DSCAP Guidebook Part2

March 2021 Part 2
Digital Skills
The Why, the What and
the How
Methodological Guidebook V 2.0 for Preparing Digital Skills Country Action

Plans for Higher Education and TVET
Table of Strategy 1Establish Enabling
Policies and Develop Digital Skills
Framework2
contents Strategy 3Enhance use of

technologies in teaching and
learning 34
Strategy 4Implementation Plans To

Connect Higher Education And TVET
Institutions To Affordable High-speed
Broadband88
Strategy 5Capacity building and

business process re-engineering in
Ministries & Agencies 126
Consistency Matrix 170
Action Plan Strategy 1: Establishing

Enabling Policies, Digital Skills
Framework, and Digital Skills
Assessment176
Action Plan Strategy 2: Reform of

Digital Skills Programs 188
Action Plan Strategy 3: Enhance

Use of Technology in Teaching and
Learning204
Action Plan Strategy 4: Connect higher

education and TVET institutions to
affordable high-speed broadband and
Improving Campus Network Digital
Services 224
Action Plan Strategy 5: Capacity

Building and Business Process Re-
engineering247
DIGITAL
SKILLS
Higher Education and regulatory bodies; Senthil Kumar (Programmes Manager,
Global e-Schools and Communities Initiative) - web-based costing tool for esti-
mating the costs of various strategies and Dmitry Chugunov (Consultant, World
Bank) – development of the Costing Template for Scenario Planning. Joanna
Acknowledgements Sundharam (Consultant, World Bank) and Sharon Zacharia (Consultant, World
Bank) undertook background research and provided overall support. Steve
Huter (Director, Network Startup Resource Center) provided inputs on broad-
band infrastructure and connectivity at the initial stages of preparation of the
“Digital Skills: The Why, the What, and the How” Methodological Guidebook Guidebook. Arun Sharma (Founder, Infinite Potentials) ensured overall coordi-
for Preparing Digital Skills Country Action Plans for Higher Education and TVET nation and editing of the various inputs. Errica Mallozzi (Founder, Metapict) led
(V2.0), was prepared as part of the Digital Economy for Africa (DE4A) initiative of creative design and developed the graphics and layout for the Guidebook and
the World Bank Group, with funding from the Digital Development Partnership related communication materials. Aline Bazouni (Founder, TRADINCO S.A.R.L)
(DDP), a multi-donor trust fund facility hosted in the Digital Development Global translated the Guidebook and supporting materials to French.
Practice, and under the overall guidance of the Partnership for Skills in Applied
Sciences, Engineering & Technology (PASET). Revisions for V2.0 of the Guidebook and preparation of Part II were undertaken
by Sajitha Bashir, Liz Arney, Javed I. Khan, Victor Lim, Senthil Kumar, and Joanna
V1.0 of the Guidebook was prepared in November 2019 and used in the first two Sundharam.
workshops in Mozambique and Rwanda, as well as in the virtual workshops in
Ethiopia in the first half of 2020. V2.0 of the Guidebook, prepared in December The team is grateful for the guidance and feedback received from Boutheina
2020, builds on experiences and lessons learned from using the guidebook in Guermazi (Global Director, Digital Development Global Practice), Jaime Saveedra
the three countries mentioned above. The substance of the Guidebook remains (Global Director, Education Global Practice) and Michel Rogy (Practice Manager,
the same. Key areas that have been revised or clarified in V2.0 include: a) an ex- Digital Development). V2.0 incorporates extensive feedback received from peer
planation of the contextualized approach to implementation; b) link with DE4A reviewers - Elizabeth Ninan (Senior Education Specialist); Alex Twinomugisha
diagnostic tools; c) suggestions for regional collaborations; and d) baseline indi- (Senior Education Specialist); Ruth Charo (Senior Education Specialist); Ekua
cators. V2.0 also incorporates a second volume with more detailed guidelines Bentil (Education Specialist); Tim Kelly (Lead Digital Development Specialist;
for each strategy. Ana Menezes (Senior Education Specialist); and Girma Woldetsadik (Senior
Education Specialist) in the Education Global Practice and Digital Development
The Guidebook (V1.0) was prepared by a team led by Sajitha Bashir (Adviser, Global Practice of the World Bank and Salah-Eddine Kandri (Principal Investment
Office of the Global Director for Education, World Bank) and Samia Melhem Officer) from IFC. Both versions of the Guidebook have benefitted from the in-
(Global Lead, Digital Capabilities, World Bank). Inputs were provided by sightful comments and detailed feedback from the PASET Consultative Advisory
Jorgen Billetoft (Labor market and Skills development Specialist ) – demand Group.
assessment and reform of digital skills programs; Liz Arney (Education and
Technology Specialist ) - use of technologies in teaching and learning; Javed
I. Khan (Professor, Kent State University, Ohio) – development of National
Educational and Research Networks and broadband connectivity; Victor Lim
WITH SUPPORT FROM:

(Assistant Professor, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore) – capacity
development of and business process re-engineering in Ministries of Education/
The work on the Digital Skills Country Action Plan was made possible by the generous support of the members of the Digital Development Partnership – the World Bank’s
program helping developing countries leverage innovation and technology to solve their most pressing challenges. For more information, please visit:
ii https://www.worldbank.org/en/programs/digital-development-partnership. iii
Abbreviations
and Terminology
AI Artificial Intelligence NREN National Research and Education Networks

CAPEX Capital Expenditure OER Operation Education Resources
CSO Civil Society Organizations OPEX Operational Expenditure
CSR Corporate Social Responsibility OPM Online Program Manager
DE4A Digital Economy for Africa PASET Partnership for Skills in Applied Sciences, Engineering and
Technology
DGLF Digital Literacy Global Framework
SCORM Shareable Content Object Reference Model
EU European Union
SLOER Sierra Leone Open Educational Resources
GER Gross Enrollment Ratio
STEM Science Technology Engineering and Mathematics
GESCI Global E-Schools and Communities Initiative
TVET Technical-Vocational Education and Training
ICT Information and Communication Technology
UNESCO United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural
IFC International Finance Corporation Organization
IoT Internet of Things UVS L’Université virtuelle du Sénégal (Virtual University of Senegal)
IT Information Technology
MOOC Massive Open Online Courses
MoREN Mozambique National Research and Education Network
NGOs Non-Governmental Organizations
iv v
Digital Skills Country Action Plan Methodological Guidebook Part 2
Contents
Summary of this section 4
Background 4
Enabling Policies 5
Digital Skills Frameworks 6
Country context / baseline 14
Goal of this Strategy 14
Activities and Interventions 15
Indicators 24
Digital Skills Country Action Plan
Timelines 26
Strategy 1 Implementation 29
Establish Enabling Costing 30
Policies and Develop Monitoring and Review of the
Digital Skills Framework Strategy 31
2 3
Summary of this section Enabling Policies
Enabling policies make the implementation of the rest of the targets identified by the
other strategies possible. The development of enabling policies that are relevant to
the digital economy in areas related to tertiary education focuses on digital content,
This section will help the planning group1 to: e learning, open resources, intellectual property right, administrative effectiveness,
and governance. As a result, once such a policy is in place in the sector institutions
• Establish policies for strengthening digital technologies within society
can develop operational institution level plans.
• Select a digital framework template and adopt it for use in-country
• Develop ongoing skills assessments for the country
Examples of Enabling Policies
Background Digital Skills policy and strategies for HEIs and TVETs in the following areas:
• Intellectual Property Rights policy

This section introduces key elements to be considered when developing national policies
for strengthening the use of digital technologies within society. It also offers an introduc- • National Research and Education Network Policy
tion to the concept of digital skills frameworks and presents a selection of models for such
frameworks and well as tools for assessment of digital competences. The policy environ- • Interoperability policy
ment in a country, such as the rule of law, the support measures in place for companies,
• Universal access fund policy
both foreign and domestic, as well as taxation incentives are part of the conducive envi-
ronment of a country for private sector investment and development in digital skills train- • Cross border data use policy
ing. Many countries have policies and programs aimed at advancing the ICT sector. These
might include providing e-government services, improving healthcare with ICTs, equipping • ICT devices and tools Procurement and ICT related HR policy, and
schools with computer labs, offering e-agricultural programs, implementing digital literacy
missions, promoting digital transformation plans, and many other priorities. Sometimes • Taxation policy for digital equipment and services.
these policies are coordinated. More often they are developed independently. And, few
countries have translated the policies and strategies into specific, implementation-oriented
plans. If well prepared, prioritized action plans are an important management instrument
which, together with the baseline discussed above, allows monitoring of progress vis-à-vis
the set targets.
1Throughout this document, the terms “planning group”, “working group”, and “planning team” refer to team
members working specifically on Strategy 1. For more information on team composition and ToRs of various teams
please refer to Appendix 2 in Part 1 of this Guidebook.
4 5
Reference frameworks for digital competence create an agreed vision of what is

Digital Skills Frameworks needed in terms of competences at the country level to provide higher education
and TVET students to support their contributions to the development of their na-
tions.
A digital skills framework identifies the digital competences associated with different occu-
pations and levels of education for a country and its citizen to benefit from, participate in
and contribute to the digital world. In many ways the digital skills framework is comparable Examples at the global level are the Digital Competence Framework for Citizens by
with a National Qualification Framework but focusing on digital competences but not nec- the European Commission and UNESCO’s Digital Literacy Global Framework. Both
essarily in a formal way. Typically, digital skills frameworks are designed to support provid- were developed around the same time and both have a common goal to enable
ers, organizations and employers who offer training for youth and adults to guide these on people to develop digital competence to support their life chances and employabil-
essential digital skills needed for the citizens to safely manoeuvre in a digital world. ity. Reference frameworks such as these two provide a common language identifying
the key areas and specific competences that should be addressed. They describe
the competences in detail, and sometimes also foresee learning outcomes and pro-
Tip:
ficiency levels (e.g. basic, intermediate, and advanced). Apart from using reference
When developing a digital skills framework, it is important to distin- frameworks as a tool to further the above goals, they can also be used to create valid
guish between essential digital skills linked to the use of the internet and reliable measurement and/or assessment instruments3.
and use of IT applications in the workplace developed by IT special-
ists, on the one side, and advanced digital skills for ICT professions
needed to the development of new digital technologies, and new
products and services such as Artificial Intelligence and Internet of
Things. EU DigComp
The most comprehensive digital skills framework, DigComp, has been developed
by the European Commission as a scientific project with guidance from a variety of
stakeholders from EU Member States.
Countries should aim to achieve at minimum essential digital skills for all higher education
and TVET students and, as soon as practical, advanced, and highly specialized digital skills.
DigComp 2.1, published in 2017, defines five domains or competence areas (dimen-
sion 1). Within those domains, 21 competences (dimension 2) are elaborated.
UNESCO’s Digital Literacy Global Framework2 defines Digital Liter-

acy as: Table 1. Competence areas and competences as developed by EU DigComp 2.1
Digital literacy is the ability to access, manage, understand, integrate,

communicate, evaluate and create information safely and appropri- Competence area Competences
ately through digital technologies for employment, decent jobs, and

entrepreneurship. It includes competences that are variously referred 1. Information and data 1.1 Browsing, searching and filtering data, information and digital content
literacy
to as computer literacy, ICT literacy, information literacy, and media
1.2 Evaluating data, information and digital content
literacy.
1.3 Managing data, information and digital content
2 http://uis.unesco.org/sites/default/files/documents/ip51-global-framework-reference-digital-litera-
cy-skills-2018-en.pdf 3 ITU: Digital Skills Insights 2019, Geneva 2019.
6 7
The framework also defines proficiency levels (dimension 3). Eight proficiency levels
2.1 Interacting through digital technologies are defined based on the complexity of the task (from simple to complex with many
interacting factors), autonomy (whether performed with guidance, independently, or
2.2 Sharing through digital technologies
guiding others etc.), cognitive domain (e.g. remembering, understanding or creat-
ing). However, often only four levels are used where the original levels are merged
2. Communication and 2.3 Engaging in citizenship through digital technologies
collaboration two and two. The four levels are designated foundation or basic, intermediate, ad-
vanced, and highly specialized. The four levels are described in the table below.
2.4 Collaborating through digital technologies
2.5 Netiquette
2.6 Managing digital identity Table 2. Proficiency levels defined by EU DigComp 2.1
3.1 Developing digital content

Proficiency levels Cognitive domain Autonomy Complexity of tasks
3.2 Integrating and re-elaborating digital content
3. Digital content creation Foundation or basic Remembers With guidance Simple tasks
3.3 Copyright and licenses
Intermediate Understands Independent Well defined, routine and
3.4 Programming non-routine tasks
Advanced Evaluates and applies knowl- Guiding others. Able to adapt Different tasks and problems.
4.1 Protecting devices edge to others in a complex context Most appropriate tasks
Deep theoretical knowledge, Integrate to contribute to the Resolve complex problems

4.2 Protecting personal data and privacy Highly specialized high analytical skills. Ability to professional practice and to with limited solutions. Resolve
create guide others. Proposes new complex problems with many
4. Safety
ideas and processes to the interacting factors
4.3 Protecting health and well-being
field
4.4 Protecting the environment
The detailed description of the proficiency levels defined by EU DigComp 2.1 is

5.1 Solving technical problems
available at publications.jrc.ec.europa.eu/.../web-digcomp2.1pdf.
5.2 Identifying needs and technological responses
5. Problem solving 5.3 Creatively using digital technologies
5.4 Identifying digital competence gaps
5.5 Computational thinking
8 9
UNESCO Digital Literacy Global Framework 2.1 Interacting through digital technologies
UNESCO’s Institute of Statistics (UIS) has refined DigComp to make it appropriate 2.2 Sharing through digital technologies
for low and middle-income countries as well through the creation of the Digital Lit-
2.3 Engaging in citizenship through digital technologies
eracy Global Framework (DLGF). This was created as a foundation for Sustainable
2. Communication and
Development Goal 4.4.2 (“Percentage of youth/adults who have achieved at least a collaboration
2.4 Collaborating through digital technologies
minimum level of proficiency in digital literacy skills”) and the process included ex-
tensive review and consultation with experts, employers and policies in developing
2.5 Netiquette
countries.
2.6 Managing digital identity
DLGF adds two critical areas: (i) fundamentals of familiarity with hardware and soft-
ware, which is often taken for granted in richer countries; and (ii) career-related com-
3.1 Developing digital content
petences. The latter is believed to help making the generic competences more rele-
vant to country contexts through practical examples of their use. Thus, the UIS digital
3.2 Integrating and re-elaborating digital content
skills framework defines the seven domains or competence areas described in the
3. Digital content creation
table below with a number of competences for each one, where competence areas
3.3 Copyright and licenses
0 and 6 have been added by UIS, otherwise it is identical to EU DigComp 2.1.
3.4 Programming
The full document is available at http://uis.unesco.org/sites/default/files/documents/

ip51-global-framework-reference-digital-literacy-skills-2018-en.pdf 4.1 Protecting devices
Table 3. Digital literacy competence areas and competences as developed by 4.2 Protecting personal data and privacy
UNESCO Institute of Statistics 4. Safety

4.3 Protecting health and well-being
Competence area Competences 4.4 Protecting the environment
0.1 Basic knowledge of hardware such as turning on/off and charging, locking devices 5.1 Solving technical problems
0. Fundamentals of hardware
and software
0.2 Basic knowledge of software such as user account and password management, login, and 5.2 Identifying needs and technological responses
how to do privacy settings, etc.
1. Information and data 1.1 Browsing, searching, and filtering data, information, and digital content 5. Problem solving 5.3 Creatively using digital technologies
literacy
1.2 Evaluating data, information, and digital content 5.4 Identifying digital competence gaps
1.3 Managing data, information, and digital content 5.5 Computational thinking
6.0 Career-related competences refer to the knowledge and skills required to operate
6. Career-related competences specialized hardware/software for a particular field, such as engineering design software and
hardware tools, or the use of learning management systems to deliver fully online or blended
courses.
10 11
European e-Competence Framework (e-CF)
While the EU DigComp 2.1 and UNESCO DLGF provide a good framework for digital liter-
acy and higher level digital skills, the EU has also defined a framework for the articulation
of competences required and deployed by ICT professionals (including both practitioners
and managers) . This framework may be better for the advanced and highly specialized
skills of those involved in using, adapting and developing digital applications and projects.
It provides a reference of 40 competences as required and applied at the Information and
Communication Technology (ICT) workplace, using a common language for competences,
skills, and capability levels that can be understood across Europe.
The e-CF was created for managers and human resource (HR) departments, for education
institutions and training bodies including higher education, for market watchers and policy
makers, and other organisations in public and private sectors. More information on e-CF
can be accessed at: http://www.ecompetences.eu
The European e-Competence Framework is structured along four dimensions.
• Dimension 1:
5 e-Competence areas, derived from the ICT business
processes PLAN – BUILD – RUN – ENABLE – MANAGE
• Dimension 2:
A set of reference e-Competences for each area, with
a generic description for each competence.
• Dimension 3:
Proficiency levels of each e-Competence provide European
reference level specifications on e-Competence levels e-1
to e-5, which are related to the EQF levels 3 to 8.
• Dimension 4:
Samples of knowledge and skills relate to e-Competences in dimension 2.
12 13
Country context / baseline Activities and Interventions
In this section, the planning group should summarize what the current status of the country
is. Strategy 1.1: Enabling Policies for Digital Skills
Developing an enabling environment for digital skills typically in-

