SOURCES SOUGHT
R -- Identifying and Indexing Open Source Online EERE Learning and Training Content
- Notice Date
- 4/8/2011
- Notice Type
- Sources Sought
- NAICS
- 541990
— All Other Professional, Scientific, and Technical Services
- Contracting Office
- Department of Energy, Alliance for Sustainable Energy, LLC (DOE Contractor), National Renewable Energy Laboratory, 1617 Cole Boulevard, Golden, Colorado, 80401
- ZIP Code
- 80401
- Solicitation Number
- SS11446
- Archive Date
- 5/14/2011
- Point of Contact
- Deborah J Bullard, Phone: 303-384-6876
- E-Mail Address
-
deborah.bullard@nrel.gov
(deborah.bullard@nrel.gov)
- Small Business Set-Aside
- N/A
- Description
- Sources Sought Notice “Identifying and Indexing Open Source Online EERE Learning and Training Content” I.Background Universities, government agencies, community colleges and public and private training centers are developing excellent workforce training curriculum in a wide variety of renewable energy and energy efficiency areas. However, much of this content exists in discreet repositories that prevent external students, trainees, and trainers from finding and making use of this material. The National Renewable Energy Laboratory and the U.S. Department of Energy are supporting an initiative to create a repository of state-of-the-art training materials. In order to successfully execute this project, there is a clear need to identify, index and collect the existing materials so that they can be made widely available as part of education training curricula. This collection activity will be an important step in building a critical mass of materials that will lead to the creation of a library of content for workforce development and a uniform one-stop-shop for Americans to obtain new skills. The training curricula gathered will be made available to the US Department of Energy's (DOE) Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE) to support an effort designed to create a collection of online learning and training tools and resources. The material obtained through this work effort will be evaluated for inclusion in the DOE EERE National Training and Education Resource (NTER) system, which is a recently developed web-based Learning Management System (LMS) developed on the open source Ilias platform. This project seeks to provide a high quality and easy-to-use set of services that will reduce the burden of creating, storing and maintaining training curriculum across a wide range of topics. The system provides the instructor a way to monitor and assess the trainee progress through the course. The platform is also designed to create individualized courses based on the user’s progress. The NTER publically available/no fee training content delivery system will integrate proven technologies and offer a single web interface to access a wide variety of tools and focused content. It will allow instructors, both public and private, to customize and collaborate in creating and sharing training materials. Through the NTER, users will also be able to create a training record and take lessons that integrate text, videos, and 3D interactive simulations. The U.S. DOE has assigned the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) with oversight and product review responsibilities for this project. NREL shall review curricula, tools, and other materials collected and submitted by the subcontractor(s) measured against established criteria. DOE shall in turn make decisions on inclusion of materials based on NREL analysis and recommendations. II.Objective This Sources Sought notice seeks to identify individuals or organizations that have the required expertise to identify, index, collect and review both “free sources” and “for fee” curricula materials for appropriateness, document pricing, and identify and report, but not negotiate Intellectual Property (IP) issues. This initiative will NOT result in a grant or financial assistance agreement. Rather, based on the responses received to this Sources Sought Notice, NREL anticipates issuing a formal Request for Proposal(s), which will require both cost and technical proposals from selected responders. The proposals received in response to the formal Request for Proposals (RFP) will be evaluated according to the terms of the RFP only, and negotiations may be conducted toward award of a subcontract with one or more successful offerors. Subcontract reimbursement will be based solely upon the successful completion of tasks and accepted deliverables that will be specifically defined in the Statement of Work. As potential Subcontractor(s) to NREL, successful offeror(s) shall be required to accept and comply with all of NREL’s established Subcontract Terms and Conditions. III.POTENTIAL TASK AREAS Examples of task that could be considered for subcontracting opportunities generally include the following: (These examples are provided solely to guide responders, and are not intended to be comprehensive or prescriptive, but merely provide examples of tasks under this project.) 1)Identify and index content from one or multiple sources in such a way that it contains data that will support user search. For example, description of content and creation date may be useful Meta tags. This metadata should be compliant with Sharable Content Object Reference Model (SCORM) standards for web-based learning and must be in an open format such as Extensible Markup Language (XML). 2)Identify and report, but not negotiate, license issues related to the content. It is expected that the content will be used as components in a variety of courses. For this reason, the content that will be identified must allow the public to make use of it without cost. The license must be identified and provided with the metadata of the content. The subcontractor shall limit themselves to identifying only content that is Section 508 (Amendment to the Rehabilitation Act of 1973) compliant (i.e., content that is suitable for the disabled). 3)Gather content and transfer to NREL. It is expected that this content will come from multiple sources both public and private. Special interest should be paid to high quality simulations and online interactive content that will be especially valuable for online dissemination. 