POLHN Website and Moodle Management and Enhancements

The contractor will be required to manage security, update and upgrade the Pacific Open Learning Health Net (POLHN) WordPress-based website, learning management system (LMS) Moodle, and the hosting site. In light of the growing number of Moodle users and increasing complexity of handling hacking and forceful introduction of adware and malware, this contract aims to ensure the advancement of website features. In addition, the service provider will be responsible for carrying out daily maintenance to avoid major downtime.

Background

The Pacific Open Learning Health Net (POLHN) was created to deliver online learning and continuing professional development opportunities for geographically dispersed and remote health workers in the Pacific. POLHN partners with academic institutions, course providers, independent contractors and Ministries of Health to provide equal opportunity and greater access to range of accredited and non-accredited learning activities both online and via e-learning for health workers across the Pacific.

POLHN website, learning management system and user base plays a highly important role in its functionality. POLHN’s , learning management system; Moodle holds critical user and course-related information. In recent months, there have been several failed attempts of hacking and forceful introduction of adware and malware.

The frequent attacks of spam and malware have also increased POLHN website and Moodle downtime. Due to the increase in traffic and users, the server is now more vulnerable to such attacks. Both Moodle and the POLHN website itself require a dedicated technical specialist to monitor and resolve the increased chances of being targeted by spam, as well as losing student information and website content. Previously, the website and Moodle were managed in-house, however due to the current increased website load, external management and expertise are necessary.

Planned timelines

Start date:  15/01/2018

End date: 30/07/2018

Work to be performed

Method(s) to carry out the activity

Virtual from the suppliers’ location, POLHN has two main live platforms:

• Website and Learner Management System

Output/s

In collaboration with the WHO Pacific Health Systems and Policy team, the contractor will be required to perform the below tasks:

1. Website: development, maintenance, updates and support;
2. Learning management system (LMS):  development, maintenance and support;
3. Security; Website, LMS and server stored user data;
4. Hosting; Website, LMS and associated services;
5. POLHN certificate verification system;
6. Newsletter management;
7. Provision of system to automate internal and external support queries; and
8. Search engine optimization and site analysis.

More specifically, the contractor will be responsible for the following:

1.       Website Development Maintenance, Updates and Support:

The main activities will include:

1.1.Face uplifting the website as per the recent trends, modern design standards, needs or feedback provided by the internal stakeholders or external user community;

1.2.Gauging the feedback on website design, functionality and proposing the design demos before implementing the changes for the POLHN website;

1.3.During all updates, optimize the site for low bandwidth users;

1.4.Before any major updates, use simple, cost-effective techniques to test designs with representative users before implementation of major features such as restructuring the main navigation menu;

1.5.Develop open APIs onto our membership database and stand by to implement any needed integration with other public health open platforms. Implement SSO for the learning community members to have ease of access to learning portal, particular for courses which have been hosted on other learning platforms (other than POLHN);

1.6.Implement a blog module with integrates social media engines (such as twitter, facebook) as well as the professional networks (e.g. LinkedIn) posting. The blog shall facilitate streaming of information between these different platforms;

1.7.Ensure cross browser, platform, operating system compatibility;

1.8.Make website SEO friendly and implement deep, intelligent and quick search functionality in the website which shall help users in accessing relevant and accurate search results quickly;

1.9.Create banners, marketing content (including videos, promotions, course introductory packages), promotional material and place on the website, social media engines as well as in the marketing email campaigns;

1.10.Orientation to staff on website maintenance and content update (blog writing, news posting, social and professional sharing etc.);

1.11.Perceive risks, plan, design strategies to avoid or mitigate risks, share plans and implement after approval for ensuring security of the website, users data and organizational information;

1.12.Help in developing a chat module that facilitates students and new users to interact with POLHN management and IT support team (the consulting firm). This would help better serving the learners;

1.13.Provide knowledge and prepare periodic reports based on raised queries, feedback and channel for making the platform improvements; and

1.14.Lead and perform any migrations of the website to a new platform, as and when needed based on requirements.