Questions to Consider are: clude the following steps:
• How well equipped is it in terms of enabling policies for digital skills training
and infrastructure?
Identification of existing policies
• Does it have a strategy or a framework for digitalization of the economy?
These policies and programs may or may not address digital skills. For review may re-
• Is the population well equipped in terms of skills to benefit from the digitalization? veal that digital skills are covered in the education policy, but not in ones covering ru-
ral development or healthcare. The purpose of this tool is to prepare an inventory of
• What are the most serious gaps? existing policies and programs, identify the country’s needs, and conduct an overall
assessment of the degree to which current policies and programs meet these needs.
• Does it have a skills or qualifications framework, which includes digital skills?
• Is there a system in place for monitoring progress of the implementation of the Identification of needs
national strategies and plans?
At a high level describe the country’s needs as it relates to digital skills. Do particu-
lar industries express a need for more qualified IT workers? If so, with what types of
skills? Are particular population groups currently not accessing important govern-
ment services because they don’t have the right skills?
Goal of this Strategy

Issues to be considered include demographic trends (e.g. retirement and replace-
ment of existing labor force), technological changes (e.g. automatization), business
The goal of this strategy is for each country team to: trends, government’s strategy for industrial development, plans for e-governance,
and other factors affecting the demand for digital skills such as shifts to a greener
• Develop policies to underpin and enable the digital framework economy.
• Develop policies and strategies to enable the provision of digital skills and raise the
competences of students Assessment of the current digital skills policies
• Develop a country-level adaptation of a global digital skills framework that is regularly Provide an overall assessment of the current digital skills policies with regard to the
updated country’s needs. For this exercise, a SWOT analysis may be most useful. Strengths
and weaknesses describe characteristics internal to the country. Opportunities and
• Develop a system for regular assessment of digital skills of university and TVET threats describe elements in the external environment. The analysis should lead to
students and graduates the identification of new or updated policies that better address the country’s needs.
14 15
Strategy 1.2: Developing a Digital Skills Framework

New or revised policy or policies
Establishing a legal digital skills framework and technical standards that guides the devel-
At a high level identify the need for new and/or revised policies to ensure the coun- opment of educational and training programs in public and private institutions should be an
try’s digital skills needs are addressed. Identify the focal point(s) responsible for de- important element of the Country Action Plan. Existing international frameworks should be
veloping such draft policies and conducting advocacy to adopt them. used (as this helps enable comparison and repurposing across borders) as a basis, but they
must be adapted to the country context so that they are relevant for the local environment
while being benchmarked to global standards. Further, such frameworks need to be peri-
Tip:
odically updated as technology and the nature of skills change continuously. The DLGF is
It is important that the policies are formulated through a consultative suggested as the most appropriate template framework on which each country should base
process including all key stakeholders. Once formulated, it should be their individual national-level digital skills framework. This could be supplemented with the
considered to adopt the policies as law. e-CF framework for higher level digital skills.
Tip:
Given the linkages between various policies necessary to make the most of the dig- It is also important to note that the DLGF is not a model per se, but
italization of the economy, it is essential to co-ordinate the implementation of policy rather a methodology or pathway to be applied when developing a
‘packages’ and strategies to ensure these have mutually reinforcing effects. Without national digital skills framework. The DLGF is close interlinked with
co-ordination, there is a risk that policies fail to deliver the desired results. There are the DigComp 2.0 framework, developed by the EU, which is consid-
examples clearly demonstrating that technological innovation does not lead to in- ered a valuable and suitable basis for the development of a global
creased productivity and economic growth if other policies are not in place such as digital literacy framework.
education and skills policies, labor market policies, and a conducive policy environ-
ment4. In order to achieve the intended results, actors at all levels need to co-ordi-
nate policy-making across a wide range of areas, including education, cost of infra-
structure, taxation and, not least, cyber security and protection of data protection. The specific digital literacy competences and proficiency levels that are important depend
on their specific country and economic sector contexts. The opportunities for a person to
develop his/her digital competences also depend on their particular context. The proj-
ect team should develop a pathway mapping methodology to guide countries, sectors,
Strategy plans groups, and individuals to develop strategies and plans for advancing their own digital lit-
eracy development goals and pathways. Defining digital literacy levels and assessments at
The final step of the process is to translate the policies into detailed strategy plans the practical level by case examples, and not at the conceptual level in frameworks, results
for each affected sector, e.g. basic education, secondary education, TEVET and high- in a non-linear and contextualised approach.
er education as well as other sectors where digital competences play an important
role, e.g. health and social services.
Most digital frameworks are used to measure the skills of different populations such as sec-
ondary school graduates and schoolteachers or selected categories of citizens. However,
there is not a one-size-fits-all assessment of digital competence that can serve all purposes
and contexts, and performance assessments may not necessarily provide indicators that are
relevant for every context. For instance, the International Computer Driving License (ICDL),
which are used in many developing countries, assess digital competence using standalone
4 OECD: OECD Skills Outlook 2019: Thriving in a Digital World, Paris 2019.
16 17
desktop computers which are not connected to the Internet. But digital technology Each country should have a regular system of assessing digital skills, ideally based on the
use in these countries, involve almost entirely of networked mobile devices such as Digital Skills Framework. The method to be applied and thus the level of complexity of
mobile phones, smart phones and tablets. the test questions must reflect the targeted population, e.g. secondary school graduates,
primary school teachers, or university and TEVET, graduates. The sample should have a size
Assessment indicators and instruments need to be mapped to the framework and that makes it representative for the population to the tested. 10 percent of a cohort would
include the context of usage and assessment purpose for them to be relevant and usually be sufficient. Finally, the test should be repeated on a regular basis such as every
useful. As an example, assessments on a standalone desktop computer cannot ad- three years in order to measure changes over time.
dress whether a farmer can use his/her mobile phone to conduct trading transactions
for his produce but can be used to assess programming skills unrelated to network
operations. Measuring digital competences serves two purposes. For TEVET and higher education in-
stitutions, information about the entrants’ ICT skills allows adjusting the courses and pro-
grams to the students’ level of knowledge, while information about graduates’ competenc-
es is a way to measure the quality of education as well as their preparedness for the labour
market.
Kenya has recently published its Digital Economy Blueprint. The
Blueprint defines the digital economy as “the entirety of sectors Developing Digital Skills Assessments
that operate using digitally-enabled communications and networks
leveraging internet, mobile and other technologies” irrespective of
industry. The Blueprint identifies the five pillars of the digital econ-
omy, that are described under the headings, Digital Government, • Describe the country’s needs as it relates to digital skills.
Digital Business, Infrastructure, Innovation-Driven Entrepreneurship,
• Do particular industries express a need for more qualified IT workers? If so, with
and Digital Skills and Values.
what types of skills?
http://www.ict.go.ke/wp-content/uploads/2019/05/Kenya-Digi-
tal-Economy-2019.pdf • Are particular population groups currently not accessing important government
services because they don’t have the right skills? If so, with what types of skills?
• Identify the need for new and/or revised policies to ensure the country’s digital
skills needs are addressed.
More Examples
• Identify the focal point(s) responsible for developing such draft policies and
See UNESCO: A Global Framework of Reference on Digital Literacy conducting advocacy to adopt them.
Skills for SDG Indicator 4.4. June 2018, for a rich number of exam-
ples of national and sector-specific Digital Skills Frameworks. (http://
uis.unesco.org/sites/default/files/documents/ip51-global-frame-
work-reference-digital-literacy-skills-2018-en.pdf)
18 19
The EU has produced a user guide on how to conduct assessment of The Digital Skills Toolkit by the International Telecommunication
digital competences. The guide presents a number of tools includ- Union skills as well provides useful insights on the assessment of digi-
ing: tal and other highly relevant issues related to digitalization of society.
• Self-assessment Website:
• Knowledge-based tests https://www.itu.int/en/ITU-D/Digital-Inclusion/Documents/ITU%20

Digital%20Skills%20Toolkit.pdf
• Performance-based evaluation
The EU has provided 17 examples of baseline and assessment tools,
• A mix of the above listed in this document (http://publications.jrc.ec.europa.eu/reposi-
tory/bitstream/JRC110624/dc_guide_may18.pdf section 2 step 2). It
The guide is based on the DigComp framework presented above includes tools including:
and ‘demonstrates the many opportunities it offers for different aims
in digital competence initiatives, including goal-setting and strategy • Self-assessment
design, the development of education and training programs, com-
petence assessment and recognition’. • Knowledge-based tests
Website: (http://publications.jrc.ec.europa.eu/repository/bitstream/ • Performance-based evaluation

JRC110624/dc_guide_may18.pdf.
• A mix of the above
Countries have several options for assessing the performance and impact of their digital
skills programmes. Assessment strategies can be broken down into two approaches: self-re-
ported and test-based. In this context, the test-based in most relevant. The most common
way to assess digital skills are test-based tools, asking right/wrong questions and score
participants’ results based on their proportion of correct answers. Test-based tools mea-
sure ICT skills using knowledge-based and task-based approaches. These tools may test
knowledge via multiple-choice questions or test task completion via a single, multi-step,
problem-solving module. Test-based tools are administered on a computer, not through
paper surveys. Three examples mentioned by ITU5 include the following examples as well
as many curricula including assessment components, such as the Microsoft Digital Literacy
Certificate Test.6
5 ITU: Digital Skills Toolkit, 2018.

6 https:// www. microsoft. com/ en- us/ DigitalLiteracy/
20 21
The International Computer and Information Literacy Study

The assessment should ideally cover the following questions:
• Does the country want to set in place a digital skills assessment system?
The International Computer and Information Literacy Study (ICILS) is
a project of the International Association for the Evaluation of Educa- 1. If so, why?
tional Achievement. It measures international differences in comput-
er and information literacy – i.e., students’ “ability to use computers 2. What will it be used for? (eg monitoring progress over time, comparisons with
to investigate, create, and communicate in order to participate effec- other countries)
tively at home, at school, in the workplace, and in the community.”7
It was first administered in 2013 in 21 countries and a similar number 3. If not, why not?
have indicated an interest in participating in 2018.
4. What should be monitored
i. What is the level of digital skills of entrants to the higher education and TVET
The Program for the International Assessment of Adult Competen- institutions and at secondary level?
cies
ii. What is the level of digital skills of students when they leave the institutions
iii. What is the level of current students in higher education and TVET institutions
The Program for the International Assessment of Adult Competen-
cies (PIAAC) is a project of the OECD that “aims to measure the set iv. What is the level of recent graduates of higher education and TVET institutions
of literacy, numeracy, and technology-based problem-solving skills
an individual needs in order to function successfully in society.” It has • How will the assessment of digital skills in higher education and TVET institutions
been administered in most OECD countries, as well as several oth- be done?
ers (Ecuador, Indonesia, Kazakhstan, Lithuania, Peru and Singapore,)
and is currently in its third round of data collection (2016-2019). 1. Through a nationwide common assessment tool?
2. Or allow each institution to develop its own depending on its own student body
and capacity?
3. Will it develop a “common” tool which could be adapted by universities/TVET

institutions? What are the pros and cons of either approach? Do institutions have
the capacity to develop their own
4. Will the country choose to adapt an existing assessment tool or develop its own?
Will it use technical assistance to do this? What are pros and cons?
5. What kind of reports will be produced? For who?
6. How often will the reporting and the assessment be done?
7 The assessment framework for the ICILS is available at: https:// www. acer. edu. au/ files/ ICILS_ 2013_ • Who will be responsible for implementing it?
Framework. Pdf
22 23
Australia’s National Assessment Program (NAP) Indicators

Australia’s National Assessment Program (NAP) is another digital
skills assessment model. The NAP is managed by the Australian Cur- The indicators for Strategy 1, at the macro-level, could track the progress in the develop-
riculum, Assessment and Reporting Authority (ACARA). NAP tests ment of specific policies. For example, this could include review, development,
students’ skills and understanding in science literacy, civics and citi-
zenship and information and communication technology (ICT) litera- approval, and institution of the Interoperability Policy for Higher Education and TVETS, the
cy. The assessment of ICT literacy is part of a national plan to monitor National Universal Access Fund Policy, the National Digital Skills Framework, and the Intel-
and report on student achievement progressively against the Nation- lectual Property Rights Policy.
al Goals for Schooling in the Twenty-first Century. General ICT skills
and knowledge are assessed rather than the more technical skills and
Table 4. Examples of indicators for Strategy 1
knowledge developed through specialist ICT courses.8
Indicator Suggested Reporting Unit(s)
Interoperability Policy for Higher Completion of the Stages for Policy Reform 1) Review, 2) Devel-
Education and TVETS opment, 3) Approval, 4) Institution
Given the linkages between various policies necessary to make the most of the dig-
italization of the economy, it is essential to co-ordinate the implementation of policy National Universal Access Fund Completion of the Stages for Policy Reform 1) Review, 2) Devel-
Policy opment, 3) Approval, 4) Institution
‘packages’ and strategies to ensure these have mutually reinforcing effects. Without
National Digital Skills Framework Completion of the Stages for Policy Reform 1) Review, 2) Devel-
co-ordination, there is a risk that policies fail to deliver the desired results. There are
opment, 3) Approval, 4) Institution
examples clearly demonstrating that technological innovation does not lead to in-
Intellectual Property Rights Policy Completion of the Stages for Policy Reform 1) Review, 2) Devel-
creased productivity and economic growth if other policies are not in place such as opment, 3) Approval, 4) Institution
education and skills policies, labor market policies, and a conducive policy environ-
ment9. In order to achieve the intended results, actors at all levels need to co-ordi-
nate policy-making across a wide range of areas, including education, cost of infra-
structure, taxation and, not least, cyber security and protection of data protection. The indicator should also operate on the micro-level to provide meaningful feedback on
the progress of the goals. It should also be reviewed regularly, so that obstacles to the
goals can be identified in a timely manner. Develop easy proxy indicators that can serve as
a quick alert to the management on issues to pay attention to is productive and efficient.
The indicators need not be comprehensive and should not too unwieldy. The purpose is to
signal for attention on issues in specific work processes.
Two types of data may be applied for measuring the results: a) data related to the condi-
tions under which digital skills are acquired, and b) data related to the digital competences
of different segments of the population, e.g. secondary school graduates, university and
TVET students etc. Data collected in connection with rolling out of the national digital skills
framework is the main source of information for the latter. Some of the above data may be
collected as part of routine surveys such a household and labor force surveys, while other
8 More information about NAP’s ICT Literacy Assessment: http:// www. nap. edu. au/ nap- sample-
will require specialized studies and investigations.
assessments/ ict- literacy
9 OECD: OECD Skills Outlook 2019: Thriving in a Digital World, Paris 2019.
24 25
Enrolment in these by gender
Table 5. Examples of indicators to measure the conditions under which digital

competences are acquired Number (or %) of adults (working ages of 15-64) using comput-
ers as part of their daily work/studies – if possible by level of
proficiency
Indicators: Digital Skills (Life-cycle) Current Status Trend & Benchmark Number of employers stating digital literacy as a hindrance to
job performance
Year Value Level of digital skills asked for by employers (basic, intermedi-
ate, advance)
Internet access in public secondary schools Share of engineers, STEM professionals, and scientist in the
population (census data
Internet access in private secondary schools
Number (or %) of government/public schools with computers for

students use
Number (or %) of private schools with computers for student use
Percentage of teachers in public secondary teachers who have Timelines

attended special ICT courses
Percentage of teachers in private secondary teachers who have

attended special ICT courses The Digital Skills Action Plan should have a clear timeline for each of the component/ele-
Number of formal higher education programs in the country ments of the plan. Ideally, a tentative closing date should be mentioned for each activity
specifically focused on ICT/digital skills/computer programming,
included in the plan.
etc.
Enrolment in the above higher education programs by gender The timeline will depend on other aspects that are not directly related to digital skills such
as development of digital infrastructure and establishment of necessary facilities at educa-
Number of TVET institutions in the country providing courses tion institutions. The timeline must also reflect the financial sources available, which in many
where ICT such as CNC or CAD/CAM is an integrated element
of the course
countries sets limitations for the speed with which the plans can be implemented. The
timeline will need annual updates to reflect possible changed priorities – and delays. Table
Enrolment in the above TVET courses by gender
5 below presents examples of activities, indicators and timeline.
Percentage of TVET teachers/instructors who have attended
special ICT courses
Percentage of TVET curricula that include topics related to ICT
Number of informal/short programs for digital/computer skills

acquisition, such as hackathons, coding bootcamps, competi-
tions
Enrolment in the above by gender
Number of digital skills/ICT government programs for out-of-

