Volunteer for Testing Online Course on Adolescent Participation in South Asia

Details

Mission and objectives

UNICEF promotes the rights and wellbeing of every child, in everything we do. Together with our partners, we work in 190 countries and territories to translate that commitment into practical action, focusing special effort on reaching the most vulnerable and excluded children, to the benefit of all children, everywhere. In all of its work, UNICEF takes a life-cycle based approach, recognizing the particular importance of early childhood development and adolescence. UNICEF programmes focus on the most disadvantaged children, including those living in fragile contexts, those with disabilities, those who are affected by rapid urbanization and those affected by environmental degradation. UNICEF was created with a distinct purpose in mind: to work with others to overcome the obstacles that poverty, violence, disease and discrimination place in a child’s path. We advocate for measures to give children the best start in life, because proper care at the youngest age forms the strongest foundation for a person’s future. We promote girls’ education – ensuring that they complete primary education as a minimum – because it benefits all children, both girls and boys. Girls who are educated grow up to become better thinkers, better citizens, and better parents to their own children. We act so that all children are immunized against common childhood diseases, and are well nourished: no child should suffer or die from a preventable illness. We work to prevent the spread of HIV/AIDS among young people because it is right to keep them from harm and enable them to protect others. We help children and families affected by HIV/AIDS to live their lives with dignity. We are UNICEF, the United Nations Children’s Fund.

Context

UNICEF works in partnership with adolescents and young people to build solutions together. in We connect them, particularly the most marginalized, to local, sub-national and national government to ensure their voices are heard in decisions that affect them. We also build the capacities of adolescents to participate in communities and in governance. We support the development of policies for adolescents that ensure their health, education, protection, water and sanitation, and social protection rights are met, with their voices at the centre. We support the formulation and implementation of policies that ensure child-participatory planning, the prioritization of resources for children’s rights, and monitoring and evaluation mechanisms that enable children to have a say on the effectiveness of programme delivery. We build the capacities of adults to work better with adolescents for effective participatory planning. The Adolescent Development and Participation (ADAP) Section at the UNICEF Regional Office for South Asia has developed a massive open online course (MOOC) titled ASPIRE: Leadership for Planning and Decision-Making with Adolescents. It is a unique course for adult decision-makers to strengthen leadership capacities to work with adolescents in various forms of decision-making in institutions. It brings together principles, frameworks, practices and analyses to enable leaders and decision-makers to understand and implement participatory planning with adolescents in governance and other institutional settings. The learning is rooted in the experiences and innovations of children and participation practitioners from South Asia in government, civil society and UNICEF. The course has 25 modules and takes 10 hours of seat time, including for the course project. The course is being set up in the UNICEF’s Online Learning platform (AGORA). Agora is a free portal offering tailored learning solutions to UNICEF's staff, partners and supporters. This technical testing of the course is the final stage of the course production process. After completing the testing and ensuring that the course components run seamlessly, the ASPIRE! Online course will be formally launched and enabled for open access and enrolment for interested learners To that end, we are seeking to collaborate with Online Volunteers to test these online courses and provide feedbacks before its launching.

Task description

Within the delegated authority and under the supervision of the Learning and Development Expert or his/her designated mandated representative(s), the UNV Online Volunteer for testing of a massive open online course developed by UNICEF Regional Office for South Asia will: -Navigate the course in the UNICEF’s Open Online Learning platform as an external user and test the functionality of the enrolment button on the course homepage, -Run through the entire course modules, check, and verify every link or links hyperlinked buttons embedded inside the course homepage or course pages that pop up in a separate or new tab, -Scroll down through the entire course to reveal the content and interactions, view every illustration/image by using the magnifier glass feature available along with graphic elements, -Explore and test all interactive features of the course, including ‘buttons’, ‘accordions’, ‘tabs’ and ‘hotspots’ connected topics/contents, -Test the play button in videos and check sound and other features, enable and view closed-captions (subtitles), view videos in picture-in-picture and full-screen modes and test the plus sign below each video to read the text version of the audio, -Participate in the knowledge check, select a response to the multiple-choice questions and then text SUBMIT button to see the feedback, -Download and skim throughout every reading material, the journal document, the course project instruction document and the course resources list document, which are attached to course pages. -Submit a completed all check-list of all course components which are provided as detailed guide for testing of the Massive Open Online Course . Furthermore, the Online Volunteers are strongly suggested and encouraged to dedicate a part of their time to some of the following suggested activities: -Strengthen their knowledge and understanding of the concept of volunteerism by reading relevant UNV and external publications -Be acquainted with and build on traditional and/or local forms of volunteerism; -Promote or advise local groups in the use of online volunteering or encourage relevant local individuals and organizations to use the UNV Online Volunteering service whenever technically possible.