Implementation of software application for supporting attendance tracking, assessment, and monitoring.
TERMS OF REFERENCE FOR INSTITUTIONAL CONTRACT
Title of the assignment
Learning Management Platform
Purpose
Implementation of software application for supporting attendance tracking, assessment, and monitoring
Location
UNICEF Bangladesh Cox’s Bazar Office
Estimated Duration
12 months
Reporting to Technical Supervisor of this assignment
Education Specialist, Cox’s Bazar
1. Background
Over 866,000 Rohingya refugees are living in Cox’s Bazar, 54.2 per cent of whom are children, face a broad range of risks and vulnerabilities. These risks and vulnerabilities – including inadequate access to education, child protection risks, food insecurity and malnutrition – have only worsened under the COVID-19 pandemic. Learning centres (LCs) have been closed for over a year leading to child marriage and child labour increases (2020 Multisectoral Needs Assessment). The humanitarian situation is evolving with over 27,451 refugees transferred by the Bangladeshi authorities to Bhasan Char as of July 2022[1].
The Education Sector advocated for a transition to the Myanmar Curriculum and in January 2020, the National Taskforce (NTF) authorized the Myanmar Curriculum Pilot (MCP) to initiate implementation of the Myanmar curriculum in the camps in Cox’s Bazar. The MCP was designed to target 10,000 learners in Grades 6 to 9 during its first year to inform scale-up of the Myanmar curriculum to all learners, including pre-primary education (PPE) and Grades 1 - 12 over the subsequent years.
The rollout of the MCP and operation of learning centers were halted due to closures resulting from COVID-19 pandemic. All schools and learning centers (LC) were closed since 17 March 2020 to 23rd September 2021 due to COVID-19 restrictions. Following the 18 months closure, the LCs reopened on 22 September 2021 and the use of the Myanmar curriculum was re-approved in December 2021. The Myanmar Curriculum Pilot (MCP) started upon approval and UNICEF is leading the implementation of MCP with 6 implementing partners and there are 10,914 learners (1,803 female) enrolled in 250 MCP learning centers across the 30 camps, exceeding the initial target.
In July 2022, the Education Sector, consisting of 48 partners, started to transition learners from LCFA levels I and II into Kindergarten, Grade 1 and Grade 2 classes following the Myanmar Curriculum. The transition of children into the Myanmar Curriculum Kindergarten (KG), Grade 1 and Grade 2 classes is ongoing and currently over 196,359 (98,208 female) have moved from LCFA I and II into the Myanmar Curriculum, with 24% in kindergarten, 41% in Grade 1 and 35% in Grade 2.
For the implementation of a formal curriculum, teaching, and assessment in a context such as the Rohingya camps where required institutional systems and qualified teachers are insufficient, the use of technology solutions for Education can contribute to overcoming some of the challenges. However, there are significant obstacles to implement EdTech in an emergency setting with limited device ownership (radios, phones, tablets) and digital skills required to use them effectively to learn, especially among Rohingya refugees. Moreover, with the Government of Bangladesh banned the sale of sim cards in the camps which restricts access to online content. While the challenges are great in a deprived context, the potential for EdTech to be a catalyst is also significant.
Scope
Considering the challenges and constraints, UNICEF led the development of an education technology strategy for the Rohingya response based on the context, constraints, and opportunities. Broadly, the use of technology solutions is to contribute towards quality and resilient education delivery with technical areas of focus being facilitating learning, improving teaching, capacity development for partners, assessment and monitoring for learning outcomes as well as supporting communication.
For the Myanmar curriculum implementation, there are specific technical areas and program needs that can be addressed with tablet-based applications that support learning management. There is a need for a software platform which supports the tracking of learner and teacher education data such as attendance, assessment results, and support the provision of record of learning as well as facilitate the conduction of assessment activities with learners and teachers.
Tracking learner attendance and facilitating conduction of formative assessment of learners by teachers is especially relevant now within the current context where learning centers have been reopened after protracted closures. Combined with the assessment data, a learning record, such as a transcript, needs to be developed and provided to learners upon the end of the academic year. Apart from assessment of learners, the assessment of teachers as part of the interview process is a critical step of the recruitment process and a platform that can assess teacher via more interactive questions, apart from just multiple-choice questions, will help the selection process.
2. Objectives, Purpose and Expected Results
This term of reference (TOR) seeks for an application from a competent consulting institution with demonstrated experience in implementing software platforms for conducting assessments, tracking attendance, and for developing a record of learning. Considering the challenges and constraints with reopening and long-standing assessment and record keeping needs of the education program for Rohingya, the platform will support:
- Assessing potential teacher candidates as part of the interview process.