school youth and adults
26 27
Developing Digital Skills framework
Table 6. Examples of Activities, Timeline and Indicators for Strategy 1 Develop Terms of reference to recruit 2021 Terms of reference National Assessment Agency or
consultant to adapt digital skills equivalent
framework
Conduct supply side and demand side 2021 Digital skills gap Consultants
digital skills status analysis
Activity Description Timeline Indicators Responsible body Develop or adapt the appropriate Dig- 2021 Digital skills framework Consultants
ital Skills Framework for all professions for all profession
Digital Skills policy and Strategy for Higher Education and TVETS Stakeholder dialogue on draft digital 2021 Digital skills framework National Assessment Agency or
skills framework equivalent
Desk review of Higher education and Current status of High- (TVET Agency, HEI, TVETs) Approval of National digital skills 2021 Digital Skills framework Minister or equivalent
TVET policies, Education policy and Year 1 er education and TVET framework for Ethiopia
Education Law policies Digital Skills Assessment
Approval of Digital Skills policy and Approved Digital skills Ministries and All Higher Education Develop digital skills assessment 2024 Assessment Tools National Assessment Agency or
Strategies for Higher Education and Year 2 Policy and Strategies and TVET institutions tools at National level equivalent
TVET for Higher Education Conduct National digital skills assess- 2024/ 2026/ Digitals skill assess- National Assessment Agency or
and TVETs ment 2030 ment equivalent
Interoperability policy Conduct International digital skills 2024/ 2026/ Digital skills Assess- National Assessment Agency or
Assessment 2030 ment equivalent
Develop a Terms of Reference for Year 1 Terms of reference Ministry of Education or equivalent Certifying those assessed 2024/ 2026/ Certification standard National Assessment Agency or
Interoperability policy development 2030 equivalent
Develop Interoperability policy and Year 1 Draft Interoperability Ministry of Education or equivalent
guideline Policy for Higher Edu-
cation and TVETS
Approve and Implement Interoperabil- Year 1 Interoperability Policy Ministry of Education or equivalent
ity Policy
Develop a terms of reference to review Terms of reference to Ministry of Education or equivalent

available Universal access fund policies Year 2 develop a national
Universal access fund
policy
Conduct Stakeholder discussion on the Year 2 Revised Universal Ministry of Education or equivalent
draft Universal Access fund policy Access fund Policy
Approve National Universal access Year 2 Universal Access Fund Minister or equivalent
fund policy policy
Intellectual property right policy
Develop Terms of reference to recruit 2021 Terms of reference National IP Agency or equivalent
Consultants
Develop Intellectual property right 2021 Draft Intellectual prop- National IP Agency or equivalent
policy erty right policy
Approval of the Intellectual property 2021 Intellectual property Minister or equivalent

right policy right policy
28 29
Implementation Costing
Once the above preparatory steps have been completed, implementation of the It is essential to prepare a budget for activities related to the Digital Skills Action Plan. The
Digital Skills Action Plan should have the following step costs should be divided between costs connected with the preparation of the Action Plan
and cost connected with the implementation of the plan.
1. Creation of a digital skills council or task-force, involving key stakeholders who can contribute
to developing and/or implementing the strategy. Members should represent a combination of
policy-makers and relevant ministries, education and training institutions, civil society, and, not Capital Expenditures (CAPEX) Operating Expenses (OPEX)
least, the business community. Who should lead this?
• Human Resource • Human Resource
2. Agree on governance, working methods or charters for the council/task-force, including
leadership/management and procedures for reporting • Digital skills task force/council Administration • Programme Management
3. Define the responsibility and tasks of each organization participating in the implementation of • Digital Skills Framework Development • Professional Development
the Action Plan
• Monitoring and Evaluation
4. Identify current and future trends in relation to demographic trends, technological changes,
business trends, trade, industrial policies, and the shift to a greener economy, etc.
5. Identify new policies and programs that are needed and conduct advocacy both using the
existing policies and to build support for new policies Monitoring and Review of the Strategy
6. Identify the priorities and challenges in meeting the goals and targets of the Action Plan
It is vital that the progress of the implementation of the Digital Skills Action Plan is mon-
7. Develop a budget for implementation and identify funding sources, incentives and subsidies itored on a regular basis. The findings of the monitoring are an important tool for the
for training fees, in particular for under-represented populations government and the task force coordinating the implementation as well as the individual
executing agencies.
8. Set objectives and targets for each component/element of the strategy
9. Conduct outreach, communications and promote the Action Plan and its training opportunities It is recommended to conduct monitoring at two levels, output-level and result (or out-
come) level. While the output level monitoring measures the progress of the implementa-
10.Hold periodic regional, national or local forums to foster communities of practice among existing tion of the specific activities included in the Digital Skills Action Plan, the result monitoring
training providers to improve skills provision and grant awards to incentivize implementation of
measures the results/effect of the activities in the Action Plan. Examples of outputs to be
the goals of the digital skills strategy
measured include taskforce established, existing legislation reviewed, plan for new legisla-
tion/update of existing legislation in place, plan is place for development of national skills
11.Publish good practices and resources identified in the forums to share with digital skills
stakeholders development, draft Digital Skills Action Plan presented to relevant stakeholders.
12.Collect data to support benchmarking and monitoring Monitoring of the results/effects of the Digital Skills Action Plan must be based on the
baseline the established in connection with the preparation of the Action Plan. Evidently,
13.Monitor, through reporting outcomes and outputs, together with their respective key performance there is a time delay before the effects of the activities are measurable. It is unlikely that the
indicators
effects can be measured before after 1-2 years, depending on the nature and complexity
of the indicator.
14.Review and update the framework periodically, ensuring it reflects future job predictions and
technological developments.
30 31
Contents
Overview/Background 36
Country context/defining a
baseline 38
Goals 42
Activities: 44
Policies and Regulations 75
Timelines 80
Digital Skills Country Action Plan Implementation 81
Strategy 3 Costing 83
Enhance use of
technologies in teaching
and learning
32 33
Students and teachers in all content areas need intermediate digital skills to meet
Summary of this section the demands of a rapidly changing workplace.
This section will help the planning group1 to:

Two areas, in particular, hold great promise for increasing the use of technology to
• Understand the goals and key strategies for enhancing the use of technology advance intermediate digital skills in higher education:
in teaching and learning
1. Expanding and improving online coursework, in both distance learning
• Prioritize efforts for technology use in teaching and brick and mortar settings. In order to meet the growing demands for
higher education strengthening and expanding online learning offerings allow
• Conduct activities aligned to goals universities and TVET institutions will improve access beyond the campus to
reach more students. Additionally, allowing coursework like intermediate level
technology skills to be open to everybody, requires online learning as a critical
way to expand access. Other popular courses might similarly be well-suited
to online delivery.
2. Expanding and improving the use of technology for teaching and learning
Overview/Background in classrooms. Skills and competencies such as the ones in the EU DigComp
2.1 and UNESCO Global Literacy frameworks (mentioned in the previous
section), include communication and collaboration, digital content creation,
Traditionally, ministries of education and higher education institutions were built with orga- and problem solving and necessitate students (and faculty) not only to take
nizational structures that did not take deep technology integration into account. Ministry coursework to learn these skills, but also apply this knowledge through content
leaders set policies, administration managed campuses, faculty members taught students, areas in their course of study. Regardless of adopted technology framework,
and information technologists provided maintenance and tech support. While this allowed students require strategic and purposeful opportunities in teaching and
for the growth and scaling of the educational program within universities, it also created si- learning settings to acquire, practice and reinforce digital skill competencies
loes that have prevented the rapid spread of technology across faculties: IT leadership and for full mastery.
departments focused on proliferation of devices and network strength, and administration
While in some cases, these two areas overlap (e.g., an online course employing a
and faculty focused on student outcomes, with little overlap if any between the two.
technology tool to foster greater student collaboration and engagement), they’ve
Universities around the world are expanding online offerings to expand access to more been drafted as separate initiatives to support and focus planning teams’ efforts.
students, meet increased demand for certain programs, extend the university’s brand more Ultimately, Country Action Plans must focus on one of these two sub-strategies and
broadly, better compete with their peers who might have similar offerings, innovate with ideally both, depending on capacity and interest.
teaching and learning, and potentially create additional income, among other reasons.
Adding online courses and rebuilding existing courses to leverage technology and
Advancing equitable, high-quality digital skills education for all learners in higher educa- meet digital skills goals requires a comprehensive approach, involving multiple
tion must be a priority at the highest levels of leadership in a country. Technology-driven stakeholders, making key decisions, building infrastructure and enacting policies.
learning has the potential to facilitate new pedagogic strategies, reach a wider circle of Country Action Plans can consider mechanisms by which the government could in-
learners, open up opportunities to improved research methodologies, and ultimately allow centivize institutions to make changes.
students and teachers to access and use information in more globally competitive ways.
1 Throughout this document, the terms “planning group”, “working group”, and “planning team” refer to team
34 35
Country context/defining a baseline In order to gather the necessary data and information needed to
inform the Action Plan and answer the questions above, consider
administering a simple online survey to each institution. This survey
In this section of the Country Action Plan, the planning group should summarize the current will also provide critical data about which institutions have the great-
status of the country with respect to online learning and technology use for teaching and est potential to successfully implement an Action Plan. Include the
learning. This effort requires data gathering on current technology practices and usage, charts from sections 1.3.1-1.3.2 in order to understand the opera-
and conducting inventories of currently used software and devices. Leaders will need ac- tional and resource constraints at each institution.
curate baseline information in order to set realistic and achievable goals. Some of this
information is captured in the pre-work, while the following sections are asking for a more
qualitative baseline from each institution.
How the current technology strategy is understood and implemented is helpful information
for Planning Teams to identify strengths and weaknesses in communication, implementa- Technology tools landscape
tion and vision, and identify which campuses to target. Current course offerings and ma-
triculation rates set a baseline upon which goals can be set. In order to set meaningful and Universities and TVET institutions employ a landscape of technology tools at varying
achievable targets for online learning, the planning team should summarize the baseline degrees of usage. By analysing this data, Planning Teams can understand to what
data from the pre-work. extent each institution is currently employing and managing digital tools. Coun-
try-level action plans should consider the use of technologies for teaching and learn-
Leadership should understand the answers to the following questions across institutions ing including:
prior to setting goals and building a strategy:
• Tools used by administrators and teachers to facilitate or improve the
• What is a baseline for online coursework in both distance learning and brick and adoption of digital materials (including Student Information Systems, Learning
mortar settings? Management Systems and Data Analytics Platforms)
o Identify a single example which does a good job of distance or online learning. • Tools used by teachers to improve the delivery of content (including planning
tools, presentation and lecture capture solutions, adaptive learning, virtual
• What is the baseline data on the current use of online coursework to teach intermediate learning and video conferencing tools)
level digital skills in both distance learning and brick and mortar settings? How many
courses teach intermediate level digital skills to teachers? To students? • Tools used by teachers to assess student learning (assessment and proctoring
tools)
• What existing initiatives are in support of expanding and improving online coursework
(distance learning and brick and mortar settings)? • Tools used by students to access content knowledge and skills (MOOCs, micro
skills, OERs, digital textbooks, RSS (Rich Site Summary) news aggregators,
o List the initiatives and their purpose. and online tutoring, advice, coaching, and remediation tools)
• Tools used by students for research and organization (citations managers,

curation tools)
• Tools used by students for communication (messaging, writing, blogging,

discussion, note-taking, infographics)
Synthesize findings into the chart on the next page.
36 37
• How able is the current infrastructure to adapt to an increase in users?
Average Amount of • Is the current infrastructure and number of devices sufficient for current
Campus Usage
demand and use for teaching and learning?
All (90-100%)
Most (75%-89%) • What additional infrastructure needs to be considered, including enterprise
Number of Institutions Most common systems Some (40%-60%) solutions, data systems and procurement systems?
Utilizing These Tools and tools used
Tool Type Few (10%-39%)
Student Information System
Populate the chart below using data synthesized from your university survey.
Learning Management System
Access to devices Internet access on Access to devices off Internet access off Enabling
on campus campus campus campus infrastructure
Data Analytics Platforms
All (90-100%) All (90-100%) All (90-100%) All (90-100%) (strong, solid,
uneven/
Content Delivery and Presentation tools Most (70%-89%) Most (70%-89%) Most (70%-89%) Most (70%-89%) developing,
Some (40%-69%) Some (40%-69%) Some (40%-69%) Some (40%-69%) weak/non-
existent)
Assessment, Proctoring and Quizzing Few (10%-39%) Few (10%-39%) Few (10%-39%) Few (10%-39%)
tools
Content, Coaching and Aggregator tools University 1
Research and Organization tools University 2
Communications tools Add names
Mobile Applications
Other Digital Tools
Current enabling infrastructure and devices
In order for faculty and students to deliver and receive instruction online, the number of de-
vices, how they’re currently deployed, the ratio of devices to students (in brick and mortar
and distance settings) and internet connectivity play important roles in supporting technol-
ogy for teaching and learning.
This section of the Country Action Plan should summarize the current enabling infrastruc-
ture and devices, specifically for use in teaching and learning. Provide an overview ad-
dressing the following questions:
• Do most or all students have access to the internet and devices for teaching and
learning on campus? Off campus?
38 39
Overall Assessment of Strengths and Barriers to Success Sub-Goal 1: Expanding and improving online coursework (in both
distance learning and brick and mortar settings)
This section of the Country Action Plan should provide an overall assessment of the
strengths and barriers to success. Assess what impedes the use of technology by
providing concrete examples. If helpful, use the following box. The need for all students to acquire intermediate level digital skills can be addressed
in multiple ways with online courses. Distance and online learning courses allow
Strengths Challenges universities to extend digital skill learning opportunities beyond what is possible in
a brick and mortar setting by scaling access, improving outcomes of those who can-
not enroll in brick and mortar offerings, leveraging online content and media, and
reinforcing and building important technology skills and competencies. In order to
Opportunities Threats
increase the value, quality and rigor of distance learning coursework to be compara-
ble or better to offerings provided through traditionally taught courses, universities
must set clear, measurable and achievable goals.
Multiple ways exist to expand online coursework, including adding online courses to
the curriculum for in-person students (such as intermediate-level digital skills courses
Goals for the Strategy “Enhance the use of technology in as referenced in Strategy 2), expanding access by offering new digital skills courses
higher education and TVET institutions” at a distance, or reformulating courses already slated for updating.
Sample goals might include:

This section of the Country Action Plan should identify the main goals for each strate-
gy. It is important to establish realistic goals that can be achieved, given the difficulty • All students complete intermediate digital skills coursework through online
of reforming these programs and where faculty, students and graduates of higher courses
education will be five years from now and why. 2 Setting an initial “level of ambition”
prior to embarking on goal setting is imperative, so that budget limitations have • Number of students enrolled in online intermediate digital skills coursework
been identified ahead of time. The sub-goals of this strategy are for each planning increases by X%
team to
• Percentage of students successfully matriculating from online coursework
• Expand and improve online coursework (in both distance and brick and mortar increases by X%
settings) to increase intermediate digital skills
• Expand and improve the use of technology for teaching and learning in
classrooms to increase intermediate digital skills Using baseline data gathered, formulate goals for this strategy based on identified
opportunities and baseline information. Consider needs and impact, rather than
When setting a vision, the country’s Action Plan should be inspirational and realistic making small incremental changes, and identify indicators and means of measure-
to achieve over the next five years, with clear paths to funding and supports artic- ment.
ulated. Where needed, provide concrete examples to stakeholders to push their
thinking forward and build their capacity to achieve your vision. Goals should be
measurable (including the number of students and institutions involved), and explain
the indicators and means of measurement.
A country may just focus on one of the two sub-goals, given the complexities of im-
plementation.
40 41
Sub-Goal 2: Expanding and improving the use of technology for teaching

