TECHNOLOGY ONE UK LIMITED

CourseLoop Curriculum Management Platform

CourseLoop was established (and built the CourseLoop Platform specifically) to solve the end-to-end curriculum management challenges facing universities today and into the future. We are curriculum management and software experts that understand the strategic context within which curriculum management operates, and the power it has to support institutional strategic goals.

Features

• Create a single source of truth of curriculum information
• Create structured curriculum data and manage relationships between academic items
• Maintain data integrity with powerful version control
• Enable digital management of curriculum information-integrate with downstream systems
• Define and implement robust, repeatable governance processes
• Demonstrate assurance of learning in support of curriculum governance
• Visualise curriculum relationships at a whole-of-course level, surfacing actionable insight
• Publish handbook/curriculum catalogue/specifications to students on the web
• Associate curriculum specific marketing copy with academic item information
• Plan student progression through a course structure

Benefits

• Establish a definitive source of truth for curriculum information
• Robust version control with full version history available to staff
• Improves efficiency by eliminating data entry into downstream systems
• Improved compliance with academic, governance and approval policy
• Supports digital transformation-leverage digital curriculum data for organisational purposes
• Supports efficient working practices. Reduces time spent on manual activities
• Improved academic insight and oversight of the assurance of learning
• Reduced risk associated with use and publication of inaccurate information
• Reduces the time to market for new curriculum offerings
• Improves the student experience.

£40,600.00 a licence a year

• Education pricing available

Service documents

• Pricing document

  PDF

• Skills Framework for the Information Age rate card

  PDF

• Service definition document

  PDF

• Terms and conditions

  PDF

Request an accessible format

If you use assistive technology (such as a screen reader) and need versions of these documents in a more accessible format, email the supplier at matthewwheeler@courseloop.com. Tell them what format you need. It will help if you say what assistive technology you use.

Framework

G-Cloud 14

Service ID

835494352733398

Contact

Matthew Wheeler
+44 (0)7791749637
matthewwheeler@courseloop.com

Service scope

• Software add-on or extension: No
• Cloud deployment model: Private cloud
• Service constraints: CourseLoop utilises a Standard Product Configuration as the basis for all implementations. CourseLoop offers a Defined Set of Configuration Options, to allow the Platform to be configured within these options.
• System requirements:
  • CourseLoop is a fully hosted SaaS solution.
  • Access is via a web browser.
  • CourseLoop supports the latest two versions of common browsers.
  • No additional browser plug-ins are required.

User support

• Email or online ticketing support: Email or online ticketing
• Support response times: Severity 1 Critical - Response Time 15 minutes - Coverage 24/7; Severity 2 Urgent - Response Time 1 hour - Coverage 24/7; Severity 3 High - Response Time 2 hours - Coverage 8am - 6pm Business Days; Severity 4 Low - Response Time 1 Business Day - Coverage 8am - 6pm Business Days
• User can manage status and priority of support tickets: Yes
• Online ticketing support accessibility: WCAG 2.1 AA or EN 301 549
• Phone support: Yes
• Phone support availability: 9 to 5 (UK time), Monday to Friday
• Web chat support: No
• Onsite support: No
• Support levels: CourseLoop’s standard support model is included in the annual subscription license, and includes: support levels defined by severity rating (ie Severity 1 - Critical 15 min response time), service level KPIs with monthly performance reporting vs target, access to CourseLoop’s Support Portal to log and track service requests, and a named CourseLoop Account Manager as a single point of contact. Additional support levels are negotiable, and may attract an additional cost.
• Support available to third parties: No

