FOR CREATING SME DIGITAL EDUCATIONAL PLATFORM
Project “Skill Boost: Tech Upskilling Initiative”
Description of the service: The Union of Employers of ICT is looking for an experienced company to provide web design and development services.
Level of Work: All activities should be completed by the end of December 2022, including bug fixing, from the date of inception, which is estimated on 20 October 2022.
Work Type: Service provision
Submission Deadline: By 15/10/2022, 24:00hrs
About the Company: The Union of Employers of Information and Communication Technology was established in 2015 in Armenia by Unicomp, Viva-MTS, Synopsys Armenia, IntellCors and a number of other large ICT companies. The Union is the only one in Armenia with the ICT-oriented educational institutions of RA as members of the union. The Union represents major ICT and tech sector companies and brings a collective experience of high-tech education, data management, e-governance and telecommunication.
The goals of the Union are:
- Protect the interests of union members
- Promote trainings of staff per the requirements of ICT and related areas
- Assist the programs aimed at approach and fusion of science and production
- Raise awareness of Armenia in the international arena
- Implement programs promoting the growth of local and foreign investments in the sphere
- Business and legal consultation
About the Project: In Armenia, small and medium enterprises (SMEs) play a critical role in shaping the economy. According to the 2021 publication by the National Statistical Committee, there are 83,032 SMEs in Armenia and only 132 large companies. Therefore, the development of SMEs is directly connected with the development of the whole economy.
Digitization is an important part of the development of SMEs, as it has a proven impact on process optimization, increase of productivity and efficiently of a company. At a public level, digitization allows governments to operate with greater transparency and efficiency.
The role of digitalization has increased especially after the Covid-19, which has highlighted the importance of innovative technologies and digital tools to be able to survive and develop in the changing business environment.
From the one side, ICT sector in Armenia has a rabid and constant development, from another side, the level of digitalization in SME sector is quite low. Moreover, there is certain communication gap between IT sector and traditional businesses.
To find out the current digitalization level among SMEs and key barriers, which prevent them from joining the digital economy a needs assessment has been conducted. The need assessment has been implemented in the frames of the RECONOMY regional inclusive and green economic development project funded by the Swedish International Cooperation Development Agency (Sida), implemented by HELVETAS Swiss Intercooperation in partnership with the Union of ICT Employers (UEICT) and other organizations in the Eastern Partnership and the Western Balkan countries.
The research study included comprehensive needs assessment of Armenian SMEs to identify current status of digitalization of businesses, key barriers and challenges related to digitalization, as well as to map the current opportunities for digital transformation.
Based on the need assessment results it was identified that there is no lack of digital tools availability for the Armenian market. Both the local and international IT companies and platform offer various solutions and systems for business digitalization. The problem identified is the low awareness level of SMEs on the digitalization tools or incapability of effectively using the them. Moreover, the availability of informational/educational platform was the second most common answer among the survey responses related to digital tools, which will potentially increase the effectiveness of company’s operations. 32.5% of the respondents indicated about the need of such platform.
Thus, it was recommended to develop an interactive informational and educational digital platform for SMEs related to digitalization, digital opportunities and tools.
About the platform: SME digital education platform is a platform where trainers and training centers can have access and create their online courses and sell them. Students can have access to existing courses, filter by their needs, pay and have access to courses.
Nature of the Service Provision: External web development and design company to provide:
Web Platform blocks
- Training Center Dashboard:
1.1 Authentication: Login / Registration / Reset Password / Logout / Delete Account options, Registration and login should have social auth option with facebook and gmail, also standard email / password feature.
1.2 Statistics: Page where there will be visible stats for payments, invoices, students, reviews, courses, quizzes, trainers.
1.3 Manage Trainers: Create, Update, Delete trainer information, put trainers specifications.
1.4 Same functionality what have trainer
- Trainer Dashboard:
2.1 Authentication: Login / Registration / Reset Password / Logout / Delete Account options, Registration and login should have social authentication option with Facebook and gmail, also standard email / password feature.
2.2 Statistics: Page where there will be visible stats for payments, invoices, students, reviews, courses, quizzes.
2.3 Manage Courses: Trainer shall be able to create course information (title, course duration) set level (beginner or etc…), select category, tags for search, multi options – what can learn student with that course,
Set up required skills, possibility to add sections, for each section add lecture (video link, article, quiz), manage draft status with options to preview added content. Set up pricing, manage course landing page (add images titles), duration, active period (start and end dates when course can be visible)
After publishing a course, the course becomes status under moderation. Moderators will receive notification, and during some period they will approve or decline the course with description, what should be changed. After each update Moderators can see what kind of changes were done (changes on specific videos duration, or articles).
Videos will be stored in Youtube, and uploaded with Unlisted type .
Possibility to add custom tags for course (what should be approved by the moderator). Attach documents, allow or decline downloading them.
2.4 Quizzes: For creating a quiz it should be able to add different options, multi answer (select box or checkboxes), true or false (radio buttons) with correct answers, automatically calculate percentages for student’s answers
2.5 Settings: Page where trainer can change password, update personal information, set up notifications settings, set up payment options, create certificate and invoices templates, set website links, social network links.
- Website (Guests)
3.1 Home page: User shall see top sellers courses, top categories, possibility to find/filter courses by categories and subcategories, smart filter by text (autocomplete options), and list of courses by categories selected by superadmin.
3.2 Login / Register pages: Authentication should be via email/password, or via social accounts (Facebook or Gmail)
3.3 Privacy Policy, Sitemap, Contact us, Terms, Help and Support pages: Privacy Policy and Terms pages content should be possible update from super admin dashboard.
