Consultancy: Development of an online learning management system for National Industrial Training Authority (NITA) At International Labour Organization

PROSPECTS Kenya: Digital transformation of skills development and learning solutions

1.Background

Kenya’s young population continues to face socio-economic pressures as economic growth has not led to the creation of a sufficient number of (decent) jobs. Consequently, a major challenge currently facing young people in Kenya is youth unemployment, which stood at 38 percent in 2019 according to the most recent Kenya Population and Housing Census report. Almost one in seven (13.7 percent) young people in Kenya were neither in Employment, Education nor Training (NEET, SDG Indicator 8.6.1) as of 2016, with young women finding themselves around twice as often (18.2 per cent) in this group than young men (9.2 percent). At the same time, the world is witnessing the highest levels of displacement on record. In recent years, forced displacement has increased in scale and complexity. While forcibly displaced persons face specific vulnerabilities, including psychological trauma, lack of opportunity, and protection risks, host communities struggle to pursue their own development efforts in an environment that has been transformed by a large influx of newcomers. The responses to these challenges are becoming more focused on durable solutions to support more dignified, inclusive and comprehensive programmes for the marginalized, refugees and the communities that host them.

The digital economy has emerged as a key driver for the creation of decent jobs especially for Kenya’s youth. The country has adopted the Digital Economy Blue Print of 2019 providing a framework to leverage digital government, digital business, infrastructure, innovation-driven entrepreneurship and digital skills and values. This also presents opportunities for the marginalized, refugees and host community members to access jobs in the digital labour market. Fully harnessing these opportunities requires to improve access to quality education and skills development as well as stimulating labour demand and access to digital labour markets within and beyond refugee camps. For refugees to benefit from the transformative power of Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs), they must be equipped with a range of digital skills and have affordable access to connectivity. In short, there is a need to change towards the digitization of lifelong learning systems through supporting strategy definition, definition of specific needs for each context and recommendation of solutions that deliver value to stakeholders.

In response to the challenges facing both refugees and host communities, a new partnership initiative titled: PROSPECTS Partnership for improving Prospects for host communities and forcibly displaced persons, has been launched by the Government of the Netherlands that brings together the International Finance Corporation (IFC), the International Labour Organization (ILO), the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR), the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) and the World Bank. The overall objective of PROSPECTS in Kenya is to improve the living standards and inclusiveness of refugees, asylum-seekers and vulnerable host communities, by contributing to the expansion of socio-economic opportunities through better education and mainstreamed protection interventions.

A key partner of the ILO, the National Industrial Training Authority (NITA) is a state corporation established under the Industrial Training (Amendment) Act of 2011. Its mandate is to promote the highest standards in the quality and efficiency of Industrial Training in Kenya and ensure an adequate supply of professionally trained workforce at all levels in the industry. NITA is also responsible for developing industrial training curricula; Integrating labour market information into skills development, Harmonising curricula and certificates of competence; assessing industrial training, testing occupational skills and awarding certificates including Government Trade Test certificates and National skills certificate.

Consequently, different forms of online learning and collaboration have become the focus of attention in an effort to ensure continuity of learning. It is with this in mind that the NITA through ILO has initiated a project to develop a robust and reliable Learning Management System (LMS) in order to strengthen its capacities in the provision of reliable information for decision making and learning.

ILO and NITA are seeking for a consulting firm with a proven track record in developing a Learning Management System (LMS). The selected consulting firm should possess extensive expertise in Moodle customization, be proficient in PHP programming, and provide references for similar projects. Their responsibilities will encompass the end-to-end process of designing, developing, deploying, quality assurance, testing, training, and documenting the LMS system.

Why digital transformation for NITA?

The key focus for NITA is to digitize learning content in order to:

1. Broaden NITA scope in order to reach more youth groups across the country
2. Reach-out to people from marginalized communities, refugees, people living in areas further apart from training centres, young women with children and persons living with disabilities.
3. Provide an opportunity for employers, employees and industry representatives to access learning content, while at their workstation.

