User:Randyfisher/TORs

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Terms of Reference (TORs)

1. Building Sustainable Projects, Communities & Networks

(Comment.gif: The following information may be of assistance in developing Terms of Reference (TORs) and engaging Project Consulting Services using a participatory engagement approach. Randy Fisher 17:39, 1 April 2009 (UTC))


Building Sustainable Projects

  • using wikis as a rapid-development / production environment, to accelerate stakeholder / community engagement, project 'buy-in' and ownership
  • developing workflow practices to support rapid prototyping within a rapid project implementation to achieve actionable results that are sustainable and scalable
  • applying a community-of-practice approach to traditional project management for community engagement, a sense of pride and ownership, increased performance and faster ROI
  • incorporating participatory action research / learning - including a learning system ecology approach to support meaningful and continuous project involvement, feedback and mutual learning among all stakeholders and communities
  • leveraging the power of self-organizing systems through simple rules of behavior and engagement (i.e., alignment to vision, openness, transparent collaboration, support others, etc.)

Benefits include:

  • Designing the approach in alignment with your strategic objectives and operational, marketing/communications and financial metrics
  • Stakeholder involvement, buy-in and feedback throughout project implementation
  • Strengthening networking, communication and collaboration via stakeholder communities of mutual interest
  • Less anxiety and resistance through culture change, participatory innovation and action learning
  • Distributing the workload in a more equitable manner
  • Greater individual and team productivity
  • Faster time-to-market
  • Faster return-on-investment and sustainability

Building Sustainable Communities & Networks

Support the establishment a Community of Practice and Open Educational Resource (OER) Development (on the basis of a prior Community Needs Analysis), facilitate the growth of a community of practice and an OER repository as part of capacity building activities of XXXX and sustainable community / networks development, with the principal focuses being:

  1. ongoing development of scalable and open educational resources
  2. increasing both the breadth and depth of participation in the community,
  3. facilitating sustainable engagement, buy-in and ownership for partners and participants in specific activities, (e.g. online discussions and workshops, and XXXX overall capacity building strategy.
  4. aligning project design, development and implementation activities with organizational strategy, operational and financial measures, for increased performance and action learning

Statement of Work

Phase I

The consultancy will take place over a XX-month period with XX full-time equivalent (FTE) days required, starting in the week of Month, Day, Year, with the following deliverables due on, or before Month, Day, Year (or as indicated below):


The Consultant shall:

  • Work proactively with XXXX and any designated contractors and or partners
  • Guide the development of the XXXX node of WikiEducator, 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 in the XXXX node (i.e., dyads, triads, clusters, local 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 in the XXXX node;
  • Identify, survey, engage, and connect potential new contributors to and users of the XXXX node; 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 in the XXXX node; 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;
  • In close collaboration with XXXX and other designated partners and contractors, contribute to the planning of local and regional community workshops.

Deliverables (Outputs) & Time Frame

  • Community Needs Analysis, Strategy & Action Plan
  • Expanded community of practice, both in terms of numbers (20+ new organizational and 50+ individual members) and depth of participation (50+ new substantial postings by members);
  • Increased quantity and quality of content on the XXXX node particularly:
    • The full range of capacity building materials associated with and developed for the Host Organization's XYZ Program;
    • Training materials posted by community members (as above);
    • Materials posted by the Consultant (50 pages)
  • Community members and their constituents have new skills in relevant areas (using media for learning, facilitating organisational development, collaboration and networking etc.)
  • Host Organization capacity building partners are actively supported in engaging with the community and the wiki repository and in executing workshops; and
  • Monthly updates and final report (2-3 pages) on outputs, challenges and lessons learned; also a critical assessment of the strategy to develop a Community of Practice and wiki repository.

Phase II

The consultancy will take place over a XX-month period with XX full-time equivalent (FTE) days required, starting in the week of DATE, with the following deliverables due on, or before DATE (or as indicated below):

The Consultant shall:

  • Facilitate a deeper level of "community ownership" over the XXXX node / space, both in terms of strategy and self-reliant day-to-day operations, and concerning in particular the ongoing and expanding availability and accessibility of relevant workshop materials as well as sustained general networking among new and existing community members;
  • Redesign and support ongoing refinements of the XXXX node, highlighting core elements according to the Host Organization's interests, especially workshop / training materials and good practices in educational media;
  • Develop a template to document and present good practices in Media for Learning and support community members and designated contractors, partners and stakeholders in its usage;
  • Facilitate the development of collaborative educational media projects that use the XXXX space as a 'backbone' and develop project proposal documents (i.e., 3-5 pages) to submit to prospective partners and funders;
  • Support Host Organization's partners, stakeholders and contractors in the development and use of OERs for training workshops (including support to the development and use of a Host Organization Workshop Template), interaction with the wider Community of Practice, and practical collaboration in projects;
  • Proactively facilitate discussion and networking and advance collaboration among individuals and groups in the XXXX node;
  • Identify and engage potential new contributors to and users of the XXXX node; support members to fully engage in the community; including developing both the technical and programmatic skills (i.e., wiki and facilitation-training skills;
  • Identify suitable new materials and facilitate their development and/or inclusion in the XXXX node; communicate with partners for this purpose and mobilize community resources in the further development of OERs.

Deliverables (Outputs) & Time Frame

The consultancy will take place over a XX-month period with XX full-time equivalent (FTE) days required, starting in the week of DATE, with the following deliverables due on, or before DATE (or as indicated below):

  • New design (revised design) and navigation for the XXXX node / space
  • Increased quantity and quality of content in WikiEducator's XXXX node / speace, particularly training or learning materials and documentation of good or best practices posted by community members; at least 35 are new substantial postings (e.g., handbooks, training curricula, or good practices are made by the community members by DATE; at least 20 new additional postings are made by the Consultant, by SAME DATE, Year, in response to needs expressed by the community.
  • (Wiki) template for good practices in media for learning, by DATE;
  • At least three (3) projects, including one focused on (SPECIFY), are developed using the XXXX node / space as a 'backbone'. at least two (2) concept papers are developed, based on new projects that use the XXXX node /space as a backbone, are ready to submit to prospective funders by DATE.
  • At least four (4) Host Organization capacity building parterms are actively supported in executing capacity building activities using the Host Organization Workshop Template as well as some other materials from the wiki and in collaboration with other community members;
  • Community members and their constituents have new skills in relevant areas (using media for learning, facilitating organizational development, collaboration and networking etc.);
  • Expanded Community of Practice, including 25 new organizational and 50 new individual members by DATE:
  • Monthly updates as well as a Final Report (3-5 pages), to be submitted for approval by CONTRACT END DATE, on outputs, challenges, and a brief Evaluation based on factors listed below.
Evaluation

The Consultant shall evaluate the outcome of the contract using the following indicators:

  • Degree to which community members determine the future of the discussion group and the wiki space
  • number of unsolicited new individual and community members;
  • number of substantive postings and contributions to the site made by community members
  • extent of collaborative materials development (i.e., materials with edits made by two or more community members)
  • number of projects in development using the wiki as a backbone;
  • use of the XXXX node / space by both community members and non-associated users

Phase III

  • Train the trainer, ongoing mentoring and coaching support.

2. Website Review / Stakeholder Engagement

As promised, here are some thoughts on the intended approach.

I will evaluate the website based on the bullet points below, and share my findings with you, before writing a brief summary report.

I will use a dialogue and action learning approach (in real-time), to share my observations and findings with you, as per the bullet points below. This will allow us to focus our efforts broadly, and on specific areas of interest to you. We will also be able to easily make adjustments as the need arises.

In dialogue with my supervisor and/or 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 and/or team for further dialogue, feedback and action learning (to support implementation);
  • Prepare a short summary report (i.e., 2-3 pages) providing findings and recommendations.


Project Examples

Quotable Quotes

The great thing about open self-organising communities is that spontaneous and more structured approaches can be nutured in parallel with each other in the wiki. The glue which keeps this together and provides positive direction for the WE project are our community values. Utitmately -- the core value of sharing knowledge freely. -- Wayne Mackintosh, Founder, WikiEd Project
"Lots of small steps add up to big change". - Wayne Mackintosh
"We chose the co-op model because the most logical way to combat problems so large is by co-operation. Community spirit is the most sustainable and renewable energy there is." Rock Radovan, President and Founding Member, Sustainable Ottawa – www.sustainableottawa.ca (In “Saying Yes to Solar”, by Patrick Langston, The Ottawa Citizen Published: Saturday, June 21, 2008. Retrieved December 25, 2008 from http://www.canada.com/ottawacitizen/news/homes/story.html?id=421525df-2ae7-4a86-87c9-eae8e63e229f&p=2
"Within minutes of requirements being set, the customer has already moved on." - Randy Fisher, 2009
"Projects plans come and go, but stakeholders remain the same." -Randy Fisher, to Chris from Australia, Dec. 29, 2008
"It's not the change, it's the transition, stupid." -Randy Fisher, January 2010

Links & Resources


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