- Enabling teaching at the right level by helping teachers with integrating the use of formative assessment into practice as well as capturing daily attendance data.
- Capturing daily learner attendance data.
- Cataloguing the evidence of learning data and creating a secure record of learning per learner.
Firstly, teachers need to be assessed as part of the interview process. Secondly, the platform needs to support teachers with capturing daily attendance data and conduct as well as collect formative assessment data. Thirdly, the platform needs to keep track of evidence of learning data to create individual records of learning. Fourthly, in collaboration with stakeholders, relevant dashboards for teachers and the program officers need to be developed to ensure quality education based on the attendance, formative assessment, and record learning data. Learners and teachers enrolled in the Myanmar Curriculum Pilot will be the primary target groups for the use of the platform.
More specifically, the TOR is for:
- Mapping of relevant resources and existing data systems: The consulting institution will consider and include current assessment framework and teacher professional development stakeholders for the development and deployment of software system as well as identify all the data systems with which the platform needs to interact.
- Design, develop, and deploy assessment tools for three implementations: Based on consultations, the institution is to design and advise on the development of assessment tools for potential teaching candidates as part of their interview process, formative assessment tools for supporting the Myanmar curriculum pilot and generate records of learning as well as dashboards.
- Design, develop, and deploy daily attendance module for data collection.
- Design, develop, and deploy relevant dashboard based on stakeholder consultations.
- Technical platform support: The consulting firms/institutions will provide necessary technical support for configuring android devices (tablet/smartphones) for the platform deployment and ensure the application works as per requirements.
- Training for use in practice: The consulting firms/institutions will provide training for the teachers and master trainers on the use of the platform for formative assessment, for administering assessment to potential teacher candidates, and for making records of learning available to individual students.
- Training for sustainable use: The consulting firms/institutions will provide training to program staff, and others related to this process about the use of assessment tools as well as creating the records of learning.
Consultancy is expected to fully engage and collaborate with different education partners and key stakeholders in the education sector for coherent and coordinated programme development. Consultancy is also expected to provide logistical support for engagement and consultative meetings/workshops with relevant education sector working groups when required.
3. Description of Assignment
The firm will undertake the following activities:
Mapping of relevant resources and existing data systems
- Map all the data systems in use and to be used within the education sector that are of relevance.
- Develop a data flow and integration plan which includes how data will be collected, what data will be collected, and used on the learning assessment platform; with which systems the learning assessment tool will be interacted.
- Identify the relevant stakeholders for validating proposed tools.
Implementation Use Case 1: Design and Installation of assessments module for selecting new teachers.
- Through consultation, outline the assessment needs of the teacher recruitment process and criteria to recruit teachers.
- Design the software module to align with teacher recruitment process.
- Conduct user-centred design consultations to ensure that the data input and reporting functions are intuitive and usable on the tablets designated for use by teachers for formative assessment and for use by staff involved in teacher hiring process.
Implementation Use Case 2: Design and Installation of formative assessment and attendance module for Myanmar Curriculum Pilot.
- Based on the assessment framework, collect existing assessment tools for Myanmar Curriculum subjects English, Burmese, and Math of grade 6-9, create necessary formative assessment tools, and integrate them into software platform made accessible through a mobile app that functions offline and online.
- Develop attendance module for daily data collection.
- Conduct user-centred design consultations to ensure that the data input and reporting functions are intuitive and usable on the tablets designated for use by teachers for formative assessment and for use by program staff involved in teacher hiring process.
- Develop targeted M&E approach to inform and evaluate roll out of the platform as part of MCP for formative assessment.
Implementation Use Case 3: Design and Installation of record of learning.
- Based on the assessment framework, develop digital record keeping of learning per learner enrolled in Myanmar curriculum.
- Conduct user-centred design consultations to ensure that the data input and reporting functions are intuitive and usable on the tablets designated for use by teachers for formative assessment and for use by staff involved in teacher hiring process.
- Develop targeted M&E approach to inform and evaluate roll out of the platform as part of MCP for formative assessment.
Implementation Use Case 4: Design and Installation of dashboards.
- Conduct stakeholder consultations to determine key indicators for three categories of users.
- Based on consultations, relevant dashboards are developed, tested, and deployed.
Technical platform support: Establishment, maintenance, and support services
- Set up server and design central data access protocols and usage guidelines, starting with RTI server for 12 months and then supporting the hand over to local server for the Education response, e.g., through developing guidance notes, plan, and manuals.
- Provide ongoing support such as instrument rendering, feedback, orientation, training, follow-up, and others that required for the whole period of the 1st phase (Pilot program) to ensure the sustainable operationalization.
