Call for instructional design proposals

Call for proposals

CALL FOR INSTRUCTIONAL DESIGN PROPOSALS

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1. Project overview

Scaling Her Voice on Air is a project, which aims to improve gender equality and food security among small-scale farmers living in poverty, particularly women and youth, in targeted areas across Burkina Faso, Ghana, Mali, and Senegal. This initiative of Farm Radio International (FRI) will help improve information and communication service provision, namely by and for women. Using new models, resources, and skills, the rural radio stations and the stakeholders, including women’s organizations, will work together to offer interactive radio platforms aiming at addressing farmers’ and youths’ needs through access to vital information. With these new interactive radio platforms, millions of farmers, including young people and their families, will increasingly apply good crop production and nutrition practices that boost family nutrition and food security. This initiative will also support women in leadership roles involved in food security, and it will re-evaluate unequal power relationships affecting food security and promote the implementation of good gender transformative practices with respect to nutrition, diet, food security and women’s rights.

A key component of this project, and the focus of this call for proposals, is providing radio stations in the four countries with distance learning resources (in French and English) – self-guided learning modules and eCourses – in order to improve the radio programming that they provide small-scale farmers.

The goal underlying this work is to increase the radio program design/delivery capacity of large numbers of rural radio stations in order to deliver tangible results to women, men and youth, particularly in rural areas, in a sustainable manner.

The project is undertaken with the financial support of the Government of Canada
provided through Global Affairs Canada.

2. FRI and Radio Resources overview

Farm Radio International (FRI) is a Canadian non-profit organization at the forefront of ICT-enabled extension and communication for scale. FRI’s interactive rural radio approach addresses the information, communication and extension needs of millions of small-scale farmers, rural entrepreneurs and citizens. FRI’s core expertise is participatory, collaborative, results-based program development combining radio and mobile phones, other ICTs and face-to-face interaction. FRI has developed a series of interactive radio-based approaches tailored to achieve different outcomes: awareness, knowledge; market linkages; application and adoption of good agriculture and health practices; and changes in attitude and behaviour.

FRI is executing projects in twelve countries in sub-Saharan Africa, including Burkina
Faso, Ethiopia, Ghana, Kenya, Malawi (with Farm Radio Trust), Mali, Mozambique,
Nigeria, Senegal, Tanzania and Uganda.

Thousands of broadcasters at radio stations across Africa use our resources and training programs to improve their programs on agriculture and rural development. We also facilitate a community of practice amongst our members and networks through online discussions, courses and resource sharing.

3. Goals and target audience

The focus of this call is on two types of distance learning products. The first type is an online course (the Farmer program eCourse) and the second type is self-guided learning modules.

The aim of the Farmer program eCourse is to reach radio broadcasters at stations that would otherwise have smaller or possibly no access to training opportunities, eg face-to-face training. Participants will be able to participate in an asynchronous course (suited to their varying schedules) focused on developing a high quality regular farmer program that is responsive to small-scale farmers’ needs. The course will be facilitated and participants will be mentored by experienced broadcasters. Participants will also have the chance to interact with broadcasters across Africa thus contributing to a community of practice.

The primary target audience of the eCourse are farmer program broadcasters at Zone 2 stations in the Scaling Her Voice on Air project. Zone 2 refer to stations that are involved in the project but that receive little or no face-to-face training and support. There are 19 Zone 2 stations in Ghana and 21 Zone 2 stations in Burkina Faso, Mali and Senegal. Broadcasters from other stations that FRI works with will also have the opportunity to participate in the eCourse. We anticipate around 50 individuals or stations teams participating in the course.

The aim of the self-guided modules is to provide broadcasters and key stakeholder groups with learning tools that are made more engaging for learners through use of images and interactive activities. Learners can do the modules as many times as they want and at a time that is convenient for them.

All of the self-guided learning modules will be useful for broadcasters whereas at least
two of them will also be designed for key stakeholder groups involved in the Scaling Her
Voice on Air project (women’s organizations, farmers’ groups, government extension
services etc.)

4. Scope of work and deliverables

By the end of the consultant’s engagement we want the two elements detailed below in place. Farm Radio International can make a commitment to invest the time of some of its staff in the process with the idea that the consultant would focus on building the capacity of Farm Radio staff to carry out some of the work required. As a non-profit organization, sustainability of our work is very important. Thus finding a way to build capacity of staff is vital to make the most of the budget we have available for the eCourse and self-guided learning modules and any distance learning opportunities we develop in the future.

We expect that the proposal will include a plan for training Farm Radio International staff and indicate where staff could contribute to the Farmer Program eCourse and self-guided modules.

1. Updated Farmer Program eCourse in English and a French version based
on the final English version.

The last time we offered the course was in 2015, we used moodle and it was 12-weeks long. We want to shorten the course to 6-8 weeks and would need to update some of the content and some of the activities as well as the look and feel of the course. We have a good idea of what content we want to keep and what we want to remove. We have only offered the course in English so the consultant would need to develop a French version based on the final English version.

2. Three self-guided learning modules in English and French based on FRI content

Potential topics of the 3 self-guided learning modules include:

  • VOICE standards for Farmer Programs, update of existing self-guided
    module
  • Social and Behaviour Change Communication (SBCC)
  • Interactive radio
  • Gender
  • Interactive uses of ICTs
  • Social franchise approach to rural radio

FRI will provide the instructional designer with content for each of the modules, but would require the designer to create graphics and learning activities based on the content.

*​Please note that FRI has an in-house translation section that can translate from English into French. Thus, FRI could provide the translations for the French version of the eCourse and the self-guided modules, although we would prefer it if the consultant could review the French so that it reads well for instructional design.

5. Timeline

Farmer program eCourse:

  • Course outline redesigned by beginning of August 2019
  • First draft of updated course modules completed by mid-October 2019
  • English version of Farmer program eCourse completed by end of November 2019 – so course can be implemented by mid-January 2020
  •  Plan for providing oversight to efacilitators developed by end of November
  • French version of Farmer program eCourse completed by end of February 2020 – so course can be implemented by mid-April 2020

Self-guided learning modules:

  • 1 completed by end of September 2019 (English and French)
  • 1 completed by end of December 2019 (English and French)
  • 1 completed by end of May 2020 (English and French)

6. Technical Requirements

  • Expertise and experience in instructional design in French and English
  • Moodle for the eCourse (or provide rationale for another comparable learning platform)
  • Self-guided modules using Articulate Rise or another comparable learning program template that is good with graphics, learning activities etc. and works well on mobile phones

7. Principal point of contact

Blythe McKay, Director of Broadcaster Resources, bmckay@farmradio.org

8. Budget

Up to 45,000 CAD

9. Guidelines for submitting call for proposals

  • Deadline for submitting proposal – June 14, 2019.
  • Email submission to Blythe McKay, Director of Broadcaster Resources,  bmckay@farmradio.org
  • Explain how you would address the scope of work and deliverables and your ability to meet the technical requirements and timelines
  • Provide budget
  • Include links to similar work you have done
  • We are happy to answer questions about the call for proposals until June 7, 2019. Please email Blythe McKay your questions.

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