User:Randyfisher/TORs/OER Africa

Phase 2
OER Africa is interested in increasing use of its website and community forums, and in supporting institutional stakeholders in high priority OER networks and communities (i.e., (1) Health OER Network (60+ members); (2) Teacher Education (30+ members); and (3) Agriculture.

This support can take many forms including: community-building and engagement; project implementation; capacity-building and skill development, and tools and approaches for effective facilitation and collaboration, buy-in and ownership.

In addition, OER Africa is interested in providing professional development opportunities to its own staff and core stakeholders regarding effective use of Web 2.0 tools, pertaining to community development and sustainable OER Network growth and performance.

The following points may be used as a frame for discussion and future action:
 * Use OER Africa Forums to facilitate and support collaboration and membership growth
 * Support OER users to use the website, and tools for partnering and effective collaboration
 * Design workshops and specific performance interventions to support stakeholder engagement, capacity building and project implementation
 * Support staff and network champions in their skill development and capacity building
 * Use a wiki as a rapid development / production environment to write, edit and revise and content where appropriate (i.e., WikiEducator)

Sample TORs:


 * Guide the development of key OER Africa Networks and Communities particularly in terms of organizational strategy, aligned to operational and financial objectives, communicating objectives and key messages, and layout and site navigation;
 * Actively support the participation and contributions of individuals and groups and proactively facilitate discussion and networking and advance collaboration among individuals and groups (i.e., dyads, triads, clusters, community groups and networks);
 * Actively support, coach and mentor community leaders to increase their skill (professional) development and proactively facilitate discussion, networking, community engagement, and advance their learning and collaboration;
 * Identify, survey, engage, and connect potential new contributors to and users; support members to fully engage in the community and to individuals sharing mutual interests and increase their performance, including developing both technical and programmatic skills (i.e., wiki and facilitation-training skills);
 * Identify suitable new materials and facilitate their development and or inclusion; communicate with partners for this purpose and mobilise community resources in the further development of OERs;
 * Review and analyse existing ‘baseline’ OER materials on an ongoing basis to identify gaps and make suggestions for improvements; contribute directly and substantively to the refinement of existing materials;
 * Leverage use of social media to foster and enhance participatory engagement and content creation for meaningful, retained and actionable learning experiences.

Phase I - Website Evaluation & Community Engagement
In dialogue with the team:


 * Understand the website purpose, brand values / 'image', key stakeholders, (their) desired objectives and desired functionality - over a specific time period (i.e., launch, 6-months, 1-2 years);


 * Evaluate the general appeal, ease of navigation, scope of site, usability from different parameters (i.e., age, gender, culture, technical proficiency, community engagement, etc.)


 * Review website layout (i.e., top-level and down-level pages); providing feedback on individual pages and thematic integration;


 * Review website content to evaluate tone, consistency, language and usability and limitations, in alignment with stakeholders' objectives;


 * Provide verbal and written feedback (regular) to supervisor for further dialogue, feedback and action learning (to support implementation);


 * Prepare a short summary report (i.e., 2-3 pages) providing findings and recommendations.