2.Objectives of the LMS

The Learning Management System (LMS) aims to drive NITA towards having an efficient and effective platform for disseminating learning and information to trainees and other stakeholders. This will lead to better, timelier, and accurate data for decision-making. The specific objectives are:

• To maximize the use of all available information
• To use resources efficiently and effectively
• To cut down costs which is associated with traditional classroom training methods
• To track and monitor a trainee’s progress at any time.
• To produce comprehensive statistical information on training so as to facilitate decision-planning
• To reduce learning time and make learning more enjoyable and friendly for the trainees
• To promote blended and flexible approach to skills training
• To have content and information on a Learning Management System that can be easily upgraded
• To leverage technological mechanisms for training, analysis, and dissemination of information
• To centralize harmonized learning materials

3. Justification for an LMS for NITA

National Industrial Training Authority under Section 3A of the Industrial Training Act No. 12 of 2012 is mandated in:

• Undertaking Industrial training;
• Assessing and collecting industrial training levy and fees;
• Regulating trainers registered under section 7C of the Act
• Developing industrial training curricula;
• Integrating labour market information into skills development;
• Harmonizing curricula and certificates of competence;
• Assessing industrial training, testing occupational skills and awarding certificates including Government trade test certificates and National skills certificate;
• Equating certificates;
• Accrediting institutions engaged in skills training for industry;

In order to reach a wide range of NITA stakeholders, there is need to have an LMS where digital content can be uploaded for the trainees and Industrial Training Officers (ITOs). The LMS will serve as focal point for online learning.

4. Scope of the Consultancy

The purpose of the consultancy is to design, develop and implement a comprehensive computerized and online Learning Management System for NITA which is cost effective, user friendly and functional and which responds to the needs for improved data management. The objective is to reach various NITA trainees and other stakeholders so that they can acquire the right skills, at the right time and in the right format to enable effective decision making and planning.

The specific scope of this Consultancy include:

1. Design, develop, deploy and commission a Learning Management System at NITA as per the tabulated features in section 6.
2. Provide capacity building to key stakeholders in the operation and administration of Learning Management System. See appendix 1.
3. Develop technical specifications for any additional ICT infrastructure (the hardware equipment and networks) required to operate the LMS program applications and database. The needed hardware and software licenses will be procured separately, as necessary. Although the hardware will be purchased under another specific tender, the consultant is responsible for providing the technical specifications, configuration and installation of all hardware/equipment.
4. Test and roll out the LMS including migrating information from any existing data base
5. Integrate the LMS with NITA ERP system.
6. Upload digitized content at least two trade area.
7. Provide technical support for 2 years after deployment of the LMS. The consulting firm should describe the support mechanism to be used.

5. Methodology

The consulting firm must provide a clear detailed description of the methodology and work plan to be employed in undertaking the assignment. This plan should detail the development methodology and schedule of work showing involvement of key staff. This will form part of the inception report

6. Platform Features

i. State of the art platform

a. The LMS should be feature-rich and able to stay up to date with the ever-changing Learning and Development landscape. Expected functionalities should include;

• User registration
• Easy and interactive navigation through the course lessons,
• Set up timers for courses,
• Display course progress,

b. Deployment and implementation support for the LMS using DevOps Best Practices

c. The LMS should at minimum enable.

