Terms of Reference for Development and Implementation of an E-Learning Course

June 7, 2021

Background: DSW Kenya is setting out to digitize its training materials and training course with the aim of improving how staff train and mentor our main beneficiaries (young people), to improve their capacity to make their voices heard in decision-making processes at local, national, and global levels.

The need to digitize training materials was ranked high as one of the recommendations from a capacity and training needs assessment that was undertaken in 2019.

The report highlighted capacity and training needs for youth champions and DSW’s advocacy team; suggested various approaches for capacity development of stakeholders; and recommended training topics for different target groups.

Under the present COVID-19 situation, the possibility of organizing live online courses and self-paced modular online course for various target groups was also deliberated. In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, DSW is trying to adapt capacity development methods and offer courses online. This course can also help to create more connected networks of young SRHR advocates and implementing partners in the longer term.

The envisaged consultancy is expected to convert existing family planning/sexual and reproductive health advocacy training content into self-paced modular online course on an e-learning management system.

The nature of the course should be self-paced and interactive, comprising of multiple modules, text, pictures videos and PowerPoint presentations and evaluations. The course will be designed based on existing content and in consultation with DSW project team and resource persons. The course should be hosted/integrated into the learning platforms and will be open to public.

Objectives and Scope of Assignment

Main Objective: The objective of this assignment is to develop an online training course on family planning/sexual and reproductive health advocacy from existing materials. The course should be developed in a learning management system, be self-paced and interactive, comprising of multiple modules.

The course will be designed based on existing content and in consultation with DSW project team and resource persons. The course be open to public, and will deliver content on – SRHR, budget advocacy, media advocacy, family planning advocacy and monitoring advocacy.

Target Population: The target group for the online training includes youth (15-24 years), DSW staff, staff from partner civil society organizations, government officials to mention but a few.

Learning Objectives:

After undergoing the online course, the learners are expected to:

Understand the basic concepts of advocacy, principles and steps of advocacy and learn how to advocate for sexual and reproductive health/family planning.
Gain knowledge of the process of budget advocacy.
Gain skills and tools for evidence-based advocacy
Become familiar with stakeholder participation for participatory management and the influence zone.
Gain knowledge on how to develop a monitoring framework following the basic monitoring protocol.

Set Activities and Deliverables

The consultant / consulting firm is expected to execute the following:

Instructional Design Document

Submit a high-level instructional design document (IDD) including the course concept, pedagogical approach, tools, work plan, collation of existing training content and limitations, and System Requirement Specifications (SRS) document (describing all data, functional and behavioral requirements of the software under production or development according to requirement of the hosting/LMS platform.
Collect training course content from DSW project team, clarify objectives and finalize content in consultation with resource persons in a kick-off meeting.
Present and discuss IDD with DSW and resource persons in a workshop.
Develop and present a detailed storyboard based on the IDD.

Design and Development

Transform training material to e-learning modules as per the topics in the training manuals, design and curate interactive modules using various pedagogical tools including audio/video script, multimedia elements, graphics, animations, stimulations, quizzes, case studies, etc. Topics within the modules should be graded according to their complexity during development.

The following materials are available to be converted to e-learning content:

Materials from the existing face-to-face training (e.g. participant manual, activities, assignments, case studies)
Existing training on similar topics (for example, for other target groups)
Material in different formats: Documents (Microsoft Word, PDF, eBooks), PowerPoint Slide
Presentations: videos, webinars (live streaming or recorded), other multimedia content.
Prototype – Develop and present two to three samples of the online training platform and an initial prototype of one of the topics. These should be approved by DSW project team.
Develop the first module incorporating the feedback on the prototype. The following components should be included in the training.
Design and develop up to 5 modules (approximately 100 – 150 minutes duration each module) and host all e-learning modules on appropriate LMS.

User Profiles

Enable option for learners to create a ‘profile’ for the course, to save their details and track their progress in the course or module. The details entered in this will be used to generate the certificate, measure progress and enroll in future courses.

Brief overview to be provided for the training and each module including –

About the course
About the module, syllabus (audio/ppt/video), duration
Instructors’ details
‘Sitemap’ and ‘Help’ section
Include tabs/sections for ‘Feedback’ and FAQs

A certification shall be provided based on the assessment elements such as quiz, multiple choice questions (MCQs), hypothetical scenarios, ‘match the following’, among other evaluation options.

These can be used to test the competence of the participants on the topics. These questions should adhere to the weightage given to each topic for the process of certification.

After each chapter / module, learners take a short quiz. When the learners successfully complete the quiz, the module is shown as “completed.
Sub-modules should also be tracked and marked as completed, so the learners can avoid repeating content that they already did.
After the learners complete the entire module, including the last quiz, a certificate of completion is generated.
Include a repository of reading material and contacts of resource persons, instructors for additional information.
Provide closed captioning for videos wherever required.
Provide an option to save (user’s progress) and exit
Optional- Provision for saving course material like worksheets, PDF which can act as the Library.