2.       Learning Management System - Development, Maintenance and Support:

The supplier will be required to perform below task:

2.1.Continue the integration of LMS and the website with respect to ease of content sharing between the platforms (enrolment, subject information, modules structure etc.) The LMS content is directly fetched and it is integrated with the POLHN website;

2.2.Moodle Migration: From existing platform, POLHN plans to migrate to a more secure and scalable server with high availability of Moodle instance with minimal or no downtime;

2.3.Upgrade current Moodle version (2.7) to the most recent long-term support release (LTS) version  (Moodle 3.1 or higher) in a seamless way that no or very minimum possible downtime occurs;

2.4.Course development: working closely with POLHN’s course development team to finalize new courses and then add these to Moodle and the POLHN website;

2.5.Course content: managing the content of all the courses;

2.6.Course certificates: re-designing course certificates as per POLHN’s requirements, and ensure their integration with Moodle. This also includes handling the back-office technical queries through support email where students raise certificate issuance or enrolment queries;

2.7.Moodle plugin development: the contractor shall develop certain plug-in for Moodle to perform specific tasks, including, dashboard access to the management for daily, weekly, monthly, course wise and other indicator based statistics. The plugin development work may also require development of custom applications to verify issuance of certificates (verification system development discussed separately); and

2.8.Layout fixing: the contractor will be required to fix layouts for different pages on Moodle as well as on the website, as per the advice from the POLHN team or feedback received from the students.

3.       Newsletter Management

The supplier will be required to manage the newsletter sending along with email server management to ensure maximum delivery, management and privacy of contact lists, design campaigns with inputs of POLHN team and ensure sending these campaigns to target users. These tasks mainly include the following:

3.1.Design, develop, schedule and report on newsletter campaigns in coordination with POLHN team;

3.2.Design weekly or monthly newsletter or  design and send on on-demand newsletter campaigns;

3.3.Develop content for newsletter with the help of POLHN team;

3.4.Schedule and send newsletters;

3.5.Acquire and configure bulk email sending service with the capacity of sending nearly 60k emails a month;

3.6.Integrate Google analytics and other tracking services in the newsletters to ensure reporting on different indicators (such as, open rate, bounce rate, different goal rates, conversion rate with respect to website visit, course sign up, Moodle access etc.);

3.7.Draw knowledge and inform POLHN team with recent trends and analytics data to take corrective measures or improve the campaigns content and approach; and

3.8.Maintain good health and spam ranking of the organizational email servers/service.  

4.       Security

The supplier will be required to provide following services:  

4.1.Continual virus scanning and protection: providing comprehensive website malware scanning and removal on an ongoing basis to ensure websites are free of possible infections at all times;

4.2.Layer 7 firewall: ensuring compliance of the layer 7 application firewall to protect against hacking and infectious activities. This firewall should be capable of implementing geographical location-based (GEO) blocking, accessing permission controls, and IP blocking. The contractor is required to provide ongoing monthly firewall activity log;

4.3.SSL: providing SSL compatible protection to both the POLHN website and Moodle;

4.4.Website audit: providing quarterly  complete security audit of the current website with a detailed analytical report regarding vulnerabilities and risk levels;

4.5.Website hardening: patching and updating code based on above audit report. If the code updates or patches are unavailable, the contractor will provide virtual patching solutions to reduce the risk of website exploitation;

4.6.Web hosting: managing the host server by facilitating regular security updates and patching as well as a backup system that backs up the website every 8 hours. These backups should be accessible and restorable without hosting admin intervention;

4.7.DDOS protection: ensuring the host platform has a DDOS firewall to protect against denial of service attacks;

4.8.Website and Moodle: conducting updates and upgrading both platforms on daily/weekly bases;

5.       POLHN Certificate Verification System

POLHN issues certificates for all non-accredited courses running from the POLHN platform.  The supplier will be required to provide and maintains data and information of all certificate holders. The supplier will be required to develop a certificate verification system which will allow the users and employers to verify authenticity of the issued certificates.

6.       Web Hosting

POLHN requires end to end cloud hosting service for all its components including website, email, Moodle, future systems (e.g. Certificate Verification system). The supplier will be required to:

6.1.The supplier will be required to provide dedicated server with adequate storage space;

6.2.Manage a dedicated server with 24/7 technical assistance and no downtime in SLA;  

6.3.Migration of current website, Moodle application and  email accounts  server to newly acquired server;

7.       Provision of system to automate internal and external support queries

7.1.Design, develop and integrate a support based CRM system to manage all queries and requests originating from POLHN team;

7.2.Coordination between end users and administration;

7.3.Feedback system that can keep record / track feedback provided by students (online); and

7.4.Manage feedback (correspondence) on behalf of POLHN team as and when needed.