4)In collaboration with and under guidance of NREL and DOE, review content to insure that it is accurate and up to date. 5)Promote awareness of the NTER initiative to education and training communities involved in EERE issue areas. IV.AREAS OF RESEARCH Examples of DOE EERE program areas to be researched for appropriate curricula to be included in this project follow: Biomass – The mission of the Biomass Program is to develop and transform our renewable biomass resources into cost-competitive, high-performance biofuels, bioproducts, and biopower through targeted research, development, demonstration, and deployment supported through public and private partnerships. http://www1.eere.energy.gov/biomass/index.html Building Technologies - The mission of the Building Technologies Program (BTP) is to develop technologies, techniques, and tools for making buildings more energy efficient, productive, and affordable. BTP focuses on improving commercial and residential building components, energy modeling tools, building energy codes, and appliance standards. http://www1.eere.energy.gov/buildings/ Federal Energy Management - The Federal Energy Management Program (FEMP) facilitates the Federal Government's implementation of sound, cost-effective energy management and investment practices to enhance the nation's energy security and environmental stewardship. This is delivered through project transaction services, applied technology services, and decision support services. http://www1.eere.energy.gov/femp/ Geothermal Technologies - The Geothermal Technologies Program (GTP) develops innovative geothermal energy technologies to find, access, and use the Nation's geothermal resources. Through research, development, and demonstration efforts that emphasize the advancement of enhanced geothermal systems (EGS), GTP is working to provide the United States with an abundant, clean, renewable baseload energy source. http://www1.eere.energy.gov/geothermal/ Hydrogen, Fuel Cells and Infrastructure Technologies - The mission of the Fuel Cell Technologies Program is to research, develop, and validate fuel cells and hydrogen production, delivery, and storage technologies for transportation and stationary applications. http://www1.eere.energy.gov/hydrogenandfuelcells/index.html Industrial Technologies - The Industrial Technologies Program (ITP) mission is to have U.S. industry lead the world in energy efficiency and productivity. ITP leads the national effort to reduce industrial energy intensity and carbon emissions, and strives to transform the way U.S. industry uses energy by supporting cost-shared research and development that addresses the top energy challenges facing industry. Additionally, ITP fosters the adoption of today's advanced technologies and energy management best practices to produce meaningful progress in reducing industrial energy intensity. http://www1.eere.energy.gov/industry/index.html Solar Energy Technologies - The mission of the Solar Energy Technologies Program is to conduct aggressive research, development, and deployment of solar energy technologies and systems to significantly increase market penetration and reduce the cost of solar electricity by 2015. http://www1.eere.energy.gov/solar/ Vehicle Technologies - The mission of the Vehicle Technologies Program is to develop more energy efficient and environmentally friendly highway transportation technologies that enable America to use less petroleum. The long-term aim is to develop "leap frog" technologies that will provide Americans with greater freedom of mobility and energy security, with lower costs and lower impacts on the environment. http://www1.eere.energy.gov/vehiclesandfuels/index.html Wind and Hydropower Technologies - The program's mission is the responsible stewardship of national resources to increase the development and deployment of reliable, affordable, and environmentally sustainable wind and water power technologies to realize the benefits of domestic renewable energy production. http://www1.eere.energy.gov/windandhydro/ Weatherization and Intergovernmental Program - The Weatherization and Intergovernmental Program (WIP) provides funding and technical assistance to its partners in state and local governments, Indian tribes, and international agencies to facilitate the adoption of renewable energy and energy efficiency technologies. http://www1.eere.energy.gov/wip/index.html V.EXPERTISE A detailed accounting of skills related to the potential task areas listed above is requested from interested sources. Organizations or individuals responding to this Sources Sought Notice must possess some or all of the following capabilities, attributes, and skills, and must specifically address the activity(ies) to which their qualifications best apply: 1)Demonstrated knowledge of curriculum developed for training in energy efficiency and renewable energy technologies in one or more of the defined technology areas 2)Demonstrated knowledge in the network of curricula developers andor training providers such that the identification of training materials could be done efficiently, such as established relationships with community colleges, universities or training centers 3)Demonstrated knowledge in SCORM or XML 4)Demonstrated experience working with the Department of Energy and the National Renewable Energy Laboratory, or with other Federal agencies 5)Demonstrated code base, or access to a code base of peer reviewed courses, simulations, games, and training tools in at least one of the defined technology areas 6)Demonstrated capability to provide at least four courses in at least one technology area 7)Demonstrated experience with 508 compliance 8)Demonstrated access to, understanding of and experience with open source, creative commons, or public domain online courses, simulations, games and training tools VI.RESPONSE REQUIREMENTS The response to this Sources Sought Notice is limited to four (4) pages of single-spaced text of 12-point font, with minimum 1” margins. Brevity is encouraged. All responses shall directly address the Qualifications listed above. All inquiries and responses shall be submitted in writing via e-mail to deborah.bullard@nrel.gov Electronic format of the response shall be in MSWord/Excel, or converted to.pdf. Electronic files in excess of 10MB will not be accepted. Responses to this notice must be received by the response date (April 29, 2011, 4:30 p.m. MDT). Responding to this request identifies your organization as an interested party only. Question will not be accepted. Your submittal is not in response to a Request for Proposals (RFP).
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