• Uploading of digital content
• Trainees to interact with the platform and get feedback.
• Enrolment of trainees
• Monitor the trainee’s progress.
• Generation of reports, data visualization and dissemination to all stakeholders.
• Assessments
• Certification

ii. User Access and Mobile App Friendly

a. Easily accessible on desktop, Laptop or mobile, 24/7. Users should be able to undertake trainings/courses on their own schedule and pace independent of device or operating system and with limited bandwidth. The platform should be configured and customized to be web and mobile ready on both Android and Apple devices. Should be able to facilitate the learners to login to the learning system while on-the-go.

b. LMS should support assistive technologies.

iii. Easy Integration

a. The platform should be able to integrate to existing systems through features like Single-sign-on (SSO) and API integrations. The integration should facilitate real-time communication between the platform and other systems.

iv. Content Compatibility

a. The LMS should be flexible, easily customizable, able to easily upload existing training materials or build courses from scratch while remaining user-friendly. It should cater for various content formats such as word, excel, pdf, videos, audio, ppts and provide for the users to upload the various content formats easily onto the platform. The platforms’ ability to have visual content is paramount.

v. Reports and Analysis

a. The LMS should provide for the auto-generation and auto-emailing of reports (daily, weekly, or monthly), and a dashboard for the various user levels including management for review. The comprehensive analysis and reporting solution.

b. LMS that allows for trainee progress monitoring and reporting.

c. Offer insights on the performance of the learners and ultimately the effectiveness of courses on offer.

d. Support background monitoring for specific user levels

e. Gauge the learning trends of users and track learners’ progress.

The reports can be categorized (but not limited to):

• Course Reports: Scheduled (upcoming courses), Enrolment, Assessment, Activity Completion reports, Attendance reports, course completion report, course participation reports
• User Reports: Active Users, Login activities, User’s progress, Performance Comparisons using various parameters, user logs.
• Custom Reports (Academic reports, system reports): Tailored to meet specific requirements/requests such as:
• Institution Reports: Complete course report by institution location or gender, Certification or policy among others.
• Quick and easy access to quiz’ analysis
• Learner tracking, to check the amount of time spent on a particular lesson or the number of attempts made to pass a quiz

vi. Security and Reliability

a. The LMS platform security should be top notch assuring content confidentiality as well as protecting the users’ personal data. It should also take into consideration encryption and adherence to ISO security standards and cater for integration into the existing NITA firewall and systems.

b. High level reliable platform with minimal downtime, is required while taking into consideration disaster management and contingency planning.

c. The system should be able to allow both the administrators and the vendor to carry out frequent security measures including denial-of-service attack testing.

vii. Future Scope

a. A state-of-the-art system that offers both synchronous and asynchronous learning, is compatible with Enterprise Systems like Active Directory, Office 365, finance Systems and can accommodate additional/further process changes, with minimal upgrade time. A platform that can host virtual training sessions and/or integrate with other collaboration platforms like Microsoft Teams and Zoom.

viii. Collaboration

a. The LMS should allow integration with online collaboration tools (such as zoom, Big Blue Button or Microsoft teams)

Interactivity

a. LMS that has interactive features like H5P

Feedback Mechanism

a. Challenges faced on courses.

b. Knowledge retention tool to conduct impromptu checks/pop-up quizzes

c. Pre and post survey

Other LMS Features

ix. Site Home

• UX that is appealing.
• Welcome message
• View default dashboard
• View custom content

x. Login

• Student login, instructor login
• Create user account using email
• Visible sign up button or create account button
• Forgot password button

xi. Enrolment

• Self-enrolment
• Enrolment on payment
• Enrolment using Mpesa payment code. Learners pay on Till number or Paybill and enter code.
• Guest access with password

xii. Assessment and evaluation:

• Do a quiz with a scrolling timer, complete and submit.
• Upload Recording in video or audio in an assignment
• Participate in a peer-assessment workshop
• Quickly access grades from all courses via the user menu
• Submit assignment and view teacher’s feedback.
• Complete a quiz and review the answers.

xiii. Dashboard

• Order and filter courses by completion status
• Star courses
• Use tags to locate courses

xiv. Profile

• Create profile, upload avatar, fill details like DOB, Place of work, qualification.