- Provide technical supports for full duration of the implementation phase.
- Develop comprehensive design and sustainable plans for use of platform long term with Myanmar curriculum is scaled to cover all learners. This includes assessment of available resources(hardware/software/human) and recommendation to fill the gap if required.
Training for use in practice: training and knowledge transfer
- Prepare a plan for capacity development training programs which will include training methodology, documentation, and training materials for the different user groups.
- For formative assessment – training of trainer’s program needs to be developed
- The training materials may include but not limited to user manual, administration manual, quick start tutorial, online help, and frequently asked questions.
- Organize hands-on technical training programs on server management and maintenance to strengthen capacity of the officials of Information Management Division (IMD).
Sustainability
- Support sector to identify required resources for institutional ownership for platform and analyse capacity to manage the platform internally.
- Advise Sector to define ethics and appropriate processes for collection and sharing of collected data
- Conduct regular virtual meetings with data stakeholders to share lessons on data-informed decision making and continuous improvement of the system.
- Implement and monitor dashboard reporting.
Technical Specification
- Given the fluid nature of the Myanmar Curriculum, the platform should be interoperable with other available solutions for easy incorporation of data from other platforms familiar to UNICEF and Implementing Partners (IP) staff (such as Excel, Open Data Kit, Primero and other CAPI systems).
- The programming language for coding questionnaires should also be fairly easy to understand (or easy to learn) and ubiquitous, enabling easy maintenance.
- Due to limited internet access at the point of use, the platform should be capable of working offline.
- The platform must be capable of case management (both online and offline) to allow for appending and updating data about the same client (teacher, student, learning centre etc).
- Capable of user management for managing beneficiaries in clusters (eg. Camps, Learning Areas, etc.), restricting IPs’ access to only data they generate.
- It should be capable of integrating data with 3rd party analytics, such as Power BI.
4. Deliverables
Activity
Expected deliverable
Estimated number of working days
1
Develop inception report with detailed, system features, workplan, timelines, methodology, roles and responsibilities of the relevant partners and collect assessment framework information as well as learning record templates.
Brief inception report with work plan and learning objectives.
15 days
2
Perform software requirement analysis through stakeholder consultations
Software requirement specification (SRS) document
20 days
3
Develop a data flow/integration plan for how what is collected on the learning assessment platform will interact with other data systems that are in use or are to be used within the sector.
Data flow/Integration plan
15 days
4
Set up server and design central data access protocols and usage guidelines
Guidelines document
15 days
5
Design and installation of necessary formative assessment tools made accessible through mobile app for Myanmar Curriculum subjects English, Burmese, and Math of grade 6-9.
Assessment tools developed on the platform
30 days
6
Design and installation of assessments module to be used within teacher interview process
Module developed on the platform
30 days
7
Design and installation of module for providing record of learning such as a transcript for each leaner.
Module developed on the platform
30 days
8
Field testing of formative assessment tools
Field testing report
30 days
9
Field testing of the record of learning module.
Field testing report
15 days
10
Field testing of the teacher assessment module.
Field testing report for record of learning
15 days
11
Training developed and provided for the use of the formative assessment tools on the platform.
3 sessions of blended training for master trainers
15 days
12
Training developed and provided for the use of the record of learning module
3 sessions of blended training to master trainers
5 days
13
Training developed and provided for the use of the teacher assessment tools
1 session of blended training to program officers
10 days
14
Comprehensive design and sustainability plan for use of platform in the long term when Myanmar curriculum is scaled to cover all learners.
Sustainability plan
15 days
5. Reporting requirements
Timeline requirements for reports and activities:
- Inception Report within 2 weeks of signing the contract;
- Progress Reports by 1st of every month;
- Minutes of Meetings within 2 days after the meetings;
- Mission Reports within 10 days of each mission;
- Technical Reports on a monthly/quarterly/six-monthly basis;
- Draft Final Report within 1/2/3 weeks of completion of field work;
- Final Report within 2 weeks of receipt of comments by UNICEF technical supervisor;
- Training/presentation material before 2 weeks of the date of the training/presentation;
- Workshop/training evaluation report within 2 weeks of completion of the workshop;
6. Payment Schedule
20%
Inception report with details of workplan, timelines and methodology.