and learning in classrooms Select which courses to offer online
In order to meet online learning goals, planning teams can synthesize opportunities
Leveraging digital tools to increase student engagement, access online content and media, and challenges that exist countrywide with regard to online coursework to identify
foster communication and collaboration among students and faculty, evaluate information, and suggest courses suited to online learning.
and manage data allows universities to do what was previously limited in brick and mortar
classrooms. The DigComp 2.1 Standards and UNESCO Digital Global Literacy Framework Using the prioritized digital framework needs, countries should consider three pos-
(both highlighted in Strategy 1) detail competencies students have and be able to demon- sible paths:
strate in learning and employment. These standards should serve as guidance when set-
1. Offer new digital literacy courses designed to build the digital skills of all
ting intermediate digital skills goals in teaching and learning. In order to set goals for this
students. These could include ICT literacy courses and basic skills courses that
sub-strategy, identify the digital proficiency level and skill(s) to target, the most appropriate
build the skills foundation to allow students and faculty to take ICT literacy
courses in which to teach and embed those skills, and the number of faculty trained to in- courses. Countries should prioritize these courses as necessary steps toward
tegrate those skills into courses. broader adoption technological literacy. These courses could be offered by
Sample goals might include: university, or centrally, depending on the country’s priorities and capacity.
• All students achieve intermediate proficiency on DigComp 2.1 standards 2. Target coursework (e.g., math and science) that is being updated and revised
as part of the country’s Action Plan and deliberately build in the necessary
• All coursework leverages digital libraries and research tools digital skills as part of the revision. These courses can serve as models for
future digital literacy implementations across other content areas.
• X% of faculty trained to integrate technology skills into teaching and learning
3. Identify other courses with significant enrollment demand (e.g., pre-requisites,
Using baseline data gathered, formulate goals for this strategy based on identified oppor- country-specific employment demands) and build new online courses to meet
tunities and baseline information. Consider needs and impact, rather than making small the demand, incorporating the prioritized digital skills in the courses.
incremental changes.
Using baseline data and digital framework goals, countries should identify which op-
tion(s) offer the broadest impact in terms of faculty adoption, student enrollment and
digital skills acquisition of both faculty and students across universities. Although
the final decision on selecting courses to offer online rests with universities, planning
Activities: Specific programs/activities under this strategy teams can play a role by identifying priorities and targeting funding toward those
priorities.
Planning teams need to ask the following questions to narrow down online course
Activities: Expanding and improving online coursework (in both distance priorities:
learning and brick and mortar settings)
• Which courses are essential for a country to reach its digital skills goals?
In order to increase the number of students acquiring intermediate digital skills online, • Which courses are critical for a large percentage of students to take?
the number of courses offered and the overall online and distance enrollment will need to
increase. Although the selection and development of courses has to be undertaken at an • Which courses are being reformed already?
institution level, the planning team can lay out the steps that need to be followed at insti-
tutions and the activities that need to be financed in order to meet the course offering and • Which courses could be scaled across multiple universities?
enrollment targets.
42 43
Unless an institution’s current use of online learning is mature, the number of courses to be A key component of online learning is regular interaction between students and
initially launched online should be minimal, as the effort to build capacity in online learning instructor. Interaction that is optional or only occurring upon the request of the stu-
is resource and human-capital intensive. dent is insufficient in building necessary relationships and meaningful course en-
gagement. Faculty interaction, including that of mentors, counselors or tutors, is also
Planning teams can: important, but is not a substitute for the subject matter expert in a course.
• Identify exemplars (in country or outside) of online coursework with pass rates that Several frameworks exist for evaluating quality of online coursework. A sample in-
set a vision for the priority. These should include brick and mortar, distance and clude:
mobile learning examples.3
• The European Association for Quality Assurance in Higher Education provides
• Create mechanisms to ensure connections between distance learning and brick and guidance on elements to consider and indicators for fulfilling standards to
mortar departments meet quality assurance guidelines.4
• Consider some in-person training programs to enable learners to take up online • The Indicators of Engaged Learning Online Framework is one such guide
training in order to give them basic/beginning technology skills that would allow to assess quality of online courses. It specifically measures engagement as
them to take online courses related to online course design.5
• Quality Matters’ Online Instructor Skill Set provides a list of general standards
for each component of online learning.6
Set quality standards
• E-xcellence’s Quality Assessment for E-Learning provides a broader scope
Most universities adopt a quality assurance process and standards in one or more of the of indicators of quality beyond course delivery and design, to encompass
following five areas: online course design, program design, faculty development, support technical support, student support, assessment, evaluation, infrastructure and
services and student outcomes, though the implementation of these varies widely across other administrative components.7
the types of institutions engaging in online learning initiatives.
• Ensure alignment with any national standards and frameworks for quality,
Pedagogy and student engagement online is markedly different from in a face-to-face en- so that universities are not aligning to multiple frameworks with different
vironment, which is why expertise in instructional design is a critical component of devel- purposes in mind.
oping online coursework. Nations and/or institutions must define the learning experience
they want students to have. As well, they must consider what about pedagogy and content Planning teams can:
must be captured online, whether a high quality online experience is an absolute necessity,
or if it’s too costly, a lesser online learning experience, and whether to offer a unique expe- • Investigate frameworks for quality assurance and encourage adoption across
universities, or adopt centrally
rience that really resonates with faculty and students and or one that stands out in the field.
When building online learning opportunities, instructors and designers must consider three • Involve multiple agencies in the adoption process
questions:
• Ensure the quality standards support digital learning goals
1. What are the optimal ways to deliver content?
• Develop a portfolio of different digital delivery models tailored to the particular
2. What are the optimal ways to assess learning? needs of the institution’s student populations
3. What are the optimal ways to provide support services? 4 For more detail, see the Considerations for Quality Assurance of E-Learning Provision
5 For more detail, see the Indicators of Engaged Learning Online framework
6 For more detail, see the Quality Matters Specific Review Standards
7 For more detail, see Quality Assessment for E-learning: a Benchmarking Approach
44 45
The process of evaluating and choosing OPMs is complex and difficult for higher educa-
Identify project leadership (OPMs or in-house) tion institutions because of the lack of transparency in the OPM industry around standards
and practices. Many OPMs (and universities) do not publicly disclose their partnerships,
In order to meet the challenges of increased online offerings universities must and no independent clearinghouse of OPMs currently exists to house sample contracts,
consider whether their internal capacity and financial capabilities can support the or financial and efficacy data (regarding outcomes or employment). Universities cannot
transformation and expansion of online learning, or if they need to invest in private easily evaluate OPMs against each other and make truly informed choices around costs,
companies’ services to help them do this work. Universities and other institutions revenues, outcomes and contract specifications around partnership arrangements. At this
seeking to make investments in online education must weigh the short- and long- point in time, OPMs are not required by law to share outcome data on student retention
term implications of building in-house or contracting with private companies in order and matriculation.9
to effectively scale digital offerings that can meet student learning needs and which
Not all institutions engage with OPMs to build out their online offerings for myriad reasons:
are financially and operationally sustainable. Country planning teams can play a key
lack of capital, concerns about long contracts, fear of lost opportunities to grow in-house
role in supporting this work. A few options exist:
expertise, concerns about brand dilution, and others. Many universities dip their toe into
• Build internal capacity over time and make strategic investments in personnel the water and build up capacity over time.10 Some realize that they are unsuited for this
and infrastructure work when online enrollments are low. However, a few universities have successfully taken
on all of this work in-house and made it a core part of their business models by building
• Contract with an Online Program Manager in one or multiple universities their own low-cost, high-value online programs as part of their offerings and driving down
tuition through competition.11
• Online Program Managers, or OPMs, are cloud-based content-management
platforms built for universities seeking to expand enrollment digitally. Many Universities embarking on online learning need to determine if they plan to centralize
of these platforms connect to existing systems within the university and offer course design (e.g. create a Center for Teaching and Learningset up dedicated Instruc-
a host of features including courseware housing and delivery, enrollment tional Design units at each university or at a national level at the NREN for smaller coun-
management, online course design, student retention and support, data tries) or decentralize course design (e.g. let faculty in individual departments decide for
analytics on usage, marketing, recruiting, technology support services, and themselves). The former is a proven strategy to accelerate the shift to online learning, but
student and faculty call center support. Because the systems are complex and requires staffing by specialists in instructional design, multimedia, technology skills and
often require new expertise to manage them with the introduction of online provides both technological and pedagogical support. often requires reorganization and
learning, the OPM market has grown quickly to support universities’ efforts.8
coordination of responsibilities across departments but allows universities to better control
for quality and pedagogy. The latter allows for individual or department-based decision
Key questions to ask when determining your strategy for online course management
making, potentially streamlining some of the bureaucracy.
include:
Another model, the African Virtual University is a Pan African Intergovernmental Organiza-
• What financial investments is the institution willing and able to make? tion established to increase access to higher education across 19 countries.
• What internal capacity does the institution need to build to support online Planning teams can:
learning?
• Help universities assess their internal capacity to do this work by providing realistic
• How should technology assets be curated, stored and accessed? staffing and skills models (see section 1.5.1.10 for more information on roles and
skills needed)
• How much control does the institution want over its online learning offerings?
9 For more information on the challenges faced by universities using OPMs, see Briefing: Issues for
8 According to an industry report by the independent research firm, Eduventures, more than 35 Universities Using Private Companies for Online Education
separate OPM companies provide services worth more than $1.1 billion annually, and five companies 10 For more information on human capacity needed to build online coursework, see section 8.5.1.10
reportedly control about half of that market: 2U, Academic Partnerships, Bisk, Pearson Embanet, and 11 Southern New Hampshire University and Arizona State University are two such examples. UMass Online is a
Wiley. According to a separate Eduventures report, up to 80 percent of the more than 2,600 colleges consortium of program offerings from five universities in the same system: UMass Amherst, UMass Boston, UMass
delivering online education outsource the management of the programs to OPMs. Dartmouth, UMass Lowell and UMass Medical School.
46 47
• Provide universities with clear structures, pathways and systems necessary • What other storage considerations should be taken into account (e.g., video storage,
to effectively build out their coursework on their own (see section 8.5.1.4 interaction between other platforms, local servers, etc)?
for more information on digital tools that provide the architecture for online
learning courses) • How will content be revised as courses evolve over time? Will faculty download
documents individually and upload new documents? Will they be able to revise
• Conduct due diligence on OPMs for universities within the platform itself? If a course needs to be resequenced, will it need to be
rebuilt entirely, or are assets fairly moveable? Course revision is a central concern,
• Investigate and secure sustainable pricing for OPMs as without the ability to easily revise, instructors cannot continue to develop their
coursework and effectively meet the developing needs and skills of their students.
• On what types of devices will content primarily be accessed?

Select digital tools and courses
While the selection of most digital tools should be left up to universities, in some cases,
In terms of managing online coursework, digital tools for online courses tend to the procurement of enterprise-level digital tools across multiple universities can provide
fall into two major categories: Learning Management Systems and online content. benefits around cost, support, training, centralizing data and monitoring usage. Curat-
Learning Management Systems (LMS) are software applications used as a content ing, storing, accessing and updating online content requires a level of technical expertise
and delivery platform for courses. Planning teams can use baseline data for guid- beyond the commonly held tech literacy of many university personnel, but are critical con-
ance on current usage of basic tools, in particular, Learning Management Systems, siderations when providing content online. Initial efforts to get faculty to use an LMS for
that are critical for the successful delivery of online learning courses. course delivery can be challenging and slow, though partners can be utilized to provide
training and support.
Planning teams will need to make a number of key decisions about Learning Man-
agement Systems, including:
• Which Learning Management System will best meet the needs of the strategy?
• Will the Learning Management System be procured, hosted and supported

centrally, or by each institution?
• Does it make sense for countries or institutions to pool resources to procure a

centralized LMS at the beginning? (The cost savings will need to be balanced
against a desire to create adaptations at the institution level.)
Questions to consider when choosing an LMS:
• Who will be responsible for curating and updating online materials and
coursework?
• Where should digital resources be centrally housed?
• Who will have access to stored materials, while still ensuring high levels of
data security?
• Is mobile-friendly cloud storage an important consideration for users?
48 49
centralized ways to determine and ensure quality across content areas, alignment with any
Important Note about Identifying Learning Management Systems: university or national standards, and systems for updating and revising content from year
to year.
While many universities may currently have a Learning Management
System (LMS) they’re using, procurement and management of an Planning teams can:
enterprise-level LMS is necessary to build for future needs. Prod-
ucts like Moodle are low-cost, but offer fewer features and external • Assess which Learning Management Systems are already in use, and the depth to
integrations than products like Canvas LMS. In order to make the which they have been implemented
best procurement decision, stakeholders should identify critical fea-
tures, integrations, cost limitations and support requirements need- • Evaluate enterprise-level Learning Management Systems for facilitating teaching
ed based on the instructional priorities, and then evaluate current and learning across multilple higher education institutions
product offerings.
• Determine whether centralizing an LMS makes sense and make a plan for incentivizing
Regardless of LMS choice, countries should also consider manag- universities to sign on
ing the LMS centrally (say, through the NREN), to allow for greater
transparency, communications, evaluation of implementation and ef- • Identify exemplars (in country or outside) of technology-infused and online coursework
ficacy, learning and mobility of faculty and coursework across higher with pass rates that set a vision for the priority. These should include brick and mortar,
education institutions. Courses and templates can be standardized distance and mobile learning examples.12
across institutions and systems. However, one consideration to take
into account is data provisioning and control; universities who do Establish a shared repository of applications, methodologies and tools from which univer-
not have central control over resources may be less likely to employ sities can choose
them, and sometimes currently employed software cannot be easily
rolled up into bulk accounts.
Support enabling infrastructure and connectivity efforts
Similarly, universities should be determining course content locally, as cultural con- Planning teams must ensure that the level of connectivity they’ve set in Strategy 4 is ade-
text, student audience, and faculty content expertise will dictate needs. Developing quate to support all activities in Strategy 3. Technology creates opportunities for learning
content locally allows for greater flexibility, as content can be created to meet specif- within and outside the university walls, but only if students have the resources necessary
ic instructional aims instead of being potentially altered to fit those aims. This also to learn online. Without a connectivity and adequate devices, students will not be able to
allows institutions to offer content in local languages and set in local cultural con- access online coursework, an institution cannot reasonably accommodate new programs,
texts, as content sometimes resonates differently based on culture and geography, thereby rendering a technology initiative meaningless. That is, if computers are outdated,
resulting in less buy-in from faculty or students, or compromised learning outcomes. and/or the bandwidth is slow, users may not be able to utilize the new software effectively
or at all and will go back to doing what they did before.
Technology infrastructure varies from campus to campus because leadership, internal ex-
While many institutions prefer to build content in-house to save money, the chal- pertise, among other factors play an important roles in procurement, rollout and support
lenges with building content in-house are largely rooted in financial and time con- of technology. Planning teams can set priorities for enabling infrastructure to direct and
straints: educators need to be compensated to generate this content and given support universities in making upgrades in service of online learning goals.
release time to generate it, which is significantly longer than planning takes for a
traditional course. Additionally, when educators create content for use in courses, a
university’s intellectual property rules may or may not dictate who owns the content
generated for courses, therefore complicating further the ownership and costs of
online content. When embarking upon creating content internally, universities need 12 For a clearinghouse of online course samples to examine, search through “50 Top Online Learning Sites”
50 51
and internet connectivity, as well as tutoring and support. The establishment of networked
Important Note about Networks and Connectivity: satellite centers or hubs in rural areas can provide physical infrastructure for college to offer
online instruction, computers and internet access to create more equitable access to stu-
Additional network and connectivity challenges at a campus level in- dents lacking the resources to adequately utilize online learning. These satellite campuses
clude content filtering, device management, among others. Encour- can allow universities to extend their reach without compounding overcrowding problems
age, incentivize and guide universities to create policies and systems at a central campus.
that leverage resources for greatest usage (e.g., allowing mobile ac-
cess to university systems, blocking Netflix and other non-education Of critical importance is how learning centers are staffed. Social isolation of students is a
streaming services on campus). risk factor associated with higher dropout rates, and research shows that increased teach-
er-student personal interaction online and in-person supports student satisfaction and mo-
tivation to learn, which in turn can affect quality of learning and learning outcomes.
Planning teams can: Planning teams can:
• Set clear guidelines for network architecture and levels of connectivity • Increase the number of learning ”hubs” with instructional support, connectivity and
necessary to achieve the action plan devices for use by distance learning students
• Identify incentives to encourage the adoption of enterprise infrastructure • Secure partnerships with private companies to provide learning hubs, affordable
connectivity bundles and devices
• Communicate and ensure baseline level of connectivity across all universities
that supports online learning goals
Increase access to devices
• Consider cost-effective ways to procure data packages for students and faculty
when off-campus Planning teams must consider the number and types of devices, that is computers, laptops,
tablets and mobile phones, needed to meet the goals of this strategy.
• Ensure the campuses who are targeted in the Action Plan are the same
campuses identified for upgrading the connectivity Device shortages limit access in measurable ways, which is why procurement of devices
is often a top priority in technology implementations. When creating a device strategy,
• Ensure online and distance learning systems are procured, build, supported leaders should first consider what devices are already available in-country to support the
and maintained in a sustainable way through funding, data collection, initiative, and how those devices might be used for course delivery. Given the pervasive-
interoperability standards and other supports ness of mobile devices, countries should think creatively about the use of mobile as an
opportunity to expand reach with less investment in devices. This would entail researching
• Identify new or existing partners and systems to help streamline networking potential mobile-delivery methods for the identified courses, exploring the opportunities
infrastructure initiatives at a country level
and limitations of mobile for course delivery, and prioritizing the digital skills that could be
utilized through mobile.
Build learning centres Countries should also expand efforts to increase device access on a number of fronts, which
include leveraging existing devices in different ways, and building partnerships. Countries
Accessing courses for users is another important consideration, especially for dis- must consider the number of devices needed to support their initiative,and then identify
tance learners. For remote learners, this might mean housing the devices in remote ways to support universities to strategically utilize existing devices and acquire new ones,
centers, allowing students to “check out” devices for a limited time, or identifying with funding and suggestions. In some situations, central bulk procurement by the NREN
low-cost solutions for students to purchase. Device-shortage problems are exacer- may offset costs and should be explored.
bated for distance learners, who may have even more limited access to computers
52 53
• Provide a clear set of instructional priorities with allocated funding to enable higher
Important Note About Limited Resourced Environments: education institutions to make purchasing decisions that are better aligned to
priorities, build policies and procedures aligned to priorities and organize and focus
IT departments in higher education institutions are often forced to IT department activities in service of priorities
make difficult choices such as:
• Identify course solutions and skills that optimize for mobile
• Procuring more devices vs. “allowing” those with devices to use their own
• Procuring high quality software requested by faculty vs. identifying lesser, free substitutions Streamline organization and systems
• Paying for infrastructure upgrades vs. replacing outdated devices Some university systems and structures will need to change in order to expand and improve
online coursework. The challenge of creating online coursework for universities requires
• Utilizing company-provided professional development vs. providing ad hoc training from an IT significant systemic change beyond an overhaul of the existing technology infrastructure
team member and technology support, to departments including admissions, marketing, and student
supports. Often universities have limited capability to build out the technology necessary
In these cases, and others, universities may let short-term cost con-
to reach online learners and need to consider how they intend to host their learning oppor-
cerns compromise efforts to build for the longer term. These deci-
tunities. Some OPMs provide digital platforms where content created by the university is
sions can affect the quality of technology implementation and can
hosted, while others provide course materials, enrollment specialists and marketing strat-
lead to some unintended consequences around faculty understand-
egies to facilitate online programming through an institution’s LMS. Centralizing manage-
ing and investment in technology strategy. Planning teams should
ment and support functions, aligning strategic goals, and adopting robust and scalable pol-
consider where universities might make cheaper trade-offs and iden-
icies and practices in program development, outsourcing and quality assurance are critical
tify incentives and provide funding to ensure device minimums are
ways universities can streamline operations and quality control.
met.
Planning teams can:
• Align to robust performance standards for technology skills that reflect the needs of
Planning teams can: the labor market, are built to accommodate innovation, and allow for implementation
in brick and mortar and distance learning contexts
• Communicate and ensure baseline device ratio across all universities that
supports online learning initiatives • Build and share sample roadmaps to help universities understand path to securing
additional funding and other supports, measuring progress, building strategies and
• Create learning hubs on and off campus with extended hours for student and checking indicators
faculty use
• Build and share financial models to ensure effective compensation for additional
• Encourage universities scale devices through programs that deliberately work, professional development and time to build online coursework
combine hardware with implementation support and teacher training, where
possible • Share hiring and advancement policies that align with the priority and incentivize
adoption across all stakeholders
• Build partnerships with businesses to support procurement and device access
• Determine key ways to leverage student mobile devices for learning and
connect systems to ensure mobile compatibility
54 55
Monitor, collect and evaluate data Build human capacity in Universities, TVET Institutions and Ministries
A strong culture of research and development requires ongoing data collection Planning teams’ efforts should plan for ongoing and equitable opportunities for stakehold-
and its use for continuous improvement, ultimately in service of learning outcomes. er capacity building in order to meet the goal of expanding and improving online course-
Merely measuring numbers of devices and bandwidth speeds will not help higher work. Ensuring that all stakeholders are adequately prepared to meet the goals is a core
education realize its educational mission, nor will this action provide insights on the function of this strategy, as merely upgrading infrastructure and purchasing more devices
human capacity efforts to utilize the technology. Leaders should focus on outcomes, will not automatically lead to more technology usage and learning. Adults at all levels need
rather than inputs. to become proficient at using new technologies with the ultimate outcome of improving
student learning.
Country Action Plans must put into place outcomes-based standardized data collec-
tion to allow for accountability, periodic monitoring and support a broader effort to
share effective practices. Data can motivate action at both the practice and policy
levels. Consider strengthening national student assessment systems as part of your Universities must make a number of expensive up-front investments in personnel time in
plan.13 the areas of technology support, course design and development, and instructional sup-
port. The effort to build online programs requires collaboration among many constituen-
Planning teams can: cies, including faculty members and non-faculty members, including instructional design-
ers, librarians, media educators and other types of learning professionals, whether using an
• Set and communicate outcomes-based measurements based on your goals OPM or not is just a matter of degree. This collaboration between faculty and non-faculty
includes time and money to develop, deliver, support, maintain and upgrade courses, pro-
• Identify systems and departments for standardized data collection
vide proctoring and tutoring, recruit students and coordinate among multiple departments
align with stated goals. Universities need to assess the desire of faculty, instructional de-
• Create a calendar for periodic monitoring and evaluation
signers and others to efficiently and effectively build curriculum online themselves. Wheth-
er building within or outside the university, faculty need implementation support to foster
widespread adoption, as faculty will need additional time and support to learn and shift
instructional methods.
Important Note about Data Collection:
Local data collection efforts can offer helpful insights, even if they are Planning teams must consider the challenges universities face in developing faculty mem-
not shared across multiple institutions. Identify ways to encourage bers, as these are among the biggest challenges in technology implementations and re-
and support data sharing by higher education institution to learn what quire efforts beyond offering professional development opportunities. While centralized
works. decision making may offer some benefits, institutions need to consider how faculty will be
impacted by centralized decisions and to determine whether faculty incentives are aligned
to support the effective adoption and application of online courses and degrees. Institu-
tions will need to address the limited tech knowledge of many faculty members, the time
it takes to learn and adopt a new tool, the increased time up front necessary to build and
upload an online course, faculty willingness, contract or union limitations around student
loads or work hours, etc.
13 For an example of ongoing data monitoring by an online degree program, see UC Berkeley’s Master’s in
Data Science Report
56 57
Instructional Designers: Works with faculty member to de-

