Terms of Reference

Digitization Partner for Developing Online Modules

Girls Education Program

Room to Read

Context

The COVID-19 pandemic has resulted in schools shutting down across the world. Globally, over 1.2 billion children are out of the classroom[1]. As a result, education has changed dramatically, with the distinctive rise of e-learning, whereby teaching is undertaken remotely and on digital platforms. Apart from many natural constraints and challenges that online learning brings, research also suggests that online learning has been shown to increase retention of information, and take less time, meaning the changes coronavirus has caused might be here to stay.

 

Room to Read envisions leveraging the digital space to reach out and create a bridge and make quality learning opportunities available and accessible to all.  In this context, Room to Read (RTR)envisions designing a 21^st Century Skills Course for Educators to reach out to the educator community to support them with building a conceptual understanding of essential 21^st-century skills and transacting them in real-time. The course will attempt to raise discussions on Life Skills education as a critical element for in-service teacher training, be it as a pedagogical tool or a subject matter discipline.  The online self-paced course will be developed to engage the educators, teachers, and trainers in advancing their skills as Life Skills facilitators.

About the course

An educator’s role has always been a very important and dynamic one.  Educators are responding to the demands of the changing nature of children and adolescents, the growing demands of the global economy, the rapid advancements in technology, and the recent boom in the digital teaching-learning space on an everyday basis. Therefore, there is an urgent need that educators to be provided and enabled with resources, platforms, and a space to reflect on and learn about 21st Century Skills Education to:

• Reflect on their own set of skills and develop their repertoire of what 21^st Century skills are,
• Understand the usefulness of embedding 21^st Century skills in everyday teaching-learning and
• Build a solid understanding of knowing how to transact 21^st Century Skills in their classrooms as well as out-of-classroom settings. 

• Use their knowledge and skills, apply knowledge to new situations, analyse information, comprehend new ideas, communicate, collaborate, solve problems, and make informed decisions.
• Develop essential constructs of 21st Century skills that not only help them to face challenges in life confidently but also to train their students and utilize the skills in their personal and professional life.

Pillars

Room to Read aims to develop a conceptual understanding around 21st Century Skills. The course will also provide a practical approach to integrating gender equality into child-centered pedagogical training. It will support teachers to explore their personal experiences of gender and life skills and then identify and respond to key issues faced by boys and girls in their schools and learning environments.  The course will incorporate a gender transformative approach [2]to equip educators to create safe, non-gendered classrooms and spaces.

Audience

The online modules will be designed for educators in government schools.

Module Duration

Keeping in mind the learner-centered approach each module has been envisioned as a 30-minute-long self-paced with the medium of instruction is Hindi. 

Methodology

The methodology of the course will be a blend of inputs ranging from reflection exercises, audio and video aids, animated videos, individual exercises, course work, readings, etc.

All materials in this course will be learner-centered, and the experience of the participants will be central to the aim of each session. Exercises and activities will be designed to encourage participants to actively learn by exploring their understanding of 21^st Century Skills, and by thinking about how to transact and adapt these skills in their teaching-learning process.

The course will be developed by a team of academics and practitioners working in the field of life skills, building on the existing rich body of knowledge, available in the form of modules, and handbooks for learners, educators, and educators across several states in India. The course will be developed based on RTR’s best practices from a decade of implementing a direct field program in close collaboration with the state governments.

1.        Scope for Work and Expectations

Room to Read proposes to hire consulting agency/individual who will work closely with the GEP team to create these online courses on 21^st Century Skills based on the principle of Self Learning. These courses are meant will be used by educators in government schools.

a.        Video and Digital content with interactivity

Room to read will provide the storyboards, characters, and all art based elements to the digitization partner. The digitization partner will be responsible for digitizing the provided storyboards/course content by developing animated (2d animation only) and interactive modules. Requirements can include but are not limited to the following  

• 2d animations and engaging/animated slides to depict course content
• Interactive elements – examples (including but limited to)
  • Clickable hotspots
  • Divergent paths
  • Drag and drops
  • Matching exercises
  • Clickable popups
  • Swipe cards,
  • Simple animated videos with character animations (3-4 minutes) as part of the course content. (open files will be given)
  • Voice overs for script/animated videos

b.        Assessments

• Content is envisaged to be highly interactive and engaging through assessments and quizzes
• involving MCQs, pop-ups, point, fill in the blanks and click, drag/drop, etc., embedded in learning material

c.        Work closely with the Course Anchor/RTR project team
d.        Compatibility:

• The designed courses should be compatible with basic LMS features (for Diksha Platform) capturing the learning progress of the users and being responsive to assessments and learning analytics module-wise, course-wise, etc. The final courses need to be in HTML 5 format to be a compatible with Diksha.
• Sharable Content Object Reference Model (SCORM) standards- The content is to be SCORM packaged with the latest/acceptable version to enable integration, hosting, and functioning of courses on the Learning Management System (LMS)
• Multi-device and Platform Compatibility- The e-content should have cross-platform compatibility (i.e. Android, Windows, Blackberry, iOS, etc.) and compatibility with major browsers (i.e. Internet Explorer, Mozilla Firefox, Google Chrome, etc.). It should also be accessible on an open User Interface (UI).

2.        Deliverables:

• A high-quality digital course (consisting of four modules) for educators on Life Skills Education.
• Uploading of the digital course segregated into thematic modules (in word file and pdf) along with the soft copies of the curriculum flow, process documents created during the development process, and detailed storyboards for online uploading should be submitted.
• Documented e-copies objectives of sessions, the structure of the sessions, sequence, and flow of ideas, and key takeaways from the sessions, and plan the session using appropriate methodologies that make learning interactive, engaging, and comprehensive for children.  

3.        Timeline: Feb – April 2023

2 months from the signing of the contract (Final Completion by 30^th April ).

The consultant/agency will need to provide services and complete tasks based on the timelines as outlined in this ToR and as will be mutually agreed to during the contract finalization.  

4.        Experience and Qualifications

• The consultant must have demonstrated experience in developing/ delivering online or blended or e-learning content for adolescents, trainers, educators, etc
• The consultant must have a demonstrated passion and expertise for Life skills work and should be highly adaptable to a dynamic work environment
• The consultant should have a strong lens of gender equality cemented in his/her/ work.
• The consultant must have demonstratable experience in developing content for adolescents and young people, especially girls about life skills and an experience of working closely with teachers.
• The consultant must be open to critical and constructive feedback.
• The consultant should be proficient in English and Hindi.
• The consultant should preferably have experience with creating interactive content for Diksha.

5.        Payment Terms

• No advance payment
• Payment will be done in a staggered manner. 50 % payment will be done after submission of 2 final e-courses
• Final payment will be done based on the approval of the successful completion of the assignment.

6.        Please Note

• The TDS will be applicable as of GOI guidelines

Note: For all the above-mentioned scope of work there will be a minimum of 3 to 4 rounds of feedback and suggestions that will come from Room to Read on each session and the consultant should be open to that.

To apply

Proposals are invited from the interested bidders for the above assignment and the last date for receiving the proposal is 2 February 2023 at procurement.india@roomtoread.org [do not copy anyone from RtR]

• Kindly submit two separate emails with following subject lines:
  • EMAIL (1): TECHNICAL PROPOSAL- DIGITIZATION PARTNER, UT
  • EMAIL (2): FINANCIAL PROPOSAL- DIGITIZATION PARTNER, UT
  • The consultant/agency should apply with the following:

TECHNICAL PROPOSAL 

• A technical proposal which will outline the way this assignment will be approached.
• The bidders are requested to share work samples of interactive eLearning courses that show elements mentioned in the Scope of Work above. Samples of any interactive content uploaded on Diksha, since the course will eventually be uploaded on the Diksha Platform.
• The proposal should mention the timeline for completing the deliverables. The technical proposal should include an outline of content and your approach for all the above-mentioned deliverables.
• Cite relevant work experience and give samples 
• Detailed CV of all the consultants involved in this project

FINANCIAL PROPOSAL

• Detailed financial proposal
• Copy of registration certificate, GST, PAN Card, etc.
• Read the ToR thoroughly before applying
• Pricing should include above requirements
• Only Shortlisted consultant/agency will be contacted and might be called for a face-to-face interaction with the panel
• Any incomplete application or process deviation, the proposals will automatically be rejected

Proposal received after the prescribed deadline will not be considered.

The TDS will be applicable on the consultancy fee. 

Selected Consultant/agency will be required to sign and abide by the Child Protection policy of Room to Read. 

For queries, please contact:

Ms Neha Premchandani at Neha.Premchandani@roomtoread.org

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[1] World Economic Forum

[2]A gender transformational approach goes beyond recognizing gender disparities within the education system and the learning experience of the student, and strives to harness the full potential of education to transform attitudes and practices within and beyond the education system to contribute to a broader environment of gender justice for girls and boys in all their diversity.

 

Tags Education and Education Technology (edtech)