Onboarding and offboarding

• Getting started: CourseLoop's onboarding process is designed to assist clients realise value in the shortest possible time. CourseLoop utilises a Standard Product Configuration developed based on best practice, as the basis for all onboarding activities. A defined set of configuration options is available, to allow the Platform to be tailored to the university's needs. ; ; The onboarding process includes a series of planning workshops to determine the configuration options required. Migration of existing data and integration to downstream systems is the responsibility of the university, with guidance offered by CourseLoop. ; ; CourseLoop provides training materials and product documentation to support onboarding (also provided for future releases of functionality). CourseLoop utilises a ‘train the trainer’ model where key university users are nominated for the ‘trainer’ role. This supports the initial knowledge transfer during onboarding, whilst creating a sustainable training model clients. In addition Help and Guidance functionality is embedded within the platform, ensuring users have access to the 'right support at the right time'.
• Service documentation: Yes
• Documentation formats:
  • PDF
  • Other
• Other documentation formats:
  • Google - Docs, Sheets, Slides
  • Microsoft - Word, Excel, PowerPoint
• End-of-contract data extraction: An exit transition will be a controlled process in which all activities are defined and accepted by both parties in advance. An exit transition plan will be developed within 20 business days of being notified of the cancellation of services. Exit activities will typically include: ; - Agree transition scope, deliverables and timing, with accompanying project plan; - Agree data extraction requirements, including format (an industry standard format) and acceptance criteria. Deletion of university data to be confirmed in writing; - Agree any chargeable resources required to support the agreed Exit Plan. Note: Subscription License is payable until university environments are decommissioned. ; - Additional requirements or services, not included in the agreed exit transition plan, may be considered chargeable
• End-of-contract process: An extract of client data in an industry standard format (agreed to both parties) is included in the contract price. Any other disengagement services required by the client, will be agreed by both parties at that time, and an additional cost may apply.

Using the service

• Web browser interface: Yes
• Supported browsers:
  • Microsoft Edge
  • Firefox
  • Chrome
  • Safari
• Application to install: No
• Designed for use on mobile devices: Yes
• Differences between the mobile and desktop service: The staff-facing modules of the CourseLoop Platform work best on desktop/laptop, however, a touch-friendly tablet experience is also available. The student-facing display layer within CourseLoop Curriculum Publisher is optimised for a performant mobile-first experience with a fully responsive design that supports mobile, tablet, and laptop/desktop breakpoints. The specific form factors that are verified are: XS (Mobile), S (Tablet), M (Laptop), L (Desktop).
• Service interface: Yes
• User support accessibility: WCAG 2.1 AA or EN 301 549
• Description of service interface: CourseLoop has an intuitive, user-friendly interface, designed with the needs of academic and occasional users in mind. The primary interface is available to all users (GUI), whilst users with extended permissions have access to an administrative interface. An API interface is available via the CourseLoop Integration Hub.
• Accessibility standards: WCAG 2.1 AA or EN 301 549
• Accessibility testing: CourseLoop has a human centred design approach and User Interface design decisions are made bearing in mind the need to maximise the user experience for all users. The following characteristics are included in our design and development standards and QA testing confirms compliance prior to shipping new features and components:; - Keyboard usable: ability to navigate and interact with the application with system default keyboard navigation of tab, enter, and directional keys; user can enter and exit all components and modules easily; flow through is consistent; - Screen reader friendly: appropriate markup, eg. alt labels, aria-labels are used so common screen readers will work appropriately. ; - Colour, sizing, spacing adhere to the WCAG guidelines including: correct contrast of text; sizing and spacing of text; - Application is usable when the user zooms in, up to 200%; QA testing is conducted on Windows and Mac OSX operating systems on the latest version of Chrome, Edge, Firefox, & Safari (OSX only). Features are also tested with NVDA on windows and Voice Over on Mac OSX to ensure screen reader friendliness
• API: Yes
• What users can and can't do using the API: In line with our design philosophy of interoperability, CourseLoop’s Platform provides comprehensive REST APIs which have been successfully integrated with a variety of student information systems and middleware technologies by our clients.; ; CourseLoop APIs cater for: ; ; Each academic item type e.g., program, major, minor, course;; Subsets of academic item data e.g., offerings, requisites, and course structure;; Reference data e.g., faculties or schools, teaching locations, and teaching periods;; CourseLoop events e.g., key workflow stage transitions;; ; CourseLoop’s Platform can integrate with any application that utilises REST APIs or data extracts in the form of csv files; timetabling, learning management, and business intelligence systems commonly consume data mastered in CourseLoop. ; ; As part of our development roadmap clients will be able to setup data in the service through data migration APIs. The configuration of the service will be performed via an admin portal available to clients.; ; CourseLoop’s REST APIs support detailed queries that enable our clients to obtain only the schema components they require, minimising any transformation needed for integration with downstream systems.; ; CourseLoop’s APIs support bi-directional data transfer to allow users to update and maintain data. In order to preserve data integrity CourseLoop does not support deletion of data via our APIs.
• API documentation: Yes
• API documentation formats:
  • PDF
  • Other
• API sandbox or test environment: Yes
• Customisation available: Yes
• Description of customisation: The CourseLoop Platform is highly configurable, avoiding the requirement for 'customisations'. CourseLoop offers extensive functionality out-of-the-box, with a standard configuration (and defined client configuration options), reducing implementation time and minimising 'time to value' for the university.; ; Examples of configuration options include: ; ; Document View Template configuration allows for a high degree of control over what data is presented to the user in a 'form', including field labels, field types (ie. pick from list), whether a field is mandatory, dependent values (between fields) etc. Workflow stages can be configured to university approval processes and Curriculum Publisher delivers an online handbook for students, with configurable page layouts and templates, plus real-time publishing of curriculum items based on configurable rules. Configurable UI branding ensures compliance with university specific style guidelines. ; ; The CourseLoop Admin Dashboard provides access to users with appropriate system admin permissions and expertise to manage CourseLoop configuration. Initial configuration is primarily undertaken by members of the CourseLoop team as part of implementation.