The position of Chief Online Officer is a recent and evolving position being created at universities to centralize this work, sign a course. Provides an overview of the course design
either leading or sharing responsibility for many of the following online issues:
process, serves as an expert in the technology platform and
Online faculty training Regulatory Compliance
any additional apps, understands the pedagogy behind what
Instructional design for online courses Contracting with External Providers
makes a great course and works with faculty to align the activ-
Coordination with academic units Orientation of Online Students
ities to course objectives. In general, instructional designers
Online policy development Selection of LMS and digital tools
focus on the pedagogies and educational theories for design-
Online quality assurance Data gathering and reporting
Online course development Online support services
ing or teaching a course. 1 Other responsibilities may include:
Strategic planning Online program development • Creating engaging learning activities that enhance retention and
External representation Online technical support transfer
Budgeting online functions Accessibility
LMS Support/Administration • Work with faculty to identify the audience’s training needs and
recommend training methods accordingly
If creating such a position is not possible, consider ways in which these responsibili-
ties could be managed by other roles at the university, NREN or ministry level. • Visualize instructional graphics
• State instructional goals and ensure content matches them
• Apply instructional design theories, practice and methods

Learning Technologists (also called Education Technolo-
gists): Understands the platform, applications, and features, • Create supporting materials (e.g., audio, video, simulations)
provides instruction on features (e.g., how to upload a quiz)
and course-related technology troubleshooting support. In • Develop assessment instruments and ensure alignment with course
general, learning technologists focus on the use and support objectives
of technology for teaching and learning. Other responsibili-
• Partner closely with faculty to fully leverage available tools and
ties may include:
resources
• Work with faculty, staff and students to identify, analyze and explore
the university’s teaching and learning technology needs and identify Program Managers: Oversee the ecosystem and processes.
instructional gaps Program managers project manage new courses, pilot pro-
grams and other education technology initiatives. They typ-
• Collaborate with faculty to implement pilot technologies ically have experience building programs, project manage-
ment skills, leadership experience in higher education who
• Prepare and develop training materials for supported applications can connect with the constituency, conceptualize and build
a new program, can understand administrative and political
• Support enterprise technology and department-specific instructional
challenges and is able to corral all the different stakeholders.
software
Program managers must convey confidence, experience and
• Work with vendors to resolve complex issues with instructional tools
vision for why each of the stakeholders needs to collaborate.
• Consult with faculty to solve problems encountered within the

context of their class
1 For more information on Instructional Design read “7 Things You Should Know about Developments in
(continued on next page) Instructional Design”
58 59
With a rapid expansion of technology into all aspects of education, these roles and • Establish a playlist of program/tool options for universities to utilize online or on
organizational structures need to adjust to better meet the demands of a 21st cen- mobile devices and ensure all online and distance learning faculty are proficient in
tury education. To lead this work, countries and higher educational institutions will technology skills and high-quality distance learning approaches to instruction
need to leverage leaders where they have expertise (faculty with content and in-
struction; IT with networks, software and devices), and, most importantly, to hire and • Provide incentives for the faculty that produce great online content
develop individuals who understand pedagogy and learning design to specifically
• Align organizational structures at the ministry of education and higher education levels
lead initiatives focusing on increasing technology for teaching and learning. These
to allow for technology learning and sharing between brick and mortar coursework
generalist roles require expertise both in technology and in instruction and are the
and distance learning coursework
key leaders at the university and country levels in order to:
• Build trust with faculty
• Procure systems that best leverage quality instructional practices and integrate
with the larger network infrastructure
• Sustainably provide supports
For example, online coursework platforms are increasingly complex and sophisticat-
ed in terms of functionality, features and potential integrations. It makes more sense
for one leader to understand the technology, work in partnership with faculty to un-
derstand their needs, and be responsible for loading coursework, that to individually
(or collectively) teach each faculty member to learn the platform in depth. Rather,
professional development for faculty could focus instead on using the platform in
instructional settings, a higher-value activity. The box below explains important roles
needed at the university level to manage and execute an online learning strategy:
Planning teams can:
• Create and offer sufficient ongoing and equitable opportunities for education
technology capacity building for key leaders in ministry, NREN, partners, and
at each university to lead this work
• Share strong systems for attracting and retaining highly qualified, technologically
literate distance learning faculty and administration
• Source example of best practices from other countries
• Build partnerships with other countries to provide teaching, development

and support
• Incentivize universities to collect more detailed baseline data of current

technology proficiency levels of faculty and administration, and craft a multi-
tier, multi-modal training plan
60 61
Make Key Policy Changes Activities: Expanding and improving the use of technology for teaching and
learning in classrooms
Country Action Plans should detail strong policies that effectively encompass the
increase in online learning. Policy areas which directly affect online learning include
Students and faculty need opportunities to acquire and practice intermediate digital skills
• training of all faculty and administrative staff beyond dedicated digital skills courses if they are to learn and apply them in multiple
contexts. Hence, the effort to expand and improve the use of technology in teaching and
• incentives for staff to develop online materials and to use them etc. learning allows for courses across the content areas to build and reinforce digital skills.
• procurement policies Expanding and improving the use of technology for teaching and learning outcomes ne-
cessitates, in most cases, a complete revision of courses, procurement of digital tools, de-
• intellectual property velopment of faculty, and upgrades of technology. Although most of these activities must
happen at the institution level, the planning team can lay out the steps that need to be
• hiring and retention policies followed and the activities that need to be financed.
• accreditation policies The planning team will have to consider how technology for teaching and learning can be
expanded and improved. There are several options for implementing:
Planning teams can
• Mandate that all institutions set graduation digital skills proficiency requirements
• Indicate the policies that should be reviewed (e.g. digital skills policy, data for faculty and students
privacy policy, etc.)
• Incentivize best practices in technology use
• Source examples of best practices/examples from other countries.
• Procure technology tools and disseminate them centrally
• Cover processes and steps to getting policies and regulations adopted (e.g.
entities requiring approval) • Focus on a few universities with the highest capacity and scale their offerings
• Adopt policies for course delivery in brick and mortar systems and distance
learning that are robust, align with the priority and incentivize adoption across Set a vision for transformative, equitable technology use in service of teaching and
all stakeholders learning
In many cases, ministries and universities will need to revise or write new policies that In order to effectively align all work within the strategy, Country Action Plans should com-
effectively support and encompass the increase of online learning courses. Consider municate a clear five-year vision, supported by legislation and grounded in research-backed
how government policy must ensure the right to a quality education while remaining standards for using technology for teaching and learning across all universities and TVET
open to a diversity of ideas and participants to contribute to this common aim. For institutions. 14 This vision should be inclusive of content areas across an institution, not
more information on policies, see Strategy 1. just limited to departments traditionally associated with technology use. While higher
education institutions will be charged with implementation, by setting high expectations
and aligning the vision with funding opportunities, multiple stakeholders including teacher
training programs, business partners and NRENs can provide support through direct and
14 The ISTE Standards offer a useful model of technology standards written at the level of student, educator, and leader levels:
https://www.iste.org/standards
62 63
adjacent work. Planning teams can:

Planning teams can:
• Identify exemplars (in country or outside) of technology-infused courses with pass
• Evaluate performance standards for faculty and administration support the rates that set a vision for the priority. These should include brick and mortar, distance
quality use of technology for instruction15 and mobile learning examples and reflect a wide range of content areas using digital
skills.16
• Align standards to ensure applicability across universities (credentialing
requirements, job descriptions, strategic communications, national • Determine prioritized digital skills based on public and private sector demand and
requirements, etc.) quality skills framework
• Source best practice incentives for faculty and administration to prioritize • Formulate suggested courses aligned with prioritized skills
technology adoption (financial, time, advancement incentives)
• Create and communicate a research-backed vision for using technology in

higher education that describes what technology is recommended, for whom, Determine methodology focus areas
why, and how it should be implemented.
Online learning is not about technology procurement and implementation; rather, the focus
of online learning is really about a different delivery of instruction, assessment and support
Select targeted digital skills and courses in which they will be integrated of students. Planning teams should craft the methodologies for each of the prioritized
digital skills to provide universities with a rationale for digital skills embedded learning and
Effective and purposeful integration of technology into courses necessitates com- fleshed out examples of the connection between the prioritized skills and student learning.
pletely changing the ways in which courses are taught. While universities will ulti- The US Department of Education has compiled an evaluation of Evidence-Based Practices
mately decide which courses to focus technology integration efforts, planning teams in Online Learning, a meta-analysis of studies of online learning methodologies.17
play a role in recommending potential courses or departments based on the Country
Action Plan and prioritized digital skills competence targets. Some potential options Universities will be charged with making decisions involving content knowledge, instruc-
are: tional expertise and pedagogy, and will consider questions such as:
• Research-based courses that could be improved with greater access to digital • What are the optimal ways to deliver content
content and resources,as prioritized in Competence Area 1: Information and
Data Literacy • What are the optimal ways to assess learning
• Courses already being reformed as a part of the Country Action Plan (e.g., • What are the optimal ways to provide support services
Engineering and Computer Science) utilizing prioritized digital skills in
Competence Area 5: Problem Solving) However, planning teams can guide and support universities by focusing efforts on the
use of technology for teaching and learning, setting high standards for use, and providing
• All courses that require digitally submitted assignments could prioritize digital examples of best practices.
skills in Competence Area 2: Communication and Collaboration.
Planning teams can:
• Evaluate and share performance standards that support the quality use of technology
for instruction
16 For a clearinghouse of online course samples to examine, search through “50 Top Online Learning Sites”
15 For more details on quality in online learning, see the handbook, A Guide To Quality in Online Learning 17 For more information, see Evaluation of Evidence-Based Practices in Online Learning
64 65
• Source and share best practices for online learning18 • Tools used by students for communication (messaging, writing, blogging, discussion,
note-taking, infographics)
• Create mechanisms to ensure university plans align to evidence-based practices
Planning teams should focus on digital skills competence levels and build out a simple
toolbox of vetted digital tools from which universities could choose from to procure on
their own or partner with each other or create consortia to share content across institutions.
Select digital tools In some cases, it may make more sense for countries to pool resources to procure tools.
This allows institutions to share costs, while reaping some economies of scale, as partner-
Digital tool selection is often one of the most complex challenges in enabling infra- ships can allow for universities to share expertise and content development across multiple
structure, as it requires content knowledge to determine quality, pedagogical un- sites or have greater purchasing and negotiating power with vendors. Yet, this route often
derstanding to assess implementation strategy, technical knowledge to determine requires agreement and compromise across institutions and departments to procure the
feasibility, interoperability, and support demands, and ecosystem/market knowledge same products, which takes time and coordination.
to negotiate costs and/or find alternatives.
The digital market is saturated with resources to support online learning of content In order to build a digital skills toolbox, planning teams should identify currently adopted
and websites which curate educational content, which complicates administrators’ tools that support the competence levels and conduct further research on digital tools
and educators’ ability to efficiently wade through volumes of information to identify which directly support the competencies. These tools may fall into any of the categories
quality content. Once identified, educators must have scholarly grounding in con- listed above. The digital tool choices an institution makes to deliver digitally should be
tent and course outcomes to vet appropriate resources to meet learning outcomes driven by a number of factors, including availability of quality digital content, instructional
and course parameters. While some resources are free, others must be purchased, design, and desired media, and expected learning outcomes. Universities should be mak-
which means educators may need to work through university channels to procure ing ultimate tool decisions locally, as cultural context, student audience, and faculty content
needed content. expertise will dictate needs.
The categories of digital tools for teaching, learning and administration include: Planning teams can:
• Tools used by administrators and teachers to facilitate or improve the • Conduct research on effective use of learning technologies19
adoption of digital materials (including Student Information Systems, Learning
Management Systems and Data Analytics Platforms) • Identify and vet quality content resources and open educational resources20 aligned
to digital skill competencies for a Digital Toolbox for universities
• Tools used by teachers to improve the delivery of content (including planning
tools, presentation and lecture capture solutions, adaptive learning, virtual • Foster consortia to share learning among universities
learning and video conferencing tools)
• Establish a shared repository of applications, methodologies and tools from which
• Tools used by teachers to assess student learning (assessment and proctoring universities can choose
tools)
• Evaluate enterprise-level Learning Management Systems for facilitating teaching and
• Tools used by students to access content knowledge and skills (MOOCs, micro learning across higher education institutions (see section 8.5.1.3 for more information
skills, OERs, digital textbooks, RSS (Rich Site Summary) news aggregators, on Learning Management Systems)
and online tutoring, advice, coaching, and remediation)
• Tools used by students for research and organization (citations managers,

