VACANCY Notice Consultant to develop AVU Corporate Website, Blog and Learning Management Systems The African Virtual University (AVU) www.avu.org is an equal opportunity employer The successful consultant will be appointed as per the attached Terms of References (TOR) Application must include an application letter and a detailed curriculum vitae with: a telephone number; email and residential addresses; and names with contact addresses of three professional references Applications should be sent to job@avu.org and must have Consultant for the Development of AVU Corporate Website, Blog and Learning Management Systems as the email subject All inquiries should be sent to avuhr@avu.org The closing date for this application is January 9 th 2015 at 18:00 East African Time (UTC/GMT + 3) Note: ONLY shortlisted candidates will be contacted TERMS OF REFERENCE FOR DEVELOPMENT OF AVU CORPORATE WEBSITE, BLOG AND LEARNING MANAGEMENT SYSTEM (LMS) The African Virtual University (AVU) www.avu.org is a Pan African Intergovernmental Organization established by charter with the mandate of significantly increasing access to quality higher education and training through the innovative use of information communication technologies. A Charter, establishing the AVU as an Intergovernmental Organization, has been signed so far by nineteen (19) African Governments - Kenya, Senegal, Mauritania, Mali, Cote d Ivoire, Tanzania Mozambique, and Democratic Republic of Congo, Benin, Ghana, Guinea, Burkina Faso, Niger, South Sudan, Sudan, The Gambia,
Guinea-Bissau, Nigeria and Cape Verde. The AVU has its headquarters in Nairobi, Kenya and a Regional office in Dakar Senegal with Host-Country Agreements and Diplomatic Status with the two governments. The AVU Business Plan 2009-2014 has two main thrusts: (a) Educational and support services; and (b) development services. The development services aims at building the capacity of AVU Partner Institutions (PIs) with an objective of increasing access to quality education. Some of the development services were delivered from 2005 to 2011 through the AVU Multinational Project I, funded by the African Development Bank (AfDB) and implemented in 10 African countries. The AfDB is funding a second phase of the Multinational Project which will build on the first phase and will extend its benefits to more countries. The overall objective of the AVU Multinational Project II is to strengthen the capacity of the AVU and a network of 27 institutions to deliver and manage quality ICT integrated education and training opportunities in 21 African countries. The project has the following activities: (1) Establishment of new Open Distance and elearning (ODeL) Centres and/or upgrading of exiting AVU Learning Centres as well as Internet connectivity provision at AVU Partner Institutions; (2) Development and/or improvement, and delivery of four ICT integrated Programs: AVU Capacity Enhancement Program (ACEP); Teacher Education (TE), Computer Science (CS), and Peace and Conflict Resolution; (3) Gender Mainstreaming, (4) Research and Development; (5) Promotion and development of Open Education Resources (OERs); and (6) Enhancement of AVU Capacity. The AVU Multinational Project II is being implemented in 27 AVU Partner Institutions in Africa. To improve its web services, online presence and visibility and adapt to the new advent in information technology, AVU has undertaken the implementation of a digital project including redesigning and upgrading AVU corporate portal, AVU blog and AVU Moodle Learning Management System (LMS). 2.0. SCOPE OF WORK The consultant is expected to undertake a need analysis, redesign and upgrade the AVU Corporate web site, the AVU LMS and Blog. 2.1). AVU Corporate website requirements The Corporate portal should provide innovative functionalities and should meet the following requirements: The look and feel of the new website should be visually appealing (i.e. with attractive mix of texts and graphics), has a unified theme and design, and easy to navigate The new site should be less visually crowded and cleanlier and attractively organized A sitemap that shows a clear navigational path structure should be included.