Scaling

• Independence of resources: CourseLoop is built on the ServiceNow's Nonstop Cloud and scales to meet the needs of the largest Global 2000 enterprises. CourseLoop deploys instances on a per-customer basis, allowing the multi-instance cloud to scale horizontally to meet each customer’s performance needs. The public facing CourseLoop catalogue is hosted on the cloud-based Amazon Web Services infrastructure which provides capability to scale up capacity as required on demand. Our existing infrastructure capacity has been able to comfortably support peak volumes across all of our production sites.

Analytics

• Service usage metrics: Yes
• Metrics types: CourseLoop provides monthly service management reports, which include the following service metrics: Service Availability, Service Responsiveness, Incident Response Performance and Incident Restoration Performance.
• Reporting types:
  • Regular reports
  • Reports on request

Resellers

• Supplier type: Not a reseller

Staff security

• Staff security clearance: Other security clearance
• Government security clearance: None

Asset protection

• Knowledge of data storage and processing locations: Yes
• Data storage and processing locations:
  • United Kingdom
  • European Economic Area (EEA)
  • Other locations
• User control over data storage and processing locations: Yes
• Datacentre security standards: Managed by a third party
• Penetration testing frequency: At least once a year
• Penetration testing approach: Another external penetration testing organisation
• Protecting data at rest: Physical access control, complying with CSA CCM v3.0
• Data sanitisation process: Yes
• Data sanitisation type: Explicit overwriting of storage before reallocation
• Equipment disposal approach: Complying with a recognised standard, for example CSA CCM v.30, CAS (Sanitisation) or ISO/IEC 27001

Data importing and exporting

• Data export approach: The CourseLoop Report Builder enables the extract of highly configurable information sets in a variety of formats, including XML, PDF, XLS or XLXS, CSV. Exports can be triggered manually or scheduled to run in an overnight batch job.
• Data export formats:
  • CSV
  • Other
• Other data export formats:
  • XML
  • PDF
  • XLS or XLXS
• Data import formats:
  • CSV
  • ODF
  • Other
• Other data import formats:
  • XML
  • PDF
  • XLS or XLXS

Data-in-transit protection

• Data protection between buyer and supplier networks:
  • TLS (version 1.2 or above)
  • IPsec or TLS VPN gateway
• Data protection within supplier network:
  • TLS (version 1.2 or above)
  • IPsec or TLS VPN gateway