3.4 Course detail view: Show course detail information, overview, curriculum details, preview (if exists), Trainer information, trainer’s reviews. Students also bought sections (list of courses bought by students who bought the same course), courses lists by trainer or training center.
3.5 Basket: Possibility to put courses into basket (also for not logged in users) and require login when a user is trying to checkout payment.
- Website (Logged in users as Students)
4.1 Home page: User shall see top sellers courses, top categories, possibility to find / filter courses by categories and subcategories, smart filter by text (autocomplete options), and list of courses by categories selected by superadmin.
4.2 My learning: Page where should display list of courses used by student, for each course show how much percentage is past. What sections are past.
4.3 My cart: list of courses that were added in card, with options delete from cart , checkout.
4.4 Wishlist functionality: list of courses that were added in list, with options delete and checkout.
4.5 Notifications: Notifications icon in website, and list of unread and all notifications
4.6 Edit profile: Update personal settings, name, avatar.
4.7 Purchase History: List of transactions and invoices.
4.8 Payment Methods
4.9 Public profile: page where users can manage how will look their public information, add headlines, description, logo, etc..
4.10 Write Reviews: Allow authenticated students to write reviews for courses that they pass.
4.11 Certificates: See all received certificates with options to print them
- Moderator
5.1 Courses: Moderators will receive notifications about courses that become “under moderation” status. They can approve or decline courses with options to add reviews. Also moderators shall be able to see what kind of changes/updates done on that course. Approve or decline tags what added by trainers (add tags in to our system when it approved)
5.2 Authentication: Login (with credentials that they receive via email when Super admins create a moderator profile) with email/password. Logout.
5.3 Personal settings: Update their personal information (name, password)
- Superadmin
6.1 Manage Moderators: Create, Update, Delete
6.2 Users: Manage all users with all types
6.3 Transactions: Manage all transactions, invoices, payments
6.4 Courses: Manage all courses
6.5 Tags: Manage tags, categories with subcategories.
Responsibilities and Expectations:
- Organize an online/offline inception meeting with UEICT (i) to present and discuss proposed approach and methodology for the revamp and development of new features of the platform detailed above, (ii) to collect feedback and inputs on enhancements and feature development and requirements, (iii) to advise and clarify questions
- Develop in coordination with the organizers’ team web designs for the platform features listed above, ensuring an attractive, user-friendly interface design guidelines;
- Upon sign-off of the draft designs and wireframes, complete the design and development of the platform’s new features
- Hand over all design files and coding to the SME digital educational platform team.
Technical requirements: Service Providers interested in the ToRs shall also consider the following technical requirements for the SME digital educational platform web design and development:
General requirements:
- Backend requirements: PHP Laravel framework version 9 / MySQL version 8.0
- Frontend requirements: Angular version 14.1.0
- Developed using standard open source web development to allow SME digital educational platform to make future changes independently;
- Service provider should be at least 5 years registered company
- Language of the website: built-in multilingual content support for English and Armenian languages (Content of students / trainers / training centers / Courses should be in one language )
- Note: will not be accepted proposals with CMS
User experience and accessibility:
- Responsive design on mobile devices: accessible in various devices including desktops/laptops (Windows and Mac), mobile phones and tablets (Android and iOS);
- Compliant to the international accessibility standards (accessible via screen readers, colourblind friendly color schemes, etc.);
- Compatible with all modern browsers;
- Optimal performance in low-bandwidth locations.
Design standards:
- User-friendly administrator interface for all features
- User-friendly front-end design and development to optimize public use
- Design should be in line with United Nations and UN Network on Migration design and branding guidelines (provided);
- In addition, the web design and development shall be developed and delivered in line with SME digital educational platform’s internal policies and frameworks.
The Service Provider is expected to provide the following:
- Service Providers should provide hosting and domain support for 3 years with ssl certificates. For security reasons hosting should not use Cpanel.
- Methodology and work plan;
- Draft web designs for review, integration of feedback and final approval;
- Design, development and delivery of a fully tested and functional updated web platform including the functionalities specified above, deployed online in coordination with organizers;
- Full technical documentation (system code and system design) to enable smooth deployment,
- API documentation with swagger
Required Documents:
Interested Service Providers need to submit the following:
- An overview and examples of past online knowledge management and/or discussion platforms delivered, preferably open source and with other international organizations, including an overview/presentation of the Service Provider and contact details of references;
- A work plan including start date and date of completion of deliverables, a proposed approach for the assignment based on the information provided above, including risk management and information on the proposed team and their roles;
- A breakdown of expected services and associated costs, without VAT for the completion of all deliverables.
Incomplete proposals will not be considered.
Deadline and Application Procedure: The above-mentioned documents shall be prepared in English and sent by e-mail to info@ueict.org, and CC lusine.tangyan@ueict.org no later than 15 October 2022. Any tenders received after the closing time for submission shall not be considered.
Intellectual property: All outputs and intellectual property created during this assignment, including but not limited to system code, system design, data, findings, results, solutions, recommendations and any other documents and designs developed throughout the project shall be owned by SME digital educational platform. The Service Provider shall develop materials and recommendations assuming current business processes and retention of current duties, accountabilities and responsibilities but may make recommendations for changes. Documents provided to the Contracting Party shall be considered “draft” until the organization provides feedback and comments which the service provider shall incorporate, as appropriate; at that point, the document will be considered “final” by the Service Provider. If no comments are received by the service provider, the “draft” will be considered final.
Confidentiality: Information relating to the evaluation of proposals and recommendations concerning awards shall not be disclosed to those who submitted proposals or to other persons not officially concerned with the process.
Requests for clarification: Service Providers requiring any clarifications on the content of this ToR may notify the UEICT in writing not less than six (6) days prior to the deadlineat via the following addresses:info@ueict.org