curation tools) 19 For existing guidelines that describe the necessary conditions for effective integration of technology in classrooms,
see the ICT-in-Education Toolkit developed by InfoDev, UNESCO, AED and Knowledge Enterprise.
18 For more information on evidence-based practices in online learning, consult OSU’s Online Learning Efficacy 20 For more information on Open Educational Resources, read “7 Things You Should Know About Open Education:
Research Database Content”
66 67
• Communicate and ensure baseline level of connectivity across all universities that
Important Note About Technology Tool Use: supports teaching and learning technology goals
Explore methods of moving university faculties from tech- • Explore Universal Service funds, block grants, flexible decentralized funding, and
nology literacy to using technology for transformative, per- public-private partnerships with telecom companies to identify other sources of
sonalized learning. This means engaging stakeholders be- funding for infrastructure improvements.
yond the “typical” technology use departments, providing
high-quality examples of use cases, and focusing supports
on quality implementation over “usage.”
Increase access to devices
Planning teams must consider the number and types of devices, that is computers, laptops,
tablets and mobile phones, needed to meet the goals of this strategy.
Support enabling infrastructure and connectivity efforts Device shortages limit access in measurable ways, which is why procurement of devices is
often a top priority in technology implementations. When creating a device strategy, lead-
Without a connectivity and adequate devices, students will not be able to access ers should first consider what devices are already available in-country to support the initia-
online coursework, an institution cannot reasonably accommodate new programs, tive, and how those devices might be used for course delivery. Given the pervasiveness of
thereby rendering a technology initiative meaningless. That is, if computers are mobile devices, countries should think creatively about the use of mobile as an opportunity
outdated, and/or the bandwidth is slow, users may not be able to utilize the new to expand reach with less investment in devices. This would entail researching potential
software effectively or at all and will go back to doing what they did before. mobile-delivery methods for the identified digital skills and exploring the opportunities and
limitations of mobile for prioritized digital skills.
Planning teams must ensure that the level of connectivity they’ve set in Strategy 4 is
adequate to support all activities in Strategy 3. Technology creates opportunities for
learning within and outside the university walls, but only if students have the resourc- Countries should also expand efforts to increase device access on a number of fronts, which
es necessary to learn online. include leveraging existing devices in different ways, and building partnerships. Countries
must consider the number of devices needed to support thei initiative,and then identify
Technology infrastructure varies from campus to campus because leadership, inter- ways to support universities to strategically utilize existing devices and acquire new ones,
nal expertise, among other factors play an important roles in procurement, rollout with funding and suggestions. In some situations, central bulk procurement by the NREN
and support of technology. Planning teams can set priorities for enabling infrastruc- may offset costs and should be explored.
ture to direct and support universities in making upgrades in service of online learn-
ing goals. Planning teams can:
Planning teams can: • Communicate and ensure baseline device ratio across all universities that supports
online learning initiatives
• Set clear guidelines for network architecture and levels of connectivity
necessary to achieve the action plan • Create learning hubs on and off campus with extended hours for student and faculty
use
• Establish minimum standards for data operability based on a vision for how
technology will be used • Encourage universities scale devices through programs that deliberately combine
hardware with implementation support and teacher training, where possible
• Establish data protection, use and privacy standards
• Build partnerships with businesses to support procurement and device access
• Identify incentives to encourage the adoption of enterprise infrastructure
68 69
• Determine key ways to leverage student mobile devices for learning and • Share hiring and advancement policies that align with the priority and incentivize
connect systems to ensure mobile compatibility adoption across all stakeholders
• Provide a clear set of instructional priorities with allocated funding to enable

higher education institutions to make purchasing decisions that are better
aligned to priorities, build policies and procedures aligned to priorities and Monitor, collect and evaluate data
organize and focus IT department activities in service of priorities
A strong culture of research and development requires data collection and its use for con-
• Identify course solutions and skills that optimize for mobile tinuous improvement, ultimately in service of learning outcomes. Merely measuring num-
bers of devices and bandwidth speeds will not help higher education realize its educational
mission, nor will this action provide insights on the human capacity efforts to utilize the
technology.
Streamline organization and systems
Country Action Plans must put into place outcomes-based standardized data collection to
Some university systems and structures will need to change in order to expand allow for accountability, periodic monitoring and support a broader effort to share effec-
and improve the use of technology for teaching and learning. Beyond redesigning tive practices. Data can motivate action at both the practice and policy levels. Consider
courses, universities face significant systemic changes in staffing, budgeting, de- strengthening national student assessment systems as part of your plan.
cision-making, procurement, training, evaluation and support. Centralizing man-
agement and support functions, aligning strategic goals, and adopting robust and
scalable policies and practices in program development, outsourcing and quality
assurance are critical ways universities can streamline operations and quality control. Important Note about Data Collection:
For example, procurement strategy is aligned to include faculty identification and
use of tools, instructional technology procurement and support, budgeting cycles, Local data collection efforts can offer helpful insights, even if they
and shared repositories of vetted and standards-aligned tools to facilitate bulk pur- are not shared across multiple institutions. Identify ways to encour-
chasing. age and support data sharing by higher education institution to learn
what works.
Rolling out a technology strategy at scale needs a single owner and central body, as
this process creates critical dependencies across organizations or consortia and can- Planning teams can:
not be administered piecemeal. Central ownership allows for a critical mass to be
focused on a single issue, but a single point of contact for strategic decision-making, • Set and communicate outcomes-based measurements based on stated goals
consolidation of resources, effective prioritization focused on measurable outcomes
• Incentivize universities to collect more detailed baseline data of current technology
and an integrated approach to transformation. This single point of contact could be
proficiency levels of faculty and administration, and craft a multi-tier, multi-modal
at the University, NREN or Ministry level.
training plan
Planning teams can:
• Create multiple and varied ways of communicating product effectiveness, research,
• Build and share sample roadmaps to help universities understand path to evaluation and user experience.
securing additional funding and other supports, measuring progress, building
strategies and checking indicators • Identify systems for standardized data collection
• Adopt policies for digital tool adoption that are robust, align with the priority • Create a calendar for periodic monitoring and evaluation
and incentivize adoption across all stakeholders
70 71
Build human capacity in Universities, TVET Institutions and Ministries An Important Note About Professional Development:
Planning teams’ efforts should plan for ongoing and equitable opportunities for Professional development time, and time in general at higher educa-
stakeholder capacity building in order to meet the goal of expanding and improv- tion institutions is a valuable and limited resource. Help higher ed-
ing the use of technology for teaching and learning in classrooms. Ensuring that ucation institutions weigh options by building their capacity to think
all stakeholders are adequately prepared to meet the goals is a core function of through:
this strategy, as merely upgrading infrastructure and purchasing more devices will
• How planning and instructional time can be compensated appropriately to
not automatically lead to more technology usage and learning. Adults at all levels
reflect increases in time spent learning and managing technology
need to become proficient at using new technologies with the ultimate outcome of
improving student learning. • How limited professional development time can be used most effectively
Universities must make a number of expensive up-front investments in personnel
time in the areas of technology support and instructional support. Faculty need on- • What other learning modalities they can utilize to support faculty learning
going implementation support to foster widespread adoption, as well as additional new skills. (Consider investigating professional learning communities, online
coursework/lessons/activities, job-embedded learning, chat-bots, on-call
time and support to learn and shift instructional methods.
helpdesk, student helpers, mobile applications for micro-skills, and other
At the university level, planning teams must consider the challenges universities face options)
in developing faculty members. While centralized decision making may offer some
benefits, institutions need to consider how faculty will be impacted by centralized
decisions and to determine whether faculty incentives are aligned to support the
effective adoption of technology tools. Leaders need to address the limited technol- Planning teams can:
ogy knowledge of many faculty members, the time it takes to learn and adopt a new
• Identify key leaders in ministry, NREN, partners, and at each university to lead this
tool, the increased time up front necessary to build and upload an online course,
work
faculty willingness, contract or union limitations around student loads or work hours,
and other human capital challenges. • Create and offer sufficient ongoing and equitable opportunities for education
technology capacity building for key leaders in ministry, NREN, partners, and at
each university to lead this work
• Identify and share strong systems for attracting and retaining highly qualified,
technologically literate distance learning faculty and administration
• Identify and share promising practices of capacity-building across universities,

including organization charts for IT departments, alternative staffing models, student
helpdesk examples
• Identify and share leadership qualities, new roles and important skills necessary to
hire for/develop to lead this work at the country and university levels
• Source example of best practices from other countries
• Build partnerships with other countries to provide teaching, development and support
72 73
• Incentivize universities to collect more detailed baseline data of current • data privacy policies
technology proficiency levels of faculty and administration, and craft a multi-
tier, multi-modal training plan • administration of coursework (if provided centrally) policies
• Establish a playlist of program/tool options for universities to utilize online • online assessment policies
or on mobile devices to ensure all online and distance learning faculty are
proficient in technology skills and high-quality distance learning approaches • digital skills requirements for faculty and students
to instruction
For more information on policies, see Strategy 1.
• Align organizational structures at the ministry of education and higher
education levels to allow for technology learning and sharing between brick
and mortar coursework and distance learning coursework Important Note Regarding Intellectual Property Policies:
• Engage a subset of stakeholders to identify current barriers to implementation, Technology brings with it new challenges around ownership, and it
troubleshoot problems, act as point people for communications and feedback is likely that policies regarding intellectual property will change at
efforts the university level. Make a plan for how you will help higher educa-
tion institutions revise their policies to support this change and take
• Convene a subset of “champion” stakeholders in a community of practice into account faculty who teach across multiple universities and any
across multiple universities to share learnings implications a change in IP policies might have on faculty retention.
Institutions need an intellectual property policy specific to online
learning materials. Intellectual property is a complex and perpet-
ually changing field subject to the local and government laws. In
many universities, faculty own or retain rights to course materials
Policies and Regulations they develop for face-to-face courses. However, online offerings are
more complicated.
Country Action Plans should detail strong policies that effectively encompass the
increase in online learning. Consider in many cases, policies may not exist or ad- Planning teams can
equately allow for the necessary actions to take place. Policy areas which directly
affect online learning include • Indicate the policies that should be reviewed (e.g. digital skills policy, data privacy
policy, etc.)
• training of all faculty and administrative staff
• Source examples of best practices/examples from other countries.
• incentives for staff to develop online materials and to use them
• Cover processes and steps to getting policies and regulations adopted (e.g. entities
• procurement policies requiring approval)
• intellectual property • Adopt policies for course delivery in brick and mortar systems and distance learning
that are robust, align with the priority and incentivize adoption across all stakeholders
• hiring and retention policies
In each case, policies can be used to remove barriers or create incentives for the expan-
• accreditation policies (including institutional or course-level accreditation, and sion of technology. Ministries and universities will need to revise or write new policies and
accreditation for courses from education providers which are new or who may initiatives that effectively support and encompass the increase of technology for teaching
be outside of higher education or TVET) and learning.
74 75
• Faculty demonstrating intermediate digital skill integration in courses

Indicators
• Course development rates
Expanding and improving online coursework (in both distance learning and brick and
mortar settings) • Course access rates
The progress of implementation of this strategy can be measured in terms of the • Course enrollment rates
following possible indicators
• Course matriculation rates
• Cross-functional planning team assembled
• Skills achieved through technology-driven courses
• Courses selected for online offerings
• Faculty retention rates
• Quality standards adopted
• Survey on faculty technology skills
• Course delivery platform (e.g., LMS) or other solution identified
• Survey on online student perceptions of support
• Project leadership secured and contracts signed
• Technology HelpDesk ticket rates
• Number of learning centres built
• Distance learning coursework, as measured by department chairs and external
• Devices secured so that device ratio is met evaluation, is comparable to brick and mortar coursework All universities adopt
and successfully run course delivery platform to meet goals
• New policies written to support online learning
It may not be possible to achieve 100% for all universities. Given the baseline data and your
• Data collection system operational level of ambition, set aggressive but achievable targets for universities to aim for.
• Stakeholders trained
• Ongoing technology supports identified Indicator Target Target Target

(tier 1) (tier 2) (tier 3)
• Key positions created and hired Expand and improve online coursework % enrolled in 100%
online courses
• Policies updated % matriculat- 100%

ing from online
courses
• Students enrolled (ensure equity and gender balance) in intermediate digital
skills courses (online and in person)
• % of students who have access to intermediate digital skills courses
Ongoing tracking of progress of this strategy can be measured in terms of the fol-
lowing indicators:
• Faculty usage rates of platform
76 77
It may not be possible to achieve 100% for all universities. Given the baseline data and level
Indicators: Expanding and improving the use of technology for teaching and of ambition, set aggressive but achievable targets for universities to aim for.
The progress of implementation of this strategy can be measured in terms of the

following possible indicators: Indicator Target Target Target
(tier 1) (tier 2) (tier 3)
• Cross-functional planning team assembled Expand and improve the use of technology for teach- % using defined technology 100%
ing and learning in classrooms
• Performance standards adopted % matriculating in technolo- 100%

gy improved courses
• Courses selected
• Digital tools selected
• Infrastructure updated Timelines

• Devices secured
This Action Plan is expected to run until 2025. However, the other strategies in the Coun-
• Systems aligned to support strategy try Action Plan will need to begin simultaneously in order to be successful, as technology
standards will need to be adopted as anchors for multiple strategies, faculty and student
• Data collection system operational skills technology skills will need to be developed on an ongoing basis, and needed tech-
nology upgrades will have to be in place by the time online coursework and tools launch
• Stakeholders trained in classrooms.
• Key positions created and hired
• Policies updated
• Ongoing tracking of progress of this strategy can be measured in terms of

the following indicators:
• Faculty usage rates of tools
• Course matriculation rates
• Faculty retention rates
• Survey on faculty technology skills
• Survey on online student perceptions of support
• Technology HelpDesk ticket rates
• Internet connectivity rates
78 79
Implementation Important Note: Characteristics of Educationally Effective Technology Projects for

Universities, derived from Alexander and McKenzie (1998)21
Responsible departments:
• Instructional Leadership at the country level Factor Characteristics
• Distance Learning Leadership at the country level The project:

-aimed to address a specific area of student need;
• Instructional Technology Leadership at the country level -Used a learning design/strategy which had been well thought through;
-Was integrated into the learning experience
• Operational Leadership at the country level -Prepared students for new learning experiences
• A representative from national NREN Educational The designers:

Design
-Modified assessment of student learning;
Other Key Roles: -Realized that students were unwilling to engage in higher level learning activities, especially when
they were not related to assessment;
• A representative from national NREN -Did not utilize ICT for its own sake;
-Evaluated both usability and student learning
• Someone to provide financial analysis and budgets
• Someone to provide data analysis support

-The development team included a skilled project manager;
• Someone to provide project-management support -Software development was adequately analyzed, planned, scoped and designed prior to commenc-
ing the development
Technology projects frequently fail because of a lack of clear leadership and project Project -The anticipated outcome was realistic, in the context of the time and budget available;
Management
management. The box below details characteristics of effective technology projects and Teamwork -The project’s context of implementation was planned;
-The project team had shared goals and could resolve conflict;
and should inform the development and execution of the Country’s Action Plan.
-Members of the project team were committed;
-Academic team members realized that they could not perform all the technical functions;
-Staff on the project team valued the different skills required for successful project completion.
-Projects were embedded in the department’s normal teaching;

-Funding was available for implementation and maintenance of the project;
-The Head of Department/School and the Dean were supportive of the project;
Institutional -Staff were supported through access to technical support and educational software and development
Issues expertise;
-Student had access to appropriate hardware, software and support;

