Publisher Tools in Canvas

For SSU Faculty:

If you have contracted with a textbook publisher who publishes a digital textbook or digital courseware, access to that content for students will usually be provided by the Seawolf Bundle. If you have any questions about your students’ experience with content supplied by the Seawolf Bundle, please contact the SSU Bookstore at bkstrmgr@sonoma.edu.

If your book publisher offers any digital courseware or services for faculty that can be integrated into Canvas, or if you want to integrate any other digital or external tool into Canvas, then the software must be reviewed by SSU Procurement and IT to make sure that it meets all applicable laws and policies around data security, student data privacy, accessibility, and other factors. We can only install the software in Canvas after we've received this approval. There are two ways to get this:

1. If another CSU campus has already reviewed, approved, and installed the software, then SSU Procurement can review that agreement and, if acceptable, implement it.
   1. To start this process, the vendor or creator must provide you with a quote for the software product, including a description of the product to be installed and the contact information for someone on the vendor’s/creator’s team who can answer any questions that IT and Procurement have during their review. This quote can be a zero-cost quote, e.g. if the product is free (as many LTI tools are).
2. If another CSU campus has not already reviewed, approved, and installed the software, then you and the software vendor have to go through the following steps:
   1. The vendor or creator of the software must register as a Supplier in CSUBuy, the CSU procurement system.
   2. Ask them to provide you with the contact info of someone on their team who will fill out the registration form.
   3. Then ask your department admin team to send that person an invitation to register as a supplier in CSUBuy.
   4. Once they are registered in CSUBuy, the vendor or creator needs to provide you with:
      1. A quote for the software product including a description of the product to be installed and the contact information for someone on the vendor’s/creator’s team who can answer any questions that IT and Procurement have during their review. This quote can be a zero-cost quote, e.g. if the product is free (as many LTI tools are).
      2. A VPAT (Voluntary Product Accessibility Template) for the product
      3. Documentation of the product’s data security policies in one of the four accepted formats
   5. Then you and your department admin can submit an IT Software purchase request for the product via CSUBuy. The procurement process itself normally takes 2-3 weeks, but can take longer than that if the vendor is not timely in their response to questions.

If your vendor has any questions about the above process, they should contact SSU Procurement. If your vendor cannot or will not follow these steps, then we cannot install their software in Canvas. Also, until your vendor has completed these steps, then we cannot begin the procurement process.

Please also be aware that CTET’s ability to support such external software is very limited. There are too many possible LTI apps, that change too often, for us to guarantee support for any given app. We will always do our best to help you, but if you encounter issues using the app, it is likely that you will need to engage with your vendor rep for support.

FAQ

Why is this process so cumbersome? These are really simple, free pieces of software.

Yes, these are (usually) free pieces of software. However, they provide software vendors and other external parties access to a lot of data that is private and protected by state and federal law, like FERPA. Additionally, all software used in public university classrooms is required by state and federal law to meet certain accessibility standards. If a vendor’s data policies do not comply with all of the applicable laws, or if their software isn’t accessible, then installing the software would expose SSU and potentially you to legal risk in case of a data breach or a consumer complaint.

By the way, a responsible vendor will be aware of these policies and will be able to quickly provide you with all of the necessary documents.

• Learn more about CSU Accessible Technology Requirements
• Learn more about CSU Data Security Requirements

My publisher assures me that they already have the software installed at tons of other campuses, and that these guidelines are unreasonable. Why can’t we install it here?

If your publisher’s software is already officially installed at another CSU campus, ask them to tell you which campus it is installed at! Then we can check and hopefully be able to license it under the other campus’s agreements. You’ll still need that quote, however, so that Procurement can confirm that what we’re licensing is the same as what the other campuses licensed.

As for whether these guidelines are reasonable, that’s between you and your elected officials. These guidelines were written to ensure compliance with all applicable state and federal laws, which were approved by the respective legislatures. Responsible vendors should themselves be aware of these laws and should be able to quickly provide you with the necessary documentation.

My question isn’t answered anywhere here.

Please email us at ctet@sonoma.edu. We’re happy to help.