Consultant - Design and Development of Learning Management System (LMS) at ZOA International

Background / Context

• Nigerian citizens are confronted with challenges regarding accessing civil, political, economic, social, and cultural rights, right to health, food, water and adequate living standards and universal education.
• Its population is diverse and accommodating the needs and preferences of its diverse and young population is complex. In this regard, the civil society of Nigeria has played, and continues to play, a crucial role.
• Yet CSOs are observed to have limitations in effectively contributing to democracy, human rights, and development. One of the main constraints regarding lack of capacity is in digital skills.
• Furthermore, there is a huge gender gap in digital inclusion in Nigeria. More than 80% of the female youth are not computer literate whereas the same for males is about 20% in north-west region.
• Similarly, a study conducted in 2016 by the Centre for Information Technology and Development (CITAD), indicates that 55% of men in northern Nigeria disallow their wives to use the internet, while 61% of fathers discourage their daughters’ use the internet as well. Furthermore, the debate on the plan to regulate the social media space in Nigeria has been worrisome.
• Nigeria currently ranks 120th in the 2021 World Press Freedom Index against 115 in the preceding year. Considering these setbacks for the North-eastern Nigerian marginalized and disadvantaged groups there is a great need to galvanize the efforts of CSOs in tackling these challenges by equipping them with unhindered access to digital resources.
• Yobe has a literacy rate of 7.23%, according to the National Bureau of Statistics. Statistics from National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA) revealed Northeast Nigeria, particularly Borno State, showed more gaps in digital literacy among women and youths than other states of the region.
• Interestingly, as of December 2018, the Southwest region had the highest number of Internet users per region, accounting for 76 percent of the total subscriptions while the Northeast and Northwest regions of the country jointly accounted for 0.62 percent. Thus, there is a profound gap that can be seen in the target areas.
• The target groups in Borno and Yobe States who are focused on in this action, namely targeted CSOs and other grassroot groups, women, hard to reach youth, persons with disability and other marginalized groups, have very poor or no access to digital resources.
• Due to these reasons, these vulnerable groups are not able to access any of the benefits that are associated with being linked to digital resources which include information sharing, learning, digital marketing, communicating and their voices being heard.
• Therefore, they are unable to express their opinions, preferences, voice their concerns and the injustices they face; thus, they are effectively cut off from being a part of decision-making processes, systems and policies that govern their lives.

Scope and Objectives

• The Design and development of learning management system (LMS) also known as virtual learning system (VLS) is aimed at building a functioning learning system/platform to aid the in-person training at the respective digital transformation hubs of the 39 CSOs with the following objectives.
• Provide a user-friendly and accessible platform for delivering digital skills training.
• Offer a variety of engaging and interactive learning modules including (Basic Digital literacy, social media marketing, Digital marketing and e-commerce, Graphics design, Coding/web development, Cybersecurity awareness and access to other online learning).
• Provide quizzes, test and other exercises including assignments and projects.
• Track learner progress, provide feedback and generate certificate.
• Facilitate collaboration and peer-to-peer learning.

Target Audiences:

• The Learning Management System will be used to build the capacity of women, hard-to-reach youth, and persons with disability in Borno and Yobe states.

Expected Deliverables

• Proposed design architecture of an integrated Learning Management System platform with process flow meeting all ZOA’s required functionalities.
• LMS platform with necessary tools and applications for centralized document/data storage for the LMS learning materials.
• A complete documentation of flowchart and process of the LMS platform.
• User Manual and Technical Support Guidelines.
• Training for system administrators and facilitators.
• 12 months of system maintenance, user support (and license, if any), at no cost to ZOA.

Methodology
Prior to the development of the LMS, the consultant should propose a design on the process flow of the to-be-developed LMS. In doing this, the consultant shall discuss with ZOA to identify the needs and expected functionalities. At this stage, ZOA’s minimum required functionalities/process flows of the LMS are as follows:
User Menu:

• Single sign-on from the ZOA
• Personalized dashboard provides a list of courses and detailed course information (outline and syllabus).
• Course navigation, including course tracking.
• Quiz and exams page with auto-randomized questions.
• Certificate completed with quiz result and auto-generate certificate number.
• Exam re-take feature options.
• Feedback and evaluation page. (optional).

Administrative menu:

• Create a course outlining, Course Title, Course Description and Objectives, Modules, and Quiz/Exam. The course should be able to facilitate any form of content including e-book, text, ppt, photo, file, video, and audio (upload/link).
• Add, remove, update course list/category, set the course and exam passing grade.
• Create quiz/exam. The quiz mainly will be multiple-choice, but the system should also allow any other kind of quiz.
• Upload and revise certificate template.
• Reporting e.g., number of accesses, number of staff have passed courses, participants feedback.

Developing the Learning Management System:
After the process flow design is approved, the consultant will develop the LMS according to the approved design. In developing the LMS, the consultant should consider the following:

• The system must be developed on a modular basis to accommodate new or additional requirements during the development stage or in the future and to allow future system development to be integrated into its database; including to be adaptive if later decided a mobile app will be developed.
• The system should be able to serve at least 2,000 users concurrently.
• The system must be user friendly, flexible, extensible, scalable, and secure. Any software updates or patches shall be easily available which can be either be downloaded from a website or to be provided by the vendor.

Deploying and Implementing LMS:

• Deploy and configure LMS as the production environment. This will include performing final functional and technical requirements validation including security testing.
• Develop the LMS user manual for staff and LMS technical support guidelines for system administrators. The LMS user manual should outline the step-by-step process in accessing and using the LMS. While, the LMS technical support guidelines should cover, the following:
  • Process and function of LMS
  • Functional and technical design
  • Test plan, test scripts, and results
  • System documentation
  • Training materials and presentations
  • Cut-over checklists.
  • Pre and Post Go-Live checklists
  • Deployment Guide; - Backup and recovery plan.
• Conduct User Acceptance Testing (UAT) to ensure the effective operation of the system and undertake follow-up on identified bugs and feedback from UAT participants.
• Conduct hand-on training for system administrators and participants.

Reporting / Deliverables

• The Consultant is expected to produce reports and deliverables in accordance with Sections above. The timing of delivery is indicative and can be adjusted when the Contractor’s work plan is developed, subject to mutual agreement.

Project Management:

• This consultancy assignment will be undertaken intermittently over four calendar months. Work will commence immediately after contract signing.

Maintenance and technical support:

• At least 12 months of warranty for the System is to be provided after the handover of LMS to ZOA. The warranty shall cover maintenance, updating, patching, debugging, repairing, replacement, remedying, or otherwise correcting any problem on the LMS, and licensing (if any) at no cost to ZOA (inclusive of on-site debugging/correction, when necessary); and
• 24/7 technical support on call, by email and/or an online helpdesk with expected response within 24 hours. In case of emergency, the expected response shall be within 3 hours.

Requirements

• Candidates should possess relevant qualifications with 3 - 10 years relevant work experience.