Develop and implement a consistent method of transmitting
information on the availability of captioning and transcription services
through advisory committees, webinars, conference presentations,
cooperative agreements, partnerships within the system, website
postings, listserves, marketing materials, etc.
Activities:
To meet the objectives listed above, the following activities, at a minimum, will be
performed:
1.
Develop and disseminate written procedures that clearly describe both
the direct bill and reimbursement processes.
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2.
Develop and disseminate forms, manuals, and guides for use by the
Chancellor’s Office and California community colleges in accessing
the grant’s services.
3.
Market the program to the colleges to make them aware of the need for
live and off-line captioning, and of the resources available through this
grant to offset expenses associated with captioning. Develop and
distribute flyers, brochures, newsletter, posters and videos to market
the program to the colleges.
4.
Develop and disseminate fiscal and program reports describing
activities related to the disbursement of grant funds. These reports are
to be submitted on a quarterly basis to the Chancellor’s Office.
5.
Purchase or rent equipment for meetings, reproduction, and access to
websites, as needed.
6.
Establish new relationships, and foster ongoing collaborative
relationships, with other public and private entities, as well as other
stakeholders within the California Community Colleges system.
Towards this end, the DECT must communicate regularly with
California Community College faculty and staff, the Chancellor’s
Office, Distance Education Coordinators, Instructional Designers, and
High Tech Center Specialists.
Funding
Funding would begin on or after July 1, 2013.
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Certification of Intent to Participate
in a Competitive Application Process for the
for the California Community Colleges Distance Education Captioning and Transcription
project
I hereby certify that the ____________________________________Community College District, in
support of _________________________________College as the proposed project administrator,
intends to be an applicant in the competitive application process (i.e., Request for Application,
"RFA") to select a project administrator for the California Community Colleges Distance Education
Captioning and Transcription project. Contract responsibilities begin upon completion of the
Request for Applications (RFA) process and have an expected project duration of 5 years.
Information relevant to project host responsibilities is detailed on the preceding pages.
I understand that the RFA will be limited to the districts/colleges that certify this form with the
required signatures and return it to the Chancellor’s Office by no later than 5:00 PM on Monday,
January 14, 2013. I also understand that if only one qualified district/college submits this
certification, that entity may be awarded the grant without any further competitive process.
The following District and College staff members must sign this form:
______________________________________________
District/College Chief Executive Officer
____________
Date
_____________________________________________
District/College Chief Business Officer
____________
Date
District Contact:
Return this form to:
_________________________
Name
_________________________
Title
_________________________
E-mail address
_________________________
Phone Number
CCC Chancellor’s Office
Attn: Scott Berenson
DSPS Program Coordinator
1102 “Q” Street, Ste. 4554
Sacramento, CA 95811-6539
PH 916-322-3234
FAX 916-327-8232
This signed form must be received by the CCC Chancellor’s Office no later than 5:00pm
Monday, January 14, 2013.
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