SRS, Data flow/Integration plan, and Guidelines document
Formative Assessment tools developed on the platform
Teacher assessment module developed on the platform
Record of learning module developed on the platform
Field test reports (deliverables 8,9, and 10)
Training materials and conducting training (deliverable 11, 12, and 13)
Sustainability plan
7. Qualification requirement of the company/institution/organization
The consultancy firm will bring in multi-disciplinary team that brings in technical knowledge and expertise in assessment tools development for formal and informal curriculums. At least one of the team members should have extensive technical expertise and over 10 years of experience in education with focus on Child Development, primary level and lower secondary or basic education (curriculum, instruction, pedagogies, distance learning). The team should also include an ICT expert.
- If the firm is international/foreign, it will be a requirement to partner with local organizations or local experts with similar disciplines to facilitate the in-country works.
- The consultancy team lead should have an advanced university degree in social sciences such as Education, Public Policy; Development studies; Learning assessment.
- The team should bring in 10-15 years of robust experiences in consulting, researching, conceptualising, designing and/or managing projects in education particularly in content development.
- The consultancy team should also have expertise in production of high-quality radio/audio materials (educational contents/materials desirable).
- It is highly advisable that the team holds strong technical knowledge and experience in curriculum development, content development and production of tools preferably in developing countries context.
- The team should contain strong analytical skills and exhibit competency of working and communicating effectively and proactively with government counterparts and diverse group of people. There must also be strong oral and written communication skills in English within the consultancy team.
8. Evaluation Process and Method
EVALUATION CRITERIA FOR TECHNICAL PROPOSAL
CATEGORY
POINTS
OVERALL RESPONSE
* Understanding of, and responsiveness to, UNICEF Bangladesh Office requirements.
* Understanding of scope, objectives and completeness of response.
* Overall concord between UNICEF requirements and the proposal.
(5)
2
2
1
METHODOLOGY AND DETAILED TIMELINE
* Quality of the proposed approach and methodology that are tailored for the deliverables from the TOR.
* Suitability of the approach: To what extent the methodology is designed in response to the needs of the TOR, including user experience, scalability, security, integration and ease of maintenance;
* Quality of proposed implementation plan, i.e. how the bidder will undertake each task, and time-schedules, including support and maintenance, testing etc.
* Risk assessment - recognition of the risks/peripheral problems and methods to prevent and manage risks/peripheral problems such as how device will be prevented from manual reboots.
* Timelines proposed must be detailed and realistic.
* Provide demonstrative materials, ex. screenshots of the possible solution or provide access to a demo site or similar work done to help validate the proposal.
(45)
5
13
7
5
5
10
ORGANISATIONAL CAPACITY and PROPOSED TEAM
* Professional expertise of the firm/company/organization, knowledge and experience with similar projects, contracts, clients, and consulting assignments
* Team leader: Relevant experience, qualifications, and position with firm including leadership,
* Team members' technical capabilities- Relevant experience, skills & competencies,
* Organization of the team and roles & responsibilities.
(30)
10
10
5
5
TOTAL MARKS
80
For this RFP, the Technical Proposal has a total score of 80 points. Bidders must score minimum of 56 points (70%) to be considered technically compliant and in order, for the Financial Proposals to be opened. Financial proposal has a total score of 20 points.
The final selection of the bidder will be based on a quality and cost basis as specified in the RFP.
NOTE: Guidance to prepare the Technical Proposal:
- Technical Approach and Methodology. In this chapter you should explain
- Understanding of the objectives of the assignment - You should highlight the problems being addressed and their importance, and explain the technical approach you would adopt to address them.
- Methodology for carrying out the activities and obtaining the expected output
- You should also explain the methodologies you propose to adopt and highlight the compatibility of those methodologies with the proposed approach.
- Risk analysis should be provided - The associated risks should also be highlighted and the methods to mitigate those risks should be proposed.
- Provide a demo site link or screen shots of how the proposed solution will be designed.
- DO NOT CUT AND PASTE TEXTS FROM THE TOR SHARED WITH YOUR COMPANY.
- Work Plan. In this chapter you should propose the main activities of the assignment, their content and duration, phasing and milestones (including interim approvals by the Client), and delivery dates of the key deliverables. The proposed work plan should be consistent with the technical approach and methodology, showing understanding of the ToR and ability to translate them into a feasible working plan. A list of the final technical documents, including reports, drawings, and tables to be delivered as final output, should be included here. Especially provide details on how support can be provided remotely and possibly in person.
- Organization and staffing of the team for this assignment. In this chapter you should propose the structure and composition of your team which will be deployed for this assignment. You should list the main disciplines of the assignment, the key expert responsible and proposed technical and support staff along with their curriculum vitae (CVs). Designate the individuals who will be providing continuous support.
- Team composition and tasks assigned. Please provide the details as per the following:
- Profiles of previous experience of working with similar projects or contexts
[1] UNHCR-GoB population statistics July 2022