xv. Calendar

• View course calendar, view upcoming events and important dates like CATS and exams

xvi. Messages

• Find contacts
• Private messages between users
• Group messaging
• Mute/unmute/block conversations
• Find conversations using tags

xvii. Comments

• View, add, delete comments

xviii. Badges

• Award badges for completing sections within specific timelines.

xix. Notifications

• Push notifications
• View notifications
• Change notification preferences
• Mark all as read

xx. File attachments

• Upload picture, video and audio. No record function. Just upload.
• Attach local files & from external repositories.

xxi. Grades

• View course gradebook
• View list of course grades

xxii. UI

• Responsive
• Search
• Search function

xxiii. Tags

• View, browse, search tags

xxiv. Course navigation

• Browse courses.
• Content

Course features

i. Participants

• View, search, filter

ii. Course download

• Download course for offline use

iii. Course completion

• Mark course complete
• mark activities complete

iv. Assignments

• View submissions
• Edit submissions before deadline
• Submit for grading
• Submit retake
• Times assignments- CATS

v. MCQ

• Answer,
• Next
• Previous
• View results

vi. Survey

• Answer question
• View result

vii. Course list

• Course overview-dashboard
• Latest announcements
• Recently accessed courses-dashboard
• Timeline like 30% complete.

viii. Collaborate:

• Complete workshop and submit work to be assessed by peers.
• Collaborate with classmates in a wiki

7. Provision of LMS related Software

LMS-related Software:

The Consulting firm shall provide all the software required for successful deployment and operation of the LMS. The related software must meet the following minimum specifications.

• Operating Systems: Latest Linux
• Database Server: MySQL
• Hosting: Hybrid Setup
• Webserver: Apache or NGNIX

Server Setup and LMS Installation:

Install and configure all the software required for successful operation of the LMS

8. Guiding Principles of LMS Design

In order to minimize the complexities and make LMS easy to use, the consulting firm will be expected to adopt the following key principles in the development of the LMS.

i. Intuitive

• The potential users (trainers and trainees) of information should understand the functionality of LMS and their role in collection, recording, transmission and use of information.

ii. Branding

• Should be appealing as per the organizational brand manual

iii. Responsiveness

• User experience and User interface design should be able to meet the stakeholders’ requirements.
• The system should be flexible enough to accommodate internal learning changes
• Compatible across multiple devices

iv. Collaboration

• Should allow trainees to collaborate online

v. Reporting

• Should allow report generation

vi. Feedback

• Should allow for a two-way feedback mechanism

vii. Inclusivity

• Should allow assistive technologies

viii. Assessment

• Should allow assessment of trainees

ix. Tracking

• Should allow tracking of trainee’s progress

x. Compliance

• Should comply with the SCORM standards

9. Deliverables and Timing

The output to be delivered by the consulting firm include the following;

Key Deliverable

1.Deliverable 1: Inception Report (5 days)

Inception report, detailing work plan and methodology after the inception meetings with the client.

2. Deliverable 2: LMS Technical Specification Report (hardware/studio) (5 days)

All key aspects of design (LMS structure, indicators, report formats, information flow, hosting arrangements, hardware/software/ data/ connectivity requirements, institutional arrangements, etc.)

3. Deliverable 3: Fully functional NITA Learning Management System adapted to users’ operational needs and aligned to the training curriculum business requirement that is Analysis, Design, development, deployment, quality assurance, testing, and training (90 days).

This will constitute;

• Design and development: Design and develop the software based on the requirements
• Piloting: software testing, full data entry and roll-out for selected modules in selected areas

4. Deliverable 4: Upload digitized content and prepare a report (3 days)

The consulting firm should give a report of the digitized content area

5. Deliverable 5: Technical Documentation (10 days)

LMS documentation (design, use, and training)

Manuals, user guides, training reports, organizational roles, source code (uploaded on GitHub provided by NITA), Workshops & on-the-job training

6. Deliverable 6: Capacity building reports for training LMS administrators and users (10 days)

The consulting firm to capacity build the users in Appendix 1

7. Deliverable 7: Hand over Report and draft Service Level Agreement (SLA) (3 days)

Final overview of activities, review of LMS use, user perspectives, issues suggestions for Improvement and sustainability.

