Call for proposals: Instructional design

OVERVIEW

Parent Sector : Education Sector (ED)

Duty Station: remote

Job Family: Education

Type of contract : Non Staff

Duration of contract : From 1 to 6 months

Recruitment open to : External candidates

Application Deadline (Midnight Duty Station Time) : 21-AUG-2025

UNESCO Core Values: Commitment to the Organization, Integrity, Respect for Diversity, Professionalism

BEFORE THE APPLICATION IS SUBMITTED

BEFORE THE APPLICATION IS SUBMITTED

NB: This call for applications is open to companies/companies.

Important: Please do not apply through the online career portal. Please submit your Proposal of offer and supporting documents by email to uil-learningecosystems@unesco.org  with the subject line: Development of a trainer-led course on literacy digital skills in accordance with the instructions in the "Application procedure" section.

DUTIES RELATED TO THE POSITION

In today's world, information and communication technologies (ICTs) are increasingly being used in all aspects of life - for learning, leisure, work and everyday communication. Digital skills are a large part of the skills used on a day-to-day basis that enable individuals to further engage with a digital and textual society. Literacy teachers play an important role in supporting learners in these changes and thus facilitating their access to the opportunities offered by technologies for lifelong learning.

In this context, UIL has developed a course consisting of 03 trainer-led training modules as part of a project on improving the digital skills of literacy teachers which is an initiative of the GEC-GAL (Global Education Coalition-Global Alliance for Literacy). Its objective is to provide technical support to Member States, enabling them to increase the skills of trainers and to promote their professional development and the use of technology in literacy.

 This project, which was carried out previously at the level of 04 countries, will support  Morocco's participation as the 5th beneficiary country of the GEC-GAL initiative (Global Education Coalition-Global Alliance for Literacy) in accordance with the efforts made by the National Agency for the Fight against Illiteracy (ANLCA) to promote the training of literacy teachers,  supervisors and trainers and managers through its Institute for Training in Literacy Professions (IFMA).

Under the leadership of UIL and UNESCO's Multisectoral Regional Office for the Maghreb, the initiative is being implemented in close collaboration with ANLCA. The content of the training was contextualized to meet the needs of literacy educators in the country.

Long Description

This course has been designed to enable literacy teachers to acquire the knowledge, skills and values that constitute the digital skills needed for literacy. The course should:

• To share innovative and creative ways to integrate technology into literacy and transform the way educators learn and teach;
• develop the capacity to integrate digital tools in a meaningful way in order to create learning materials and environments that stimulate the curiosity and motivation of learners in Morocco.
• Support ongoing professional development of literacy educators who will acquire knowledge about technology and its use as a tool for learning and development.

Long Description

UIL is looking for Company to design a instructor-led course in Arabic on digital skills for literacy educators. This course should be aligned with the engineering standards and technical structure of the IFMA platform (Moodle LMS) and allow simultaneous execution with interactive learning components based on adult learning principles.

Course Format and Duration

• Instructor-led online delivery, with one hour of live instruction per module as well as asynchronous activities such as end-of-module quizzes, discussion forums and portfolio submission, videos or PPTs with audio commentary, built-in module readers/unit scripts to support the course.
• Total duration of the training: approximately 9 to 12 hours, divided into three modules. Suggested breakdown: Module 1: 3 hours; Module 2: 4 hours; Module 3: 3 hours. These schedules include one live class session per module.
• Ensure that the recorded or written trainer presentation is posted online for each module and available for download or offline viewing.

Main elements of the course to be digitized

• The course is designed for literacy educators with a wide range of digital skills and varying degrees of digital proficiency. With this in mind, design a short orientation video (90 seconds) related to navigating the platform and course in Arabic, with transcript and subtitles. Make sure that the choice of activities on the platform is based on this assumption of diversity of skills.  
• Make sure that the course is flexible, i.e. that the course is fully exportable as a PDF for offline viewing, and for printing if necessary. It is important that videos/presentations with transcripts are provided in case the course takes place at a later date as a self-study course for a wider audience.

...

