Online Courseware Developer at Code for Africa

Code for Africa (CfA) has an immediate vacancy for a mid-level role as an Online Courseware Developer with strong pedagogical expertise and extensive experience in curriculum creation (using e-learning technologies).. 

The candidate will join our pan-African Data Academy and may be based at any of our hubs in Kenya, Nigeria or South Africa. We are also open to exceptional applicants from elsewhere in Africa.

CfA’s Data Academy, which spearheads our training partnerships and data analysis and storytelling initiatives. It also includes CfA communities such as the WanaData women data science/storytelling network and the africanDRONE civic drone community, as well as the sensors.AFRICA sensor journalism initiative, with a network of more than 50+ newsroom and university partners across Africa. The Data Academy is also custodian of other major CfA public infrastructure, such as the continent’s largest open data portal, open.AFRICA, and Africa’s largest census data portal, HURUMap.

The Courseware Developer will be CfA’s in-house ‘architect’ for designing the structure of training courses. The candidate reports to the Data Academy’s Senior Programme Manager and will work with the support of CfA’s wider Data Academy team of editorial experts, data analysts and digital designers in 20 African countries, as well as external domain experts in order to achieve set programmes or module objectives. The candidate will champion CfA’s Academy Massive Open Online Course (MOOC), ensuring that it is on par with the world’s best. 

Required minimum requirements include:

• Bachelor’s Degree or significant proven expertise in any related disciplines with equivalent combination of practical experience and professional training/certification in any of the following: instructional design and learning technologies, computer science and education, information technology, or other closely related fields.
• 3+ years of hands-on experience in training development, creating blended learning solutions for both instructor-led and self-paced training programmes.
• Experience with using multimedia and online web instructional materials, especially for a web-based Learning Management Systems (LMS) such as WordPress’ LearnDash platform.
• Experience assessing training needs, writing lessons objectives, and storyboarding course outlines/learning journeys. 
• Ability to work creatively and accurately under pressure with excellent attention to detail.
• Ability to multitask and self-organise, and prioritise work when managing multiple timelines and schedules.
• Excellent leadership, team-building, and self-management skills.
• Excellent verbal and written communication skills.  

Preferred: preferred qualifications and skills include:

• Knowledge of data journalism and/or multimedia storytelling, or civic technology and civic engagement, or digital democracy approaches.
• Experience with developing courseware formats for new communication channels, including using mobile platforms as WhatsApp or equivalent social messaging platforms.
• Experience with creating or customising courseware content using InDesign (or equivalent tools), video scribe, audio/narration editing tools and other e-learning design technologies is also an asset.
• Expertise in adult learning and all aspects of instructional design for various formats, including instructor-led, self-directed e-learning, task-driven experiential learning, webinar-driven interactive learning, mobile optimised courseware, and various types of performance support.
• Willingness to teach others and learn/pioneer new techniques.
• Experience in remote collaboration tools, including Slack, Google Drive, and Trello to manage workflows.
• The ability to communicate and work effectively with curriculum or domain experts and project team members who work remotely and in different time zones.

Language and Location Requirements:

• Location: South Africa, Kenya, Nigeria or anywhere else in Africa
• Languages: English
• Preferred but not required: French and/or Arabic

About the Role

The successful candidate will join CfA’s Data Academy team to lead a revamp/refresh of our existing MOOC platform, restructuring and updating existing courseware, while also improving the functionality and user experience on the platform (with support from CfA’s tech and content teams).

A major focus for the role will be to build courses that are modular, with core lessons teaching key skills, complimented by elective modules that offer topic/tool specific add-on skills. CfA courseware is intended to be flexible enough to be easily customised or repackaged for different audiences by our in-country staff trainers or university partners. The MOOC courseware also serves as the master curricula for teaching kits for our in-person/offline training workshops, as well as template course materials for our university partners.

CfA’s courseware developer will be responsible for benchmarking our learning materials on global best-practise, and will also lead our joint development of new courses with both internal and external stakeholders to create learning solutions.

The candidate should have a strong strategic analysis and critical thinking skills, as our projects are varied and fast-paced, so you need to quickly understand and learn new things. You will need to possess a keen attention to detail and a good eye for both quality and aesthetics. You should be comfortable handling multiple tasks with multiple ongoing deadlines and should have previous experience working on the digital collaboration tools that CfA uses, such as Slack, Google Drive, and Trello.

Responsibilities: Your daily responsibilities will include:

• Conceptualising and designing master curricula, in consultation with CfA programme teams and external domain experts, for modular, task-driven experiential courses that function as both self-directed e-learning and as in-person courseware of instructors.
• Developing courseware support materials, including facilitator guides and user-manuals; participant materials and exercises/assignments; and course handouts/toolkits. 
• Repacking the master curriculum for offline/in-person presentation, including developing presentation slides (PowerPoint, etc) with instructor talking points/notes; class handouts and participant handbooks, etc.
• Cultivate and manage a pool of thematic experts that CfA can call upon to co-author courses and/or present flagship classes.
• Proactively measure user experience and participant trends/feedback to improve the quality and effectiveness of CfA courseware.
• Monitor overall usage/completion rates and trends for CfA’s online MOOC and other webinar-based learning programmes, to offer actionable insights to improve the effectiveness of CfA’s Academy programmes.
• Evaluate the effectiveness of the implementation of the training courses 
• Monitor trends in teaching practices, and explore and recommend new technologies that will enhance Data Academy’s training model
• Advise CfA’s trainers on the following aspects of the training content: accessibility, readability, potential for learner engagement and fit with learning objectives.
• Work with CfA engagement team to promote CfA training programmes including the MOOC site to the wider public and increase traffic and engagement on the site.

What We Offer:

• A competitive salary, subject to experience, with opportunities for performance-based growth, both in terms of career path and public stature.
• A dynamic workplace, with a transnational team, occasional international travel, and generous vacation benefits.
• Ongoing opportunities to learn new cutting-edge skills and techniques/technologies to future-proof yourself in a rapidly evolving industry.
• A chance to shine on a global stage, writing for international audiences and interacting with colleagues around the world.