Handholding support, proactive use surveys, bug fixes & updates as per the Service Level Agreement

10. Payment Schedule

Deliverable 1: LMSInception Reportand Deliverable 2: LMS Technical Specification Report (hardware/studio) – 20%

Deliverable 3: Fully functional LMS adapted to users’ operational needs and aligned to the training curriculum business requirement that is Analysis, Design, development, deployment, quality assurance, testing, and training – 30%

Deliverable 4: Upload digitized content and prepare a report – 25%

Deliverable 5: Technical Documentation, User Manual and Training reports, and Deliverable 6: Capacity building reports for training LMS administrators and users – 10%

Deliverable 7: Hand over report – 15%

Note:

1. The total duration of the consultancy shall be 5 months
2. The consultant shall organize and facilitate for focused group workshops and stakeholder’s validation workshops.
3. The source Code for the LMS should be uploaded on NITA GitHub Account.

11. Timeframe for the Work

The work will be conducted within a timeframe of approximately 5 months between December 2023 and April 2024 (detailed timeline to be established with the vendor/consulting firm, and NITA Steering committee Task Force).

12. Team Composition and Professionals Requirements

Team Members

1. Team leader and Lead Consultant
2. Software Engineer
3. LMS Administrator
4. e-Learning Instructional Designer

Qualifications and Experience of Lead Consultant

• Degree in either MIS, ICT, IT, Computer Science, Software Engineering
• Relevant Certification in a relevant field (e.g Linux Administration, MySQL, Instructional design) will be an added advantage
• At least 8 years of progressive experience in the area of business analysis, (digital) learning solutions, training delivery. A mixed profile with business analysis, project management is strongly preferred.
• Understanding of the CBET approach
• Expert understanding of the Kenyan digital ecosystem and learning solutions from system analysis, technical implementation, review, scaling and capacity building.
• Excellent technical understanding of digital technologies development of Learning Management Systems and digitization of learning solutions through web platforms.
• A good understanding of SDLC, Applications, APIs, Databases and software, including data management tools programming languages and technology trends in digital learning environment is required.
• Monitoring and evaluation experience. Being able to gather, retrieve, explore and analyse data for reporting and data visualisation purposes

Soft skills for the team

In addition to their specialist qualifications, the following qualifications are required of team members:

• Team skills
• Imitativeness
• Facilitation skills
• Communication skills
• Socio-cultural skills
• Efficient,
• Partner- and client-focused working methods
• Interdisciplinary thinking

13. Requirements

Eligible potential consultant firms should provide the following:

a. Statutory

1. Valid Business Permit
2. Company’s profile
3. Registration certificate
4. Must possess a valid tax compliance certificate
5. Provide copies of audited financial statement for the last 3 years
6. Valid ICTA 2 on Systems and Applications

b. Technical

1. Demonstration of having conducted at least three assignments of similar nature and magnitude (values, clients names and contacts, LPO, recommendation letter, link, contract, capacity)
2. Other than the above qualification requirements for key staff members the various firms in the consortium should demonstrate to have additional qualified and experienced staff members to carry out the works.
3. Demonstrate by way of proposal that they will adhere to the proposed timelines.
4. The lead consultant should have all the qualifications as listed in section 12 above

14. Consultant – Client Relationship

The consulting firm will be answerable to the Director General, National Industrial Training Authority (NITA).

15. Pricing Schedule

Total price quoted should be inclusive of all the applicable taxes.