Availability and resilience

• Guaranteed availability: The CourseLoop platform is a true Enterprise Grade SaaS solution delivering performance, availability and reliability that is expected of a key platform in your strategic architecture. It is available 24/7 anywhere, anytime. CourseLoop benefits from ServiceNow’s Advanced High Availability Architecture (AHA) which implements a redundant data centre architecture whereby data is replicated between the paired data centres in near real-time. This allows us to target a minimum 99.8% availability (we achieved 99.9998% in 2021). The CourseLoop Advanced High Availability (AHA) architecture allows seamless switching between active data centres and is the primary means to recover client data and restore service in the case of a service disruption. In the event that availability commitments are not met, CourseLoop offers Availability Service Credits.
• Approach to resilience: The CourseLoop Platform and its modules are designed for, built on and operate in a hybrid, multi-cloud model on the ServiceNow and AWS platforms. This platform is built from the ground up to deliver an enterprise-grade cloud based on high availability architectures on ServiceNow and AWS. The CourseLoop Platform directly leverages the ServiceNow Advanced High Availability (AHA) architecture and has implemented a serverless AWS architecture that uses a multi-availability zone architecture for distributed compute and standby data recovery capability. CourseLoop is an OEM partner of ServiceNow and as such manages and maintains all the underlying CourseLoop ServiceNow instances on behalf of our clients.
• Outage reporting: CourseLoop's Operations Team utilises a number of tools and dashboards to monitor performance. For example: Availability is measured via a monitoring tool that emulates a synthetic transaction (every 5 minutes) between the monitoring tool and the CourseLoop Platform. Should a service disruption (outage) occur, CourseLoop's operation team is automatically notified and CourseLoop's Incident Management process is inacted (which outlines communication protocols with our clients).

Identity and authentication

• User authentication needed: Yes
• User authentication:
  • 2-factor authentication
  • Identity federation with existing provider (for example Google Apps)
  • Dedicated link (for example VPN)
  • Username or password
• Access restrictions in management interfaces and support channels: Role-based access is a fundamental part of the CourseLoop platform design. Users may have more than one role, and role permissions are additive. CourseLoop follow the principle of least privileges to ensure that their staff have only the access necessary to perform their job. ; ; Two methods for user authentication are provided for in the CourseLoop integration. The primary user authentication model will be via Single Sign On, supported by the SAML2.0 protocol. A secondary username/password login will be provided for direct access via CourseLoop for non SSO accounts.
• Access restriction testing frequency: At least once a year
• Management access authentication: 2-factor authentication

Audit information for users

• Access to user activity audit information: Users have access to real-time audit information
• How long user audit data is stored for: At least 12 months
• Access to supplier activity audit information: Users have access to real-time audit information
• How long supplier audit data is stored for: At least 12 months
• How long system logs are stored for: At least 12 months

Standards and certifications

• ISO/IEC 27001 certification: Yes
• Who accredited the ISO/IEC 27001: ServiceNow: Schellman & Company AWS: EY CertifyPoint
• ISO/IEC 27001 accreditation date: ServiceNow - since 2012 AWS - since 2010
• What the ISO/IEC 27001 doesn’t cover: ServiceNow uses Microsoft Azure to host certain customers adhering to nation-specific data protection and residency requirements globally. Excluded from the scope are all operations of third-party data centres and Azure. (Please note: The data centres in the following locations are covered by the ISO/IEC 27001 certification: Wales, London, Amsterdam, Dublin, Geneva, Zurich, Frankfurt, Dusseldorf).
• ISO 28000:2007 certification: No
• CSA STAR certification: No
• PCI certification: No
• Cyber essentials: No
• Cyber essentials plus: No
• Other security certifications: No

