National Consultant(s) to support to develop and launch two academic courses at VNU-HCM

USAID Partnership for Higher Education Reform (PHER)

SCOPE OF WORK

for National Consultant(s) to support Vietnam National University-Ho Chi Minh City (VNU-HCM)

to develop and launch two academic courses at VNU-HCM

I. BACKGROUND

The Partnership for Higher Education Reform (PHER) is an initiative to help strengthen Vietnam's leading public universities. The project activities are funded by USAID to support targeted reforms to improve institutional leadership and administrative capacity, improve teaching practices to enhance student learning outcomes, elevate university research capacity to international standards, network Vietnamese researchers to maximize access to global knowledge, enable university graduates to better engage with the labor market, and help university faculty leverage their research for innovation.

To achieve these objectives, PHER activities focus on:     

• Governance: This pillar supports the building and strengthening of institutional performance management systems based on agreed Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) supported by a comprehensive Management Information System (MIS) that provides consistent, reliable data for decision making and for accreditation of institutions and programs. This includes the establishment of a robust internal quality assurance (IQA) system at each of the target universities. Improved governance will help the leadership of public universities in Vietnam make better informed decisions as they exercise greater autonomy and focus on academic quality. 
• Teaching & Learning: This pillar supports the expansion of faculty capacity to design state-of-the-art courses, digitize curricula, support the development of priority online courses and programs, improve student learning assessment techniques, and develop graduate students in the teaching profession. This pillar will also support technical assistance to help prepare faculty and administration for international accreditation reviews of academic programs and institutions. The objective is for improved teaching and learning at Vietnam’s public universities to increase learning outcomes, enhance recognition of high-quality academic programs, and improve the employability of graduates.
• Research & Innovation: This pillar supports the enhancement of research capacity so that the scientific outputs of public universities in Vietnam meet international standards, increase knowledge sharing among specialists, grow the number of publications in recognized journals, and align research activities to the social and economic needs of the country.  This will take place through faculty exchanges, visiting scholar programs, research conferences, webinars, workshops, and short course training on research methodologies and academic specialties. The key vehicle for this pillar is the establishment of Vietnam International Academic Networks (VIAN) to help scientists across Vietnam connect more readily with fellow experts from around the world. The objective is for VIAN activity to lead to greater knowledge sharing, broader promotion of research taking place in Vietnam, and enhanced opportunities for joint research and publications with partners abroad.

The PHER project also seeks deeper exploration of policy areas vital to the improvement of Vietnamese public higher education by supporting analytical work on the areas of technology and digitization, as well as gender equity. These cross-cutting policy areas are essential to success across the four pillars and to supporting the long-term sustainability of higher education reforms in Vietnam.

PHER focuses on reforms at three major Vietnamese public universities, their member universities, and their respective institutes and academic programs:

• Vietnam National University-Hanoi (VNU),
• Vietnam National University-Ho Chi Minh City (VNU-HCM), and
• The University of Danang (UD)          

II. OBJECTIVE OF ASSIGNMENT

Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) create conditions for learners to absorb knowledge anytime, anywhere, promoting no-cost open access to higher education. VNUHCM has developed a program of education delivery called Vietnam Massive Open Online Courses (VMOOCs) and seeks to expand its course offerings in the fields of data science and business administration.

PHER aims to support VNUHCM in growing its capacity to deliver such courses through the VNU-HCM MOOC platform (Canvas).  PHER therefore seeks a national consultant(s) to support VNUHCM in creating, producing, and delivering two high-quality online courses: (1) Introduction to Data Science and (2) Fundamentals of Business. The goal of such support is to ensure the quality of online course development to maximize student learning. 

The consultant(s) will provide hands-on coaching sessions for technical staff and faculty members who are in charge of developing online academic courses. These courses must be developed in alignment with the VNU-HCM’s MOOCs platform (Canvas).

The work of this assignment is to be conducted in Vietnamese, but all summary reporting is required to be in English. All activities should ensure equitable treatment, irrespective of gender, disability, or ethnic background.

III. TIME AND LOCATION

The work is expected to commence in March 2024 and conclude no later than October 2024.  The work will be conducted both in-person at VNU-HCM and online through mutually agreed video conferencing software.

IV. TASKS AND DELIVERABLES

Notes:

The final report should include all resource materials, agendas, and reports, along with analysis of objectives, lessons learned, and recommendations.

V. BUDGET (working time)

The USAID PHER grant will allocate a budget agreed with the consultant(s) to support the implementation of the activities and deliverables per the SOW above.

VI. SUPERVISION AND REPORTING

The consultant will work in collaboration with VNU-HCM but under the direction of the PHER team.

VII. REQUIRED QUALIFICATIONS & EXPERIENCE

Essential:

• holds a master’s degree in relevant field
• has at least five years’ experience in developing online courses and professional development training
• has expertise in online course creation, software, learning enhancement tools, and/or LMS used for online/blended courses

Preferred:

• holds a doctoral degree in a relevant field
• is familiar with the MOOCs (Canvas) in use at VNU-HCM

VIII. APPLICATION

The application documents include:

• A letter of motivation
• CV(s) with three references
• A technical proposal responding to the objectives and deliverables of this assignment
• Financial proposal, indicating the expected daily rate or consultancy fee

Application documents should be sent to [email protected] titled “Consultancy for Online course development at VNU-HCM” by March 1st, 2024. All applications will be carefully considered, but only short-listed applicants will be contacted.