-Copyright and intellectual property issues were resolved
-Promotion and tenure policies recognized teaching developments.
21 Pedagogical, Institutional and Human Factors influencing the widespread Adoption of Educational Technology in
Higher Education, Rob Phillips, 2005.
80 81
Costing Common Online Program Management Funding Models
Budget and Funding sources Model is based on the premise that most traditional institutions are not only operationally unpre-
pared to offer online programs at scale but also are not set up to invest in online programs up
front. Rather than requiring the institution to spend sizable up-front money without a guarantee
Explain how the ministry and how universities will pay for this additional work and of repayment, revenue-sharing OPM vendors provide this financing themselves - which is in itself
how funds will be allocated. Include any partnerships, reallocated funds, grant chal- Revenue-sharing, full-
service model an expensive proposition. The OPM takes the up-front financial risk and the university signs a
lenges or other income streams that will cover the detailed activities and necessary contract sending ~40 - 60% of the tuition revenue to the vendor. It often takes three to five years
technology purchases and upgrades to meet the outcomes. Consider three types of for an OPM company to become profitable for any online program, which is why they often require
10-year or even longer contracts. Both parties are incentivized to increase student enrollment as a
financing: return on investment.
• Flexible education financing Fee-for-service Companies offer the same services, or some subset, for the market price of those services. The
institution pays for the services used, mostly independent of the amount of tuition revenue coming
into the online program. Fewer strings attached but more responsibilities and risks for the school.
• Long-term, stable and predictable long-term financing
In-house provision Predominantly in-house production and delivery. The institution must build capacity in-house.
Funding is absorbed by existing departments within a university. The university takes on all the
• “Middle phase” financing to bridge the stage between pilot and broad rollout
risks.
Capital and Operational Expenses
Capital Expenses Operational Expenses Estimating costs for online coursework is far from simple because of a lack of transparency
in the market and a rapidly shifting landscape of new providers. Enterprise pricing for soft-
• ICT Infrastructure (including wireless • Professional Development ware, courseware and Online Program Managers is not transparent in the market because
access, bandwidth) of fierce competition among providers. The following are rough estimates of pricing based
on interviews with professionals in the space.
• Learning Platforms (Learning • Monitoring, Evaluation and Learning
Management Systems)
• Physical infrastructure (including • Program Management (OPMs) Sample Pricing for Revenue-sharing models
devices software)
UC Berkeley has contracted with 2U (an online program manager) for

$4.2M for a Master of Information and Data Science Program over
Costing for expanding and improving online coursework, in both 13 years.
distance learning and brick and mortar settings.
Universities who decide to embark upon providing or increasing digital content are The University of Southern California pays 2U roughly 60% of each
faced with an initial decision: provide in-house, or contract with an Online Program tuition dollar received by students enrolled in online programs for
Manager, a company positioned to rapidly digitize courseware and market programs 12-15 years (~$116K for a 2-year degree).
to students. If a university has the talent in place and a robust technology infrastruc-
ture, and plans for major expansion into digital learning, it may make sense for them
to provide these services in-house. However, if digital learning expertise is minimal
in-house, it may make more sense to contract with an outside provider.
82 83
Sample Pricing for Fee-For-Service Costing for expanding and improving the use of technology for teaching and
Direct Cost to launch an online degree program that has demand: Pricing models for technology tools take on different forms. See the chart below for more
MBA, EdM or MSW for 150 new students/year: $3.5 M information.
Revenue Sharing model: Company pays the net million for the Pricing Model Characteristics of Model Typical Products in this
Category
loss for 2 years, and takes 65% of revenue until the loan coverts,
and then universities have the option to convert to fee for service. Products where there are many competitors Web-based products or apps
available to consumers as plug-
ins, add ons
Fee for service: $22K/month for the first online program, $8K for Easy to adopt, with few barriers to entry for individuals
every subsequent program after that. $68/credit hour goes to Free
company for tuition (approximately 8% of tuition). Less likely to provide data or integrate into platforms Stand-alone products that offer
less functionality than a pay-for
product
Typically do not offer support, making them less desirable for wide-
spread adoption by institutions
Sample Pricing for In-house provision A stripped-down version of the

A pricing strategy employed to spread adoption prior to an institution company’s core offering, but
procuring the whole product without key features like stor-
(all salaries dependent on local context and level of expertise) age, data dashboards, or
Freemium
Personnel Costs: Include Program Manager (US $90-130K), Instruc- The product itself is free for limited or individual use available only to a limited num-
tional Designer (US $100-150K), Faculty Stipends (scale), Videogra- ber of users in an organization
(e.g., one classroom)
pher, Learning Technologist (US $100-$150K), Marketing (US $100K)
Technology Costs: LMS/Platform for course delivery (licenses nego-

tiated based on university size and features needed), hardware for Based on the number of users or number of students served by the Products in this category vary
product from classroom-based tools to
students
courses to platforms
Subscription
Overall, could cost between $150K to upwards of $1M to launch a Time-bound (monthly or annual)
successful online degree program in-house, depending on the cur-
rent state and level of expertise in the university, and could take be- Often companies will offer lower per student prices in contracts serv-
ing a greater number of students
tween 6 months and 2 years.
Utilized by whole institutions or businesses; tends to be the least ex- Products in this category vary
pensive option per student, but requires a large number of students from classroom-based tools to
to procure courses to platforms
Enterprise
Model can be calculated on number of users, but typically is more

complex, with institutions deciding on particular features and needs
and contract lengths determining final costs
Commonly found with Online

Program Managers and other
similar partnerships, where a
Revenue- Partnership between the education institution and a company
company builds a product using
sharing
the university’s content, and
then takes a cut of the profits
from the revenue raised by the
course
84 85
Contents
Overview of the Planning

Process 91
Action Plan for Strengthening

or establishing NRENs 92
Action Plan for Sub-Strategy

Digital Skills Country Action Plan 4.2: Establishing Campus
Networks and Digital Services
Strategy 4 Infrastructure 108
Implementation Plans To Appendix 124
Connect Higher
Education And TVET
Institutions To
Affordable High-speed
Broadband
86 87
Summary of this section Overview of the Planning Process
This section will help the planning group1 to: Strategy 4 is comprised of two sub-strategies. The first sub-strategy 4.1 is Strength-
ening connectivity, including that of National Research and Education Networks
• Understand the goals and key strategies for increasing connectivity to all Higher (NRENs). The second sub-strategy 4.2 is Establishing a campus network and digital
Education Institutions (HEIs) and Technical and Vocational Education and Training services infrastructure (CaNDiS) in all Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) and Tech-
institutions (TVETs), to help achieve the goals of digital education. nical and Vocational Education and Training institutions (TVETs), particularly the ones
important for Digital Skills Country Action Plan (DSCAP) goals. This document will
• Understand major design issues and some choices that can be considered for
articulate the detailed steps and considerations for planning and implementation of
upgrading the National Research and Education Network (NREN).
Strategy 4.
• Understand major design issues and choices for upgrading the campus digital
services including the campus network. It is essential to understand that the overall process of planning to implementation
is expected to progress in three distinct phases. These are 1) conceptual framework
• Identify major costs elements and prioritize among them. and budgetary planning, 2) implementation of the plan, and 3) operationalization
of the newly implemented (or upgraded) NREN and campus networks and digital
services in the HEIs and TVETs.
Typically, three teams are engaged in these three phases as professionals with differ-
ent backgrounds and skillsets are required for each phase. The phases might overlap
each other, for example, for new NREN projects, some of the officers/engineers will
be hired early on before the network building starts by the implementation team.
The DSCAP planning team working on strategy 4 will undertake phase one and de-
velop the set up for the next two phases.
1 Throughout this document, the terms “planning group”, “working group”, and “planning team” refer to team
88 89
In first workshop the planning team should articulate the conceptual framework, the
Action Plan for Strengthening or establishing NRENs national aspiration, and key activities to be undertaken. The team should outline
what is needed (or not needed) in the activities to be performed under Strategy 4 in
alignment with all other strategies and the DSCAP’s overall objectives. The priorities
will be articulated at three national aspiration levels- a) critical, b) essential- and c)
2.1 Planning Phase 1 for Sub-strategy 4.1 aspirational. A plausible set of definitions are given below:
The planning process should
Fig-1 NREN Upgradation process overview be broken down into steps and
each step should start with a
Step-1 PRE-PLANNING workshop meeting to align on Levels of Planning Aspirations
1.1 Pre Planning (Workshop A) the activities that need to be
Level 1 ‘Critical’ is the bare minimum goal for the elements that must
Team Formation (NREN, MINISTRY/DATA, TELCO, univ) undertaken, assign responsi-
be implemented to achieve the DSCAP goals.
Assignment of planning and data collection tasks bilities, and agree on timelines.
These workshop meetings Level 2 ‘Essential’ are those that are needed by the institution(s) to
Review of current status & issues
will require participation from be competitive in their peer group as an HEI/TVET institution.
Discussion of upgrade thrust and priorities
planning team members, ex-
Discuss links with other strategies perts, and other key stakehold- ‘Aspiration’- are the goals that are needed by the institution(s)
Preliminary baseline, and prioratized goals set ers. For the NREN upgradation Level 3 to be internationally competitive while addressing the grand
1.2 Planning Data Collection & Survey process, the process is out- challenge problems of the county.
lined in Figure-1. Planning pro-
Data collection for HEI/TVET Institutions cess for campus networks and
Assemment of network/technology options digital services is much more
complex, a two-cycle process The next step, after understanding the aspirations, is to sketch out the plausible
Assessment of current capacity and management
model, is presented in Section technical design that can meet the framework’s expectations and budget each of
3, Figure-2. those for the ambition levels (Workshop B). National connectivity plans are hugely
Step-2 DESIGN & BUDGETING NREN (Workshop B) expensive. A grand plan may easily exceed the national budget for education. Thus,
Detailed Design of Proposed upgraded NREN to be realistic, it is also equally important to make choices by aligning the network
Schedule & Phasing Before starting the technical upgrade plans with high-level national goals. For example, with respect to DSCAP
planning, the planning team goals, the team must consider critical questions such as: which institutions are the
Budget and Costing
needs to establish the proj- network traffic points and players with respect to the higher-level goals articulated
Consultation with Stakeholders & Buyin
ect’s scope in broad terms in strategy-2 and strategy-3? Which campus applications are critical with respect to
Step-3 IMPLEMENTATION OF PLAN (Workshop C) and collect baseline data. This
the higher-level goals articulated in strategy-2 and strategy-3? Which institutions
Detailed Implemnatation Plan for upgraded NREN scoping is usually done by
offer most of the target group students selected in the high-level plans? What type
Step-4 IMPELEMENTATION understanding the country’s of bandwidth is critical for the type of role these institutions will offer? What is the
Step-5 OPERATIONS significant needs and priori- share of the overall proposed budget for connectivity within the national education
ties and aligning the activities budget? The planning team for strategy-4 must also know the choices made by oth-
planned under other strategies er strategies, particularly under strategies 2 and 3. A consistency matrix worksheet
of the DSCAP initiative. Data is has been included in Part 2 of the Guidebook to facilitate inter-strategy alignments.
crucial for planning. A plan is
only as good as the quality of Once selections are made, the planning team can proceed to drafting the implemen-
the data in it. tation plan (Workshop C). This plan is expected to be fine-tuned and revised as the
team proceeds to the implementation phase.
90 91
a person who might have access to the planning data, typically from a government
2.2 Scope of Sub-strategy 4.1 agency responsible for overseeing the universities.
What should be the time frame for the plan? Ideally, the plan should include what needs to
be done (aspiration) and what can be achieved (reality) to get a modern national research If team is already in place, then the team’s composition should be
and education network (NREN) in a twenty-year period. NREN organizations are expect- reviewed. Please refer to Appendix 2 in Part 1 of the Guidebook for
ed to remain operational for a very long time. Building a permanent fiber-based network suggestions on team composition and ToRs of the working groups.
should be the ultimate goal, and modern fibers have a lifetime of more than twenty years. For example, if the country already has an NREN and is planning the
So all-fiber assets must be planned with a 20+ years horizon 2. next major upgrade, it is likely that a capable team led by a senior
engineer is already available. The planning team should check if they
have at least one expert from TVET administration who knows what
For investment in equipment and metered links (which are expensive) the planning team are the top three current/ongoing/planned most exciting IT project(s)
should take the opposite approach. It should consider a much shorter three-year window to in the pipeline for the TVETs this year? What is the technical content,
bring the target network services to the affiliated institutions. The plan should provide ade- how these are being funded?
quate additional capacity to meet the increasing demand from institutions. It can provision
for new institutions, if these are planned, to be connected in the next three years. The goal
should be that the implementation and commissioning of the core part upgrade should get
completed in three years, and at that time, it should still have reserve capacity.
2.4 Defining Indicators
The plan should be revised annually based on technology changes, users’ requirements, One of the first tasks before designing any plan is the identify indicators that will
funding sources, and market forces. The planning team can reduce the time spent in the capture the goals of the plan and investment as directly as possible. Table 1 below
commission phase (can be shorter than three years) depending on their circumstances such outlines a plausible set of indicators that are fundamental to NREN and their defini-
as immediate availability of funding, efficient procurement process, ready implementation tions. Any NREN’s core mission is to increase connectivity to educational institutions
capacity etc. For large countries, on the other hand, the total implementation might need and students in all parts of the country. The Planning team should define the indica-
to be extended by two- three years. tors in such a way that these are usable over a decade or two so that progress can
be measured.
Table 1
2.3 Composition of the Planning Team Indicator Suggested Reporting Unit(s)
For the planning process to be a success, it is important to have a good team in place. The NREN connected HEIs # Number + % Percentage of Total
planning team can be a core group of 2-4 people. As a team collectively (i.e., not everyone
is expected to know everything), there should be someone with knowledge of the following NREN connected students # Number + % Percentage of Total
areas: i) engineering/technical understanding about Optical Wide Area Networking (WAN)
NREN Bandwidth Sub- Total Gbps, + % of total consumption, + % of need 1mbps/student
(for example, a conflict-of-interest free/just-retired senior engineering from a major Internet
scription
service Provider (ISP)); ii) mature faculty level knowledge and understanding about the I.T.
needed for academics and research at various HEI including general, technical, and medi- NREN’s Geo Coverage Square Km+ % of Country Area connected with NREN presence
cal universities/colleges, and TVETs- beyond bandwidth. (for example, A CS/EE associate/
full professor level faculty from one of the HEI with academic administration experience);
iii) familiarity with senior administrative and procurement processes in HEI/TVETs and the
HE system (for example, a technology-minded member/director of UGC/HEC/HEI), and iv)
92 93
from the other strategies of DSCAP will be available. In workshop B (Figure 1), these
2.5 Defining a Baseline goals should be reconciled. Based on the joint discussions, the team can develop
a realistic design which will include multiple feasible technical implementation path-
The NREN plan should be drawn in three sub-steps i) pre-planning, ii) design and ways for a new/upgraded NREN for each of the three levels of the specified national
budgeting, and iii) implementation. Planning starts with the framework & aspiration priorities and the costing.
workshop (Workshop A). The first item is goal setting. Table 2 below provides a sam-
ple articulation of the primary goals and targets. These will be refined and fleshed
out during the workshop meeting. The sample includes how many of the primary After this, a national discussion should take place between key stakeholders- mem-
target institution classes such as HEIs and TVETS are now connected to the NREN, ber universities, implementing ministry, and/or financing bodies. Once a plan is se-
the national bandwidth goals such as national target on bandwidth per pupil (stu- lected, the team should prepare the detailed implementation plan of the chosen
dent), capacity of its core network, as expansion and geo-coverage of its network. design.
The columns should identify, the current situation (baseline), and what should be the
minimum target, crucial target, and aspiration target for each of these indicators. 2.5.1 Process for Data Collection
These are initial goals to ensure the planning team understands the overall goals of
subsequent steps. Each target can be refined after conducting on-ground surveys. Before planning, the team should first collect essential data such as a complete de-
scription of the current NREN assets and the status of bandwidth-connectivity of
Table 2: current and future institutions. This data enables the planning team to make design
choices for various planning elements (presented in the next section) and to build a
Table-2 NREN
Category BASELINE Min Crucial 2023 Aspiration 2025
meaningful solution.
Connected HEIs ( currently) 60% All public 100%
Connected TVETS ( currently) 40% All public 100%
Students Receiving NREN Bandwidth ( currently) 70% 90% 100% What type of data is needed? A data collection tool which outlines key data to be
NREN bandwidth per pupil (bpp) ( currently) .1 mbps 1.4 mbps 4 mbps collected about the NREN as well as various HEI and TVET institutions can be found
Core Network Speed ( currently) 1-10 Gbps 1 Gbps 100 Gbps in the appendix. The tool provides specific definitions of all the data elements. The
Network's Country Coverage ( currently) All regions All major cities Entire country data definitions also include a set of course categories to estimate ball-park num-
bers. The data does not need to be very detailed in the early stages of the process.
After the goal setting and discussion on the core issues and articulation of priorities
for the strategy, the next sub-step is to conduct a detailed planning survey. The sur-
vey should include estimating the institutions to be connected, assessing their phys- How does the planning team get data? The required data is seldom available in one
ical location, and technology options to build the network, including an understand- place. Often the data exists, but the ad-hoc design team may not have access to it
ing of the service demands and corresponding capacity needs to meet the overall immediately Thus, a significant task for the planning team is to allocate a reasonable
DSCAP goals in current institutions and assessing recent expansion and technology amount of time and effort identifying what data will be needed (potentially refining
capabilities in the ground in current NREN and outside. the template), identifying the sources of various data elements, and seeking admin-
istrative support. The team should allocate sufficient time to collect a reasonable
amount of useful ground data and ensure recency and reasonable accuracy.
There are several design elements (service planning to network technology option)
and choices and tradeoffs to be made for each. The real options can vary drastically
based on the geolocation of the institutions. Some preferences might be entirely off It is important to note, the plan that will be developed is only as
the table. Thus, the critical next step is planning a survey. The process involves the good as the quality of the baseline data. A 'plan' which is not backed
assessment of current design elements as well as the evaluation of realistic alternate by sound data- is indeed a mere aspiration document rather than
options in the country. anything actionable. A plan based on weak data usually results in un-
realistic choices and would most likely be rejected by the key stake-
holders in later stages.
Once the planning survey information is available, the team should compare the
implementation options for all the design elements in step two. By this time, goals
94 95
2.6 Steps to Develop the NREN Plan 2.6.2 Identify the Administrative Home of the NREN
The purpose of a NREN is to be an essential service provider entity for the nation’s
2.6.1 Identify Institutions that should be Connected higher-education ecosystem. This section and next two sections are particularly im-
portant for countries establishing new NRENs or have a very new initiative. However,
Survey and identify the key higher education institutions (HEIs) and TVETs, and associated even existing NRENs might benefit the benefits of these structural relationships and
organizations that constitute the tertiary education ecosystem of the country and can be needed authority within their current administrative placement or if they need some
potentially linked by the NREN. Some considerations are outlined below: readjustment.
• Besides the conventional general universities, all specialty institutions such as
engineering, technical, medical, agricultural, pedagogical, and other institutions at The planning team should identify the government organ that will house the NREN.
the tertiary level should be included. These can be public, private, or international There are various models. Usually, the appropriate placement is they operate under
institutions. Size is an important attribute. But, also identify their strategic importance the ministry or the commission responsible for the universities under some model.
in the country’s national strategic plans and goals irrespective of their geographic Important consideration should be given so that the NREN stays closely tuned to
locality or state of current I.T. preparedness. Include the satellite facilities of these the HEI/TVETs and the nation’s strategic plans for higher education. This structure
HEIs, such as other campuses besides the main campus, satellite field stations, ensures that the NREN does not operate solely as a profit or narrow sustainability
remote research facilities, etc. concerns and, in the long term, does not deviate from its core mission. The home
entity would be the receiver and proponent of its long-term funding. An NREN will
• Identify other HEI/TVET affiliate institutions in the country that collaborate with the
require funding for its acquisition of initial network infrastructure and years to come
HEI/TVET’s or have high potential to contribute significantly to the HEI/TVET’s once
the digital connectivity is there. These can be international research centers and for cycles of future upgrades. Also, the planning team should identify other asso-
facilities, NGOs, government research organizations, training centers and academic ciated government organs that may take a stake in it, such as ministries related to
institutions, national archives, public libraries, museums, etc. science and technology.
• Identify the country’s critical computing data facilities, such as computer centers,
data centers, archives, etc.
2.6.3 Decide on the Legal Structure of the NREN
• Identify other education systems such as community centers, two-year vocational
technology institutes, college system, school system, the open university system, An NREN should have an independent legal identity. The best step is to identify few
etc. These are different groups of organizations that operate as major education potential options for the legal structure of the entity. There are various models, it can
subsystems/pathways and often should connect to the overall tertiary education be a department or project in the home commission or ministry. It can be a trust (if
system – though these are not necessarily at the tertiary level. it has custody of permanent public assets such as dark fiber) or a non-profit limited
liability company. This legal structure provides the NREN entity the right to be a
• Identify the administrative units and ministries running the HEI/TVET system of signatory of a contract. The NREN also needs to acquire the appropriate operator
the country. These are the institutions that should be connected for the smooth license from the national regulatory authority/agency to provide internet service to
functioning of the HEI/TVETs.
the institutions.
The geolocation data of these institutions will be critical to design the core NREN network.
Special consideration should be given to remote institutions as these generally benefit the
most from the NREN connectivity.
96 97
storage, centralized V.M., Web server, and Cloud connection, collaboration/