It is important to provide :

• collaborative learning opportunities such as group work and peer feedback;
• Guidance for trainers, including scripts, activity guides and suggestions for time ;
• tasks for participants to create a portfolio to support reflection on learning and its application;
• Formative and summative assessments to be integrated into the course (e.g. quizzes, reflection questions);
• progress monitoring and data analysis compatible with the IFMA platform;
• digital badges after completion of a module and a downloadable certificate at the end of the course;
• a choice of various media and access to narratives to mobilize engagement and enable contextualization
• adaptability allowing the course to be conducted in Arabic.

The course should reflect best practices in adult learning and instructional engineering for digital environments, and align with IFMA's goals of strengthening the professional skills of literacy teachers.

Scope and objectives

Under the overall authority of the Director of the UNESCO Institute for Lifelong Learning (UIL) and the direct supervision of the Team Leader, Quality Learning Ecosystems at UIL, and in close collaboration with the National Agency for the Fight against Illiteracy in Morocco, the contractor will provide the following services:

• Collaborate with subject matter experts, including UNESCO staff with relevant expertise, through brainstorming sessions/exercises to write a storyboard with the corresponding pre-produced content, including engineering assumptions, video summaries, unit skill distribution, aligned activities and Moodle element to be used;
• Design and develop a trainer-led course using the standard features of appropriate software (proposed by the contractor). Develop audio-video and textual content as well as activities such as embedded quizzes, interactive or H5P content, etc. to be downloaded from the IFMA platform.

Implementation support

• Support for the registration of nominated learners;
• Support in the preparation of the analysis on learner engagement (learner activity, completion or not by activity, responses during the discussion forum, completion of pre and post course surveys);
• Ongoing technical support to be provided as part of the course

The UNESCO Style Manual (http://unesdoc.unesco.org/images/0014/001418/141812e.pdf) must be strictly adhered to, with particular attention to grammar, punctuation, abbreviations, references and country names. The final projects submitted must be publishable.

The use of artificial intelligence tools for any form of content generation must be duly attributed and comply with the highest ethical standards.

UIL project members will provide feedback on each submitted product and hold regular meetings to discuss progress and next steps. All file and course testing will be performed for the duration of the contract, and feedback will need to be taken into account. Backend course files will need to be submitted to the UIL team.

In line with UNESCO's Global Strategy on Gender Mainstreaming, the contractor is expected to integrate gender mainstreaming into all activities and to apply the concepts of gender mainstreaming and mainstreaming whenever possible. In accordance with UNESCO guidelines, the report will be subject to external review before the launch of the course.

Long Description

Provisional timetable :

Contract start date: tentative: 8 September 2025

Contract End Date: 10 December 2025

September 20, 2025

• Storyboard and blueprint finalized

October 25, 2025

• Two units completed, including video content and written materials

November 30, 2025

• All completed units as well as videos and transcripts finalized

December 10, 2025

• All units finalized and put online on the Hub.

Qualifications and criteria:

• Bachelor's or Master's degree in Education, Visual Communication, Graphic Design, Educational Technology, ICT for Development, or other related field.
• Proven experience in the field of learning technologies
• Knowledge of learning models
• Proficiency in learning management systems, hybrid/blended/self-paced learning engineering
• Fundamental understanding and experience with HTML and CSS coding
• Strong knowledge of MS Office and audio and video editing software
• Similar experience in a UN agency or similar organization is an asset.

APPLICATION PROCEDURE

To apply, please do not use the tool provided for this purpose. 

Interested research and consulting agencies will need to submit a consolidated PDF document by email, containing the following information: 

• an operational summary, not exceeding 3 pages, accompanied by a proposal for a detailed methodology to carry out this project; 
• a financial proposal or a detailed budget for the provision of these two elements (guidelines and training module); 
• a list of team members (including the Lead Consultant) specifying their technical and relevant expertise, together with their brief CVs, focusing on their previous consultancy assignments and the results achieved, as well as the relevance of their expertise to the present project; 
• a sample of the successful results of previous consultancy projects. 
• The offer must not exceed 10 pages and must be submitted in French or English uil-learningecosystems@unesco.org  .

For further information, please send an e-mail to: uil-learningecosystems@unesco.org. All responses to questions or requests for clarification will be made available to all applicants prior to the proposal submission deadline.

Please note that only selected companies/service providers will be contacted.

Footer