More varied formats of content (including photos, videos, slide shows and audio files) should be integrated The website should incorporate social media such as Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and Flikr amongst others The website should enable sign-up for the AVU electronic newsletters, and AVU staff Managed through open source Content Management System (CMS) that is reliable and with support base worldwide, and will permit non-technical staff to instantly update web site content, add modules or sections, and integrate Web 2.0 elements, such as, but not limited to, user tagging, content commenting, syndication, social networking, peer-to-peer sharing The possibility to define accessibility rights should be given so that only certain members of the AVU community can access certain sections of the website, it should also allow for self-registration to these sections. Advanced search engine content archiving Access control, administrator and user-level access. Implement a tracking application to produce user defined site log reports to measure web visitors and user behavior and improve web site performance and availability Site must be compatible with all the latest Internet browsers (IE, Firefox, Chrome, Safari, etc.) Site must be built in accordance to the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 2.0, provided by the W3C and should also be easily accessible to the novice as well as the experienced Internet user. E-newsletter template system The calendar should have past events, current and upcoming events. Online Forms (Feedback, Complaints, FAQ, etc.) Provide rendering on mobile and PDA devices The portal should be secured and in line with local and international internet and digital regulations. 2.2) Learning Management System requirements The AVU LMS will be based on the last stable version of Moodle platform and will integrate all the needed Moodle tools. The main functionalities to be provided are as follow: Modern, easy to use interface Register users for current and future courses, calendar Train or learn asynchronously or synchronously (24H/2H availability) Support for self-paced or blended learning. Offer a mixed curriculum that combines classroom learning and virtual courses easily Skill and knowledge tools for various analysis and result measurement, and tools for tracking progresses for groups and single students (results/activities) SCORM Compatible and mobile rendering
Support Creative Commons licensing Course management provides the following; creation of courses, assignment module, grade management module, quizzes module, survey module, and timetable module etc. Self-generation of analytics and a variety of reports, preview reports before exporting, filter reports based on user groups or courses, demography and print reports in PDF, Excel formats or other file formats Integration of Learning Experience APIs or plugins providing learning analytics including experiences, scores, progress, teams, virtual media, real-world experiences (not just completions) Multiple learner communication features such as Social Medias, chat, forums, SMS messaging, email, communities and discussion threads Build a straightforward and easy to navigate courseware which can be assigned by academic program managers or learn independently using the Open Access courseware Manage Courses, Classes, Clients, Locations, Books, People, Lists, Forms Support Secure authentication and mass enrolment High interoperability; Freely integrate external APIs and content or allows creation of your own plugin for custom integrations Ability to integrate external learning platforms and video conferences management systems such as blackboard Integrate collaborative API (Google Apps, Facebook, twitter etc.; Built-in collaborative publishing features to foster engagement and encourage content-driven collaboration Group management; Group learners to share courses, differentiate activities and facilitate teamwork Multilingual capability (English, French, Portuguese) Web services support; XML-RPC, AMF (Flash), REST, SOAP (PHP) The portal should be secured and in line with local and international internet and digital regulations. 2.3) AVU Blog requirements The Blog should provide information and capabilities including: Blog post archive: previous blog posts listed, sorted in a logical order by either date or by category Plugin for various notifications such as RSS and ATOM feed for posts and comments Must have commenting system: for readers to discuss subject of the post not only with blogger, but also with other readers. Makes experience engaging and interactive The blog should have commenting spam protection tool
Advanced search feature; for visitors to easily access archived contents Social media integration; blog content is meant to be shared; this will make it easy to share the blog posts in the social media by integrating with social media capabilities Content moderation tool integrated Attachments, Upload or embed pictures and multimedia. User registration, authentication, access and management, user groups Email subscription, emotion and pool, shout box Provide rendering on mobile and PDA devices. 2.4) The consultant will be required to: Collect and assess the needs of AVU for web portals (Corporate website, Blog, and LMS) Develop customization strategy identifying requirements for functionality improvement, new functionality, Plugin or API integration for the website Apply the AVU logo and brand identity and marketing materials to all the web pages Develop and maintain a state-of-the-art look and feel for the web portal Ensure that complete security measures are in place to safeguard the web portals Ensure that the web portals, CMS support Multi Lingual structure Provide support in importing/exporting the content into the new platforms Have the Platform developed and hosted in AVU cloud Ensure that indexing, Search Engine Optimization (SEO), Piwik stats and Google analytics integration Installation and configuration new plugins and tools that implement new functionalities Train AVU staff to provide continuous support. 3.0. DELIVERABLES AND EXPECTED OUTCOMES AVU Corporate website, AVU Blog and LMS portals needs collected and assessed Website, blog and LMS development, implementation and work plans developed AVU Corporate website, blog and LMS developed according to theirs requirements and hosted in AVU cloud All Web portals integrated and developed with an open source CMS A state-of-the-art look and feel for the Web Portal developed in line with AVU marketing strategy Analytics, tools for Indexing, Search Engine Optimization (SEO) integrated Prepared strategy/plan on how to handle platform updates and new releases of web portal platforms
Provided support for portals content exporting/importing provided Prepared sitemap with web alignment in English, French and Portuguese AVU staff trained to provide continuous support. 4.0. MODALITIES OF WORK The Consultant is expected to complete the exercise in a period not more than Thirty (30) working days. The consultant is also expected to provide a detailed work plan taking into account the deliverables and deadlines. 5.0. REPORTING The Consultant will report to the Manager, Information Technology or such other person as the AVU may designate from time to time in writing. However, the Consultant will be required time to time to meet the AVU management for any relevant decision or approval related to any issue, activity or deliverable that may be relevant. 6.0. PAYMENT Payment will be in a daily basis and will be commensurate with the experience and qualifications of the Consultant.