Online course deployed on hosting server and going-live

Platform skeleton to be compatible with hosting platform’s requirement (including NIC) for easy integration in the future.

Deploying the portal – initiating final deployment of the portal and placing it on the platform.

Initial managing of the portal through tasks like making incremental updates to metadata, managing the content on the platform, and web assets using automated scripts.

Conduct web security audit and get Security Audit Certificate from CERT-In empanelled vendor.

Moderator- The consultant should moderate responses to queries and feedback during the contract and ensure the transfer to assigned person thereafter.

Operation maintenance and training:

Post deployment portal maintenance

Implement security certification for the site (SSL certification)
Provide technical support to maintain the portal during the contract period. The selected agency shall be available for 4 months to provide services if there are technical faults in running the online e-learning platform, after the contract ends.
Carry out error/bug fixes and small enhancements to always keep the platform fully functional during the contract period.
Support users and administrators in any technical platform related issues.

Train DSW staff on management of e-learning platform

Training material: Develop clear and comprehensive Operational and Technical Reports/ Manuals for training and maintenance of the e-learning platform.
Perform 2 training workshops for or admin users and test users.
Provide source codes for the portal to DSW, all modules within the system and template licences.
After e-learning platform is live to audience, perform monitoring of the back-and-forth process of platform development cycle to manage the e-learning platform for 4 months.

Technical Factors and Additional Specifications

Language – The basic version should be created in English.
Interactivity – The e-learning course should have graded level of interactivity and could include the following features:
Enhanced page turner that might include animated illustrations and synchronized presentation elements.
Cohesive presentation with branched elements, adaptive feedback, and remediation.
Single player role playing game with success and failure paths, scoring mechanisms, and feedback with replay or after-action review features.
Hosting / LMS Platform The course will be hosted on an appropriate platform. To ensure proper hosting, the digital format of the courses should be independent of the platform and fulfil general standards (SCORM 1.2 or SCORM 2004/X-API).

In addition, the following criteria should be met

The e-course should be developed using up-to date web standards (e.g. html5), cross-platform usability, No additional plug-ins required (e.g. no Flash)

Updating the course consultant/consulting firm should develop the digital content so that the content can be updated later by DSW staff or other parties.
Licensing or follow-up fees – The course should be developed so that no license fees or other follow-up fees will be incurred (apart from updating the content at a future date).
Accessibility and inclusiveness Voice-over narration and subtitles for the content should be included. This also includes the navigation features, which should have a voice-over feature, as well as the possibility to switch to a higher contrast for display on the screen.
Responsive Design The course should be designed for use on computers / notebooks, tablets / iPads, and mobile phones.
The content would be collected from DSW, Additionally, creative commons licenses should be used to source content, preferably, the following ones:
1. public domain,
2. attribution alone or
3. attribution and ShareAlike
4. obtaining and citing appropriate permissions and copyrights
The output should be accessible in multi-browsers and in smartphone devices.
In case the developed platform phases out or ceases to exist, the agency will be required to upgrade/ change the same without any additional cost to DSW.
The content should be Sharable Content Object Reference Model (SCORM) compliant and run on any standard SCORM compliant Learning Management System (LMS)

Data Security and Upholding Data Privacy Regulations

If personal data are gathered and processed in the course creation process, the process must comply with the legal requirements for data protection according to data protection rules and the Contractor will have to sign necessary data protection agreement as part of the contract. The principles of data protection, such as purpose limitation, data economy and avoidance, transparency, and necessity must be taken into account.

The requirements of data protection law, such as the obligation to provide proof, to retain, and to delete data, must be fulfilled. Furthermore, the Contractor shall ensure compliance with the data protection rules/or local formalities and shall include the necessary information in a protocol on processing activities. Company internal data and documents should be stored and processed in a secure environment that prevents unauthorized access.

Required Qualifications of The Consultant/Consulting Firm

The selected consultant must possess the following qualifications:

Knowledge of developing and deploying e-learning courses on learning management systems.
Similar work in the last 3 years (provide prototype sample).
A demonstrated high level of professionalism and an ability to work independently and in high-pressure situations under tight deadlines
High proficiency in written and spoken English is required. Knowledge of some of the local languages is an added advantage

Compensation: The consultancy fee will be paid in instalments as agreed in contract and is based on deliverables and commensurate with contractual requirements and deadlines.

Application

Interested firms or individuals are requested to submit a bid dossier.

The dossier as well as any inquiries shall be submitted through email by 11th June 2021 to info@dswkenya.org with the title “Consultant, development and implementation of an e-learning course” in the subject line.

Please write to us at complaints@dsw.org if you have any questions or concerns about the conduct of any DSW employee. For more information regarding our Code of Conduct visit https://www.dsw.org/en/dsws-code-of-conduct/