8.       Search Engine Optimization and site analysis

8.1.The supplier will ensure the search engine optimization (SEO) of all POLHN content:

• Articles;
• New;
• Blog;
• Forum;
• Blog and article promotion;
• Profile listings;
• Q & A Submissions;
• Site analysis;
• Competitive analysis;
• Site content optimization;
• Content marketing;
• HTML code optimization;
• Speed optimization;
• UI and UX optimizations according to Google and other search engines recommendations.
• Search Engine submission (free search engines);
• Back link generation;
• Web ranking report; and 
• Traffic conversions, Goals conversions.

8.2.Use SEO analyses to fix all issues SEO tags;

8.3.Perform keyword research in coordination with objectives in order to optimize existing content and uncover new opportunities for SEO;

8.4.Help to create marketing content for social media purposes (e.g. learning community’s video briefs, case studies, promoting website blog posts);

8.5.Monitor and administer web analytics dashboards, reports and key reporting tools, in addition to pointing out areas of importance in accordance with goals;

8.6.Social and professional media integration (Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Google+, Youtube etc.);

8.7.Schema and knowledge graph integrations;

8.8.Traffic and customer Analysis;

8.9.Image optimization;

8.10.SEO  mobile optimization; and

1. Provide monthly report based on the above TOR.

5.Technical supervision

The selected consultant will work under the supervision of:
Responsible Officer:      Mohammed Yasin, Technical Officer Pacific Open Learning Health Net, Pacific Health Systems and Policy, Division of Pacific Technical Support       Email:    yasinm@who.int

Specific requirements

The following experience is required for this contract:

• At least 5 years of documented experience of providing similar services;
• Proven experience of working in developing and under-developed settings, with specialized; knowledge, expertise and track record of working with international development and humanitarian organizations;
• Knowledge about Pacific health system and Pacific internet infrastructure will be an added advantage; and
• Should be a more than 10 employee company with an ability to provide listed services.

Competencies

• Communicating in a credible and effective way;
• Producing results as measurable by specific outputs;
• Moving forward in a changing environment; and
• Fostering integration and teamwork.

​​​​​​​Location of assignment

Remote; work and communication to be conducted virtually from the contractor’s location.

Timeline and duration of assignment

The duration for of the assignment is from 15 January, 2018 to 30 July, 2018

Proposed activities/ Dates
Report of activities and updates as listed above/ 15th of each month
Progress report based on Google Analytics and SEO results/Every three months

Deliverable(s) to be submitted during and after the period of the assignment including manner of delivery and payment

• Monthly in 6 instalments upon submission of progress report

​​​​​​​Detailed cost breakdown

Routine service = (60 hours/ month) X (submit your expected daily rate) __________

Upgrades and updates; all plugin and upgrade cost included = (45 hours/ month) X (submit your expected daily rate) ___________

Administration = (15 hours/ month) X (submit your expected daily rate) ___________

Fixed cost: (Renewal, licensing, hosting, security...) = To be discussed with selected supplier

Miscellaneous (if any, specify) = ______________                                            

TOTAL   = _____________________                           

Applications

Qualified institutions / companies should submit are expected to submit the technical and financial proposals in the English language at wpfjidpsprocurement@who.int by 15 Janury 2018. Please use Tender Notice No. 66679 as subject to all submissions.
For preparation of the proposal, refer to the following aspects which shall be addressed in the proposal:

• Formal proposal submission letter;
• understanding and approach;
• methods of implementing the approach;
• dependencies / Challenges / Assumptions;
• risk management plan; and
• detailed work breakdown structure along with segregation of roles along with team members.

The financial proposal shall cover all costs including designing, development, hosting, security, SEO, project management, content writing along with requiring any needed licensing or subscription costs of applications. The financial estimates/proposal shall be itemized which shall at least include both HR and non-HR (subscription, renewals, licensing) costs. A financial estimates’ summary shall be shared along with the detailed itemized costing to the same email address above. Only short-listed applicants will be contacted.