1.LMS Infrastructure setup and configuration

2. LMS Design and Prototyping

3. LMS Development

4. LMS Deployment

5. Digitize and upload at least one trade area

6. LMS Quality Assurance and Testing

7. Capacity Building and Training

• LMS Administrators
• Content developers
• LMS Users

8. Piloting

9. Service Level Agreement (SLA) (2 Years)

Mandatory Preliminary Evaluation (YES/NO)

1.Business Permit: Attach a valid business permit

2. Company’s profile: Attach updated company’s profile

3. Registration certificate: Attach the company registration/incorporation certificate

4. Valid CR12: Attach a valid CR12

5. Tax compliance certificate: Attach a valid tax compliance certificate

6. Audited financial statements: Attach duly signed audited financial statements for the last 3 years (2022, 2021, 2020)

7. ICTA 2 on Systems and Applications: Attach a valid ICTA 2 certificate on Systems and Applications

Technical Evaluation Criteria

A. Capability of the Firm, Past Performance (25 marks)

1. The firm to provide proof of similar assignment undertaken for at least three (3) projects. Attach evidence. (4 Marks per Project)
   1. Name of Client and postal address
   2. Key contact person and telephone no.
   3. Physical address
   4. When was the assignment undertaken
   5. Description of the Assignment
   6. Approx. value of the contract in KES. (Attach LPO, award letters, completion certificates as evidence)
2. Three (3) recommendation letters from corporate clients using your services of Which, one:
   1. MUST be a public training institution (2 marks per each)
3. Sample of similar tasks on Learning Management Systems development, at- least three links of systems developed

B. Proposal and Methodology (42 marks)

The proposal provides a clear approach in completing the work.

1. Detailed Project implementation plan is attached (20 Marks)
2. Complete training plan for LMS Administrators, Content developers and LMS Users (7 marks)
3. Testing plan and migration plan (7 marks)
4. Vendor support mechanism (8 marks)

C. Qualifications and specific experience of the team leader for the assignment (15 marks)

The Project team leader with: At least a Degree in either MIS, ICT, IT, Computer Science, Electrical Engineering /Telecommunication (Software Engineering) in managing information management system installations and configurations. (10 marks)

Attach CV, professional (certification) and certified copies of academic certificates (0-4,1 mark, 5-7, 3 marks, 8 years and above, 5 marks) (5 marks)

D. Key Technical Personnel/Experts (18 marks)

Proof of full-time technical support arrangement for the project (CVs of technical staff)

1. Software Engineer (6 marks)
2. LMS Administrator (6 marks)
3. e-Learning Instructional Designer (6 marks)

Attach CV, professional (certification) and certified copies of academic certificates, experience (0-2,1 mark, 3-4, 3 marks, 5 years and above, 6 marks)

Appendix 1 – Training

Institutional Capacity Building for Implementation Support

The primary activities of the Consultant in this regard will include:

• Institutional Arrangements: The Consultant will suggest appropriate institutional structure (in consultation with NITA) that can effectively manage the various LMS-related tasks – such as data entry, validation and reporting, as well as effective systems administration, security, updating, and sustainability.
• Documentation and Training: The Consulting firm will develop electronic and hardcopy documentation for all aspects of the LMS developed and provide appropriate training to relevant LMS stakeholders.
  • Prepare a comprehensive technical manual that will be used for the maintenance of the system. The documentation will also be used as technical reference manual for IT staff.
  • Develop user guides to go with the system (covering all the sub-systems).
  • On-the-job support and handholding (including in-person, telephone and on-line support), as well as formal training on management and administration of the system.
  • Offer after sale services for the proper maintenance and operation of the system to ensure sustainability.

Users Category

Four (4) ICT Administrators

• System Troubleshooting
• Server administration
• System User management

Proposed: Linux System Administration (certification level) and LMS Advanced Administration (certification level)

Fifteen (15) ITO’s

• Manage online trainees
• Online Assessment
• Content uploading and management

Proposed: Basic LMS Administration

Ten (10) NITA Administration

• Monitor progress
• Data reporting

Proposed: Access to Report dashboard