Social Annotation Software

The Vendor is required to provide out a preferred long-term solution for social annotation in terms of features, usability, compliance, and cost-effectiveness.
- The findings will help guide a potential procurement decision, ensuring the selection of the most effective social annotation tool for our university faculty and students.
- Objective:
•    Ability for learners to annotate texts, PDFs, and web-based content.
•    Support for private and public annotation layers.
•    Collaboration tools (e.g., threaded discussions, group annotations, user tagging).
•    LTI Integration with Canvas LMS, including student rosters and gradebook.
•    Reporting and analytics features.
•    Administration panel for central troubleshooting of activities.
- Technical Requirements:
•    Cloud-based with SSO capabilities.
•    Compliance with institutional privacy & security policies.
•    Compliance with institutional accessibility requirements.
•    Mobile and cross-platform compatibility.
•    Retention of activities for 5+ years.
- Performance Expectations:
•    High system uptime and reliability.
•    Scalable infrastructure to support multiple users.
•    Low-latency interaction.
•    Preferred features and capabilities (not required)
•    Robust vendor support, including help documentation and responsive email
•    Ability to annotate multimedia content (audio and video material)
•    Ability to post multimedia annotations (student-generated audio and video recordings)
•    Modern user interface
•    Ease of use for instructors
•    Ease of use for students
•    Seamless background integration with Canvas without requiring manual steps to resync gradebooks and rosters
•    AI capabilities to support instructor efficiency in providing feedback
•    AI coaching to support students in providing thorough, high-quality comments
•    Schedule Constraints
•    If decision is not to renew Hypothesis, recommend two full academic quarters for communication and migration of activities (Winter and Spring 2026)
•    System testing and evaluation period: November 3-30, 2025
•    Report finalization and recommendation deadline: December 2025
•    Project Management Requirements
•    Regular check-ins with the procurement team and stakeholders.
•    Coordination with IT for LMS integration testing.
•    Periodic status updates to leadership and faculty representatives.
•    Personnel Requirements and Expectations
•    Vendor representatives must provide product demonstrations and test environments for individual experimentation.
•    Vendor appoints a single account manager or customer success manager for ongoing support and coordination with university.
- Services:
•    Conduct a comparative analysis of social annotation tools for integration with the LMS, including hypothesis, perusall, and the comprehension tool offered by feedback fruits.
•    Identify functional, technical, and performance differences among the tools.
•    Evaluate integration capabilities with our existing learning management system (LMS).
•    Assess user experience and accessibility features.
•    Gather feedback from faculty and student testers.
•    Define potential implementation steps and support requirements for each tool.
•    Compile a recommendation report based on findings.

- Contract Period/Term: 1 year
- Questions/Inquires Deadline: February 17, 2026