Security governance

• Named board-level person responsible for service security: Yes
• Security governance certified: Yes
• Security governance standards: ISO/IEC 27001
• Information security policies and processes: The CourseLoop Platform is designed for, built on, and operate in a hybrid, multi-cloud model on the ServiceNow and AWS platforms. The CourseLoop Platform data security controls are underpinned by the standard security controls that are provided by the ServiceNow and AWS platform services. The ServiceNow and AWS platforms are certified under ISO27001, and also receives annual SSAE18 attestations. CourseLoop's Information Security policy is reviewed biannually and is overseen by CourseLoop senior leadership team. ; ; CourseLoop recognises that information is a fundamental asset to a knowledge-driven organisation and it is our policy that the information it manages is protected against the adverse effects of failures in confidentiality, integrity, availability and compliance with legal requirements, which may otherwise occur. Achieving this objective is dependent on all members of the CourseLoop team.; ; Information assets will have a nominated owner who will be assigned responsibility for defining the appropriate uses of the information and ensuring that appropriate security measures are in place to protect the information asset. It is the responsibility of all individuals who have been granted access to information to handle it appropriately in accordance with its classification.

Operational security

• Configuration and change management standard: Supplier-defined controls
• Configuration and change management approach: CourseLoop has defined and documented release management processes. All major SaaS upgrades and feature releases are subject to CourseLoop release management processes that assist with the proper management of these changes and are tested prior to implementation in the University’s SaaS instance. All upgrades, new features, or configuration changes are available in Test for verification by the client prior to release to Production. Timing of upgrades and releases and the promotion of new functionality from Test to Production is always agreed with the client, in an effort to minimise user disruption.
• Vulnerability management type: Conforms to a recognised standard, for example CSA CCM v3.0 or SSAE-16 / ISAE 3402
• Vulnerability management approach: ServiceNow uses commercially recognised vulnerability analysis tools to detect vulnerabilities in the ServiceNow perimeter and internal systems. Any vulnerabilities that are discovered are fed into the overarching security monitoring program for assessment and, if necessary, patching of systems. Vulnerability scans occur daily for external unauthenticated scanning and weekly for internal authenticated scanning. CourseLoop conducts Penetration Testing annually, with test results available upon request.
• Protective monitoring type: Undisclosed
• Protective monitoring approach: The CourseLoop Platform data security controls are underpinned by the standard security controls that are provided by the ServiceNow and AWS platform services. ServiceNow uses commercially recognised vulnerability analysis tools to detect vulnerabilities in the ServiceNow perimeter and internal systems. Any vulnerabilities that are discovered are fed into the overarching security monitoring program for assessment and, if necessary, patching of systems. Vulnerability scans occur daily for external unauthenticated scanning and weekly for internal authenticated scanning.
• Incident management type: Supplier-defined controls
• Incident management approach: CourseLoop's documented Incident Management process includes: ; Incident Definitions; ; Incident Process Triggers; ; Process Workflows & Activities (defined by incident severity); ; Process Roles & Responsibilities; ; Incident communication protocols; ; Defined Incident Response & Resolution Targets; ; ; University support users can log a general service request or log a Defect and/or Incident at CourseLoop Support Portal. Once a support request has been submitted via the CourseLoop Support Centre (Portal), it is available for you to view, update, and escalate (if required). The portal provides a real time status of the request and allows you to communicate with our support staff.

Secure development

• Approach to secure software development best practice: Conforms to a recognised standard, but self-assessed

Public sector networks

• Connection to public sector networks: No

Social Value

• Social Value:

  Social Value

  • Fighting climate change
  • Equal opportunity
  • Wellbeing

  Fighting climate change

  As a company we do everything we can to limit our impact on the environment, from using world-class cloud services to environmentally sourced marketing materials.

  Equal opportunity

  We have a company wide equal opportunities policy that is reviewed annually and can be made available upon request.

  Wellbeing

  We take the wellbeing of our staff and customers seriously and will always look to support customer initiatives in this area.

Pricing

• Price: £40,600.00 a licence a year
• Discount for educational organisations: Yes
• Free trial available: No

Service documents

• Pricing document

  PDF

• Skills Framework for the Information Age rate card

  PDF

• Service definition document

  PDF

• Terms and conditions

  PDF

Request an accessible format

If you use assistive technology (such as a screen reader) and need versions of these documents in a more accessible format, email the supplier at matthewwheeler@courseloop.com. Tell them what format you need. It will help if you say what assistive technology you use.