Module Development for Digital Competencies of Adult Educators

Technological developments are changing the workplace, daily life and society at an increasing rate, leading to diverse and constantly evolving needs of adult learners to manage these changes. The COVID-19 pandemic forced a global transition to different forms of distance learning, particularly online learning, that revealed adult educators lacked capacity and lacked support to conduct online learning, manage learners and conduct administrative processes using digital tools. 

Adult educators are key to learner success in adult learning and education, yet adult educators often lack structured training, recognition of competencies and opportunities for professional development in their work.  In this era of rapid and profound technological change, adult educators must remain at the heart of quality lifelong learning and be adequately trained, supported and empowered to meet the diverse and numerous needs of their adult learners. These range from using digital resources, translation functions and language learning apps to support reading, writing and numeracy, to acquiring skills for employment and livelihoods, to navigating social media and developing media, information and data literacy, to learning to leverage the Internet for active citizenship, civic participation and having a political voice for fairer, more just and sustainable societies.

Against this backdrop, the UNESCO Institute for Lifelong Learning (UIL) – in collaboration with Shanghai Open University (SOU) have developed a Digital Competency Framework for Adult Educators and aims to develop a set of training modules for core digital competencies that countries can use to prepare educators for the present and future technological needs in adult learning and education. The framework consists of four domains, namely instructional practice, empowering learners, professional development and digital literacy. Each domains entails sub-domains connected to specific competencies of the adult educators. The consequent training modules will be developed based on these domains and sub-domains.

To this end, UNESCO is seeking an individual consultant for the development of training sessions under the sub-domains focusing on a) designing and implementing digital learning and b) inclusion. 

Under the overall authority of the Director of the UNESCO Institute of Lifelong Learning (UIL) and the supervision of the Team Leader at UIL, the contractor shall provide the following services:

Develop one module on “Designing and implementing digital learning” for adult educators comprised of three sessions for beginners, intermediate and advanced learners. Each session is expected to comprise the following sections:

• Expected learning outcomes
• Knowledge section that will contain curated content aligned to the learning objectives, as well as hyperlinks to online resources and tools, written in simple English. The knowledge section should be presented in a way that identifies content suitable for a beginner, intermediate or advanced learner of the topic.
• Activity section that contains three different learning activities of approximately 30 minutes duration for the expected level of understanding of the targeted learners.
• Assessment section that explains how different formative assessment techniques can be used to support learning if learners struggle with the content.
• List of References

Develop one module on “Inclusion” for adult educators comprised of three sessions for beginners, intermediate and advanced learners. Each session is expected to comprise the following sections:

• Expected learning outcomes.
• Knowledge section that will contain curated content aligned to the learning objectives, as well as hyperlinks to online resources and tools, written in simple English. The knowledge section should be presented in a way that identifies content suitable for a beginner, intermediate or advanced learner of the topic.
• Activity section that contains three different learning activities of approximately 30 minutes duration for the expected level of understanding of the targeted learners.
• Assessment section that explains how different formative assessment techniques can be used to support learning if learners struggle with the content.
• List of References.
• The sessions should contain prompts that explicitly gives space to an adult educator to consider and adapt the provided content to different learning environments, cultures, languages, and social contexts.
• Ensure the legal rights to use the different types of learning assets, such as pictures, diagrams, tables, designed text, etc., are assured and/or sources properly acknowledged. Open educational resources are preferred.
• The modules should be in a format that can easily be shared and edited by the intended users, such as commonly used word processing software formats.

Qualifications and requirements:

The ideal candidate should meet the following requirements and qualifications:

Required Qualifications:

• Advanced degree (Master’s degree or equivalent or above) in technology in education, inclusive education, teacher education, ICT for development or related fields.
• At least 5 years’ experience in digital skills content development and writing learning content on the inclusive use of technology for teachers/educators and integrating technology into teaching for adults.
• Demonstrated ability to draft and deliver structured learning content on similar topics.
• Proficiency in English.
• Experience conducting training, professional development or capacity building programmes for adult educators.

Source:  https://careers.unesco.org/job/Hamburg-Call-for-Individual-Consultant-Module-Development-for-Digital-Competencies-of-Adult-Educators/790208102/