2.6.4 Develop the Governance Framework of the NREN video conferencing, distance learning classrooms, training of Campus I.T.
personnel, national one-point access to science and research databases/
An NREN should be an organization that is owned by the HEIs and TVETs and should also repositories, etc.
serve them - like a consortium. Institutions serviced by the NREN will be member of this
consortium. Two crucial bodies have to be chartered to achieve this goal. • It also crucial for NRENs to facilitate digital library access to the country’s
HEIs/TVETs.
A Board of Directors/trustees has to be put place. The principal charge of the Board is to It is essential to be strategic about these additional services. NREN should very care-
ensure NREN conforms to its core institutional mission. Independent technical experts, rep- fully plan which ones to offer and which ones to not. An NREN may consider decom-
resentatives of top policymakers in the line of funding, and stakeholders, such as vice-chan- missioning services for which there might be alternatives due to a change in business
cellors in rotation, a representative from education, and other related ministries who will model or technology. For example- video conferencing is becoming a ubiquitous ser-
eventually in the govt sourced funding chain are good candidates. University I.T. Directors vice provided to HEIs by directly working with commercial cloud-based bridge-pro-
are usually not board members. viders. In last decade, NRENs in the United States (US) provided the bridge, also
known as multipoint conferencing unit (MCU) which was quite expensive. Now this
has been discontinued and the NRENs have shifted focus to offer newer services
The second body is the Technical Advisory Council (TAC), where member organizations
such as 100G Data Transfer Node (DTN) rather than supporting commonplace video
send their representatives. TAC members are typically I.T. directors. TAC co-approves the
conferencing. The planning team should identify what services are needed and how
Board of Directors for the NREN. In collaboration with the CEO/CTO, TAC discusses details
to provide them.
of various technical proposals such as technical issues, options for prices for the provided
services. Final versions of these proposals are placed before and are ratified by the Board.
There should be a clear understanding of minimum goals such as providing at least
50% of commodity internet bandwidth (I1), 80% of educational institution bound traf-
Various other committees may be formed to take care of certain aspects of running the fic (I2), and a certain amount of intra-REN bandwidth to its members with >99.97%
NREN, such as networking technologies, auditing, educational content, external partner- availability and at least one centralized communication software (WebEx, Zoom) to
ships, etc. NRENs also often encourage user groups from member institutions to advise be provided to all. Why? Typically, most expensive is traffic going to commodity in-
their strategic services. ternet (I2). If a REN has its own optical fiber ring the cost to transfer traffic between
its members connected directly via its owned infrastructure in negligible. If the traffic
is between two educational institutions (not in the same NREN), the cost is minimum
In the design stage, the planning team should sketch out the Board and the TAC and how
of these NRENs are peered by regional RENs.
they will work.
2.6.5 Decide the Client Services Portfolio that will be Offered 2.6.6 Determine the coverage of the Network Infrastructure
NREN is a service provider entity for the national tertiary-education ecosystem. The NREN consists of a physical network and an associated technological infrastruc-
ture. As the network infrastructure is decided, the key focus should be on nationwide
• The principal work of NREN is to provide bandwidth connectivity to the member geographic coverage. The network is built by deploying a countrywide backbone
institutions by operating a wide area network. infrastructure, often with multiple rings and sub-rings within major cities. The rings
have Points of Presence (POPs).
• Besides, based on the digital service needs and level of unpreparedness of the
universities or 3rd party providers, NRENs often organize other centralized digital
services; NREN may have to provide or support in coordination with 3rd party The last-mile links in the form of spokes connect the institutions’ campuses to the
providers to the members. These might include advanced computing, data center/ backbone via these POPs. The required connections are made by procuring negoti-
ating lease bandwidth capacity from fiber cable operators and mobile network op-
98 99
erators (MNOs). These can also be acquired by long-term leasing of fiber, or IRU 3. each member HEI/TVET. Further details on IPV6 readiness of individual campuses is provid-
ed in section 3.
Appropriate Service Level Agreements (SLA) need to be signed between the NREN
and all the link providers. Using these links, the NREN has to setup the data network
service by adding various networking equipment.
2.6.8 Plan for Connecting / Peering
It is essential to understand a critical difference between the ISP and NREN back- The NREN must also be able to connect to other networks. These include a) regional RENs,
bone design objectives. Unlike ISPs, which primarily focus on major urban and pop- b) national Internet Exchange Points (IXPs), and c) other International Networks. To design
ulation centers, well-purposed NRENs set their goal on maximizing the geographic the peering, the NREN team needs to understand its traffic pattern. The member institu-
coverage and inclusion of remote institutions. These locations usually do not have tions run many application services. The architecture of the application services deeply in-
good ISP options. fluences the traffic patterns. A balanced peering relationship is key to providing responsive
NREN network service at optimum cost.
A key factor driving digital education is the ease with which students and faculty
can use the services from home or anywhere- not only from educational institutions. The network needs to connect to national ISPs for exchanging data with the regular inter-
Access from home is becoming critically important for the educational services of- net. The NREN network may connect to them via the national IXP, if one exists, to peer
fered by the member institutions. This was important earlier but has become more with many other national networks efficiently from one point. Based on traffic pattern it may
important in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic. NRENs must help their member make sense to directly peer.
institutions to establish additional partnerships with regional ISPs. This includes set-
ting up strategic exchange points with regional/local ISPs when serving good chunks
Also, an NREN should have a links to the closest POP of the regional RENs. Africa currently
of its members’ student population, setting up off-campus data exchange portals,
has three regional RENs- WACNET, UbuntuNET, ASREN. These are connected via Europe.
supporting the education community Wi-Fi/extension centers, etc., through NRENs
Through these regional RENs (RREN) it will have routing paths to other international REN
redesigned network.
networks such as GEANT, Internet2, RedCLARA, TEIN*CC, etc. This will enable REN to par-
ticipate fully in international research, teaching, learning, and knowledge sharing with other
Minimum goal: The planning team should account for geographic area covering all HEIs. Membership to these RRENs also brings many other benefits.
periphery institutions. At least 50% should be covered with leased bandwidth and
25% with leased fiber. At least 60% of the built network should have dual redundan-
cy. Students without digital access should not be more than 1%. A future-facing NREN should also consider building direct land peering with the RENs of
its neighboring countries. An NREN in a country with submarine cable landing point(s)
also has the option to directly peer with many other faraway RENs. Such NRENs should
optimize routing (i.e., maximally direct route at least cost) to important R&D traffic hub re-
gions of the world. For example, as African NRENs mature both North American and Asian
2.6.7 Acquire an Internet Identity countries should be directly peered. The US currently has an overwhelming majority (>40%)
of the worlds’ internet servers, Asia and North America have 80% of the world’s peer HEI
The NREN needs to acquire the appropriate operator license from the national reg-
institutions and students. For a landlocked country, it is critical to establish at least two land
ulatory authority/agency. NREN requires to obtain an Autonomous Systems (AS)
peering links with its neighboring RENs. These arrangements can be made directly or be
number and Internet Protocol (I.P.) address allocations. For Africa, these are allocat-
can facilitated through regional RENs (RRENs).
ed by AfriNIC, which is the Regional Internet Registry (RIR) for Africa. IP addresses
are needed for each computer/host that are connected to the internet. The NREN
itself will not need any large block of IP addresses. But, in some countries, the NREN Action Item for the planning team: Identify peering locations. A peering agreement will
obtains provider independent I.P. address blocks for all and then allocates those to need to be signed. The team should check if the national, regional, and international band-
width is optimized (preferably direct) routing via these peering arrangements to match the
3 IRU’s (Indefeasible rights of use) are ways to own ‘fibers strands’ in a shared environment.
100 101
volume and patterns of the country’s subscribers’ traffic. tors, and Applications Specialists to operate, maintain and grow the network and its appli-
cations on behalf of member institutions.
Minimum goal: The planning team should plan for at least a 2-points connection to a
regional REN and/or NREN is a neighboring country and at least 2-point links to the Any NREN will require a minimum of 10-15 engineers to operate its essential services as-
national network via IXP and/or ISP peering. suming the rest of the services are outsourced. The REN engineering team should build
broad operational expertise and should be ready to take on multiple responsibilities in case
of emergencies. Also, the team should have full managerial and engineering grasp over the
outsourced functionalities.
2.6.9 Plan for the Physical Infrastructure
An NREN will need a core office, Network Operating Center (NOC), and various
other physical assets. The office will typically seat the core officers and engineers, 2.6.11 Outline a Capacity Development Plan
NOC, and meeting rooms with the virtual conferencing facility. In the planned service
portfolio, it may need to house other facilities such as a Data Center. Besides the At the heart of all technological investment is the human capacity. Network/computing
office space, it will also require a physical, secured, and powered area for its POPs equipment itself becomes obsolete in just 5 to 8 years. A comprehensive human capacity
in various countries. These are often arranged with the link providers or member development and training plan should be central to the NREN plan. Operation of a modern
universities. NREN will require continuous knowledge upgrade and considerable technical and mana-
gerial skills development. Unfortunately, in the developing world, most training available
to I.T. personnel comes from vendors. Training provided by vendors, even when provide
Minimum goal: The planning team should plan for having an office, network NOC by competing vendors, is never sufficient. It is essential for engineers to obtain knowledge
and Help Desk, Video Conf Room, and 24/7 reliable power. from independent sources. Other crucial managerial and oversight skills are needed to
transform technology into a service that supports achievement of educational outcomes in
the participating institutions.
2.6.10 Estimate the Staffing Needs
The operation of a modern NREN requires considerable technical and managerial capacity
Estimate the human resources need to run the services and network. A typical REN development because NRENs engineers and managers have to stay on top of the fast-
must have a CEO and CTO supported by various engineering units, accounting, paced evolution of technology. Even if specialized expertise is garnered from outside ven-
helpdesk, event, media, contract management teams, etc. The number and extent dors temporarily, NREN engineers need to upskill themselves for future needs. Both NREN
of the personnel needed will depend on the service chosen and the outsourced/in- officers and the ICT cells in its member institutions require continuous training and access
house management of the services. to the latest knowledge both for strategy and flawless operation of the hardware, systems,
software to turn it into service.
The CEO typically manages the NREN and coordinates with potential funding enti-
ties, including university members, the World Bank, bilateral agencies, the European How many engineers should be trained? It is vital for the long-term success of an NREN
Commission, U.S. foundations, and others. For a new REN, once the Board is in that a pool of trained network engineers, which is often above its immediate need, is con-
place, the CEO should be recruited on a full-time basis to manage the affairs of the tinuously developed in the country. Internships can be used to continuously feed new tal-
NREN and provide strategic leadership. The CEO is typically responsible for recruit- ent into the pool. Because of the rapid change of technology and issues, it is important to
ing technical and administrative staff. consider that capacity development is a continuous process.
The CTO ensures the smooth operation of the services. In addition to the CEO and Minimum goal: The planning team should plan for at least 40 hours of job-specific training
the CTO, the personnel required includes Network Engineers, System Administra- for each position, and one visit to international/regional training for each service head.
102 103
Transit traffic charges for I2 (such as WACREN

2.6.12 Assess Risks and Develop a Mitigation Plan or UbuntuNetAlliance) and I1 (normally national
ISPs) bandwidths
The planning team should identify the current institutional level policies, practices,
and ground realities that can hinder achieving the above goals. Most likely some
policy level changes will be needed to mitigate these impacts. The planning team
should identify the other risk factors and suggest mitigation options, as needed. An NREN’s standard revenue stream generally comprises of membership fees paid by mem-
ber HEI/TVETs and a subsidy from the ministry/government body overseeing the tertiary
education sector. The plan does not need to specify the actual charge model, that should
Minimum goal: The planning team should identify significant risk factors/challenges be developed after a discussion with member HEI/TVETs and the government once the
and outline their mitigation plan. The planning team should also articulate at least NREN is near ready to come alive.
three systemwide policies that will encourage member adoption of the network by
the HEI/TVET institutions.
The third side- which is not customarily measured in a typical business is the broader growth
and inclusiveness of the tertiary education sector, ensuring there is a social return on in-
vestment. This model of accounting is increasingly important for social businesses entities
like NRENs. Therefore, it is essential to identify a set of non-financial indicators. These can
2.6.13 Outline a Sustainability Plan for the NREN: A Social Business Approach be called social achievement indicators. These should align with the tertiary education
system’s broader goals and specifically with the DSCAP development goals and strategies.
It is important for the planning team to sketch out the business case of the NREN. A few examples are indices that reflect the use of technology/bandwidth in online courses
Governments should understand that NRENs are not for-profit ventures instead they and digital education, access to high-value knowledge, broadening of access, etc., the
are a service provided to HEI/TVETs to help them achieve the much bigger national per-person cost of bandwidth, per-person use of bandwidth, etc.
goals of the education systems as a whole- thus, it is never profitable like ISPs in a
financial sense. In addition to expenditures and revenues, the planning team should
also list out the broader social benefits. The significant financial investment in NRENs is expected to improve the social achieve-
ment indicators. These indicators are to be measured and tracked permanently to justify
the venture, and ideally, they should be an integral part of the organization’s yearly business
The major expenditure items to consider are as follows: report. Thus, it also essential to indicate the process(s) by which these will be measured.
Capital Expenditures (CAPEX) Operating Expenses (OPEX) As discussed earlier, developing an NREN can be hugely expensive. The plan might exceed
the national budget for education. Thus, to be realistic, it is important to prioritize by align-
Link charges (fiber contract, bandwidth, or fiber Office and space rents, operation charges ing the network setup/upgrade plan with high-level national goals.
maintenance for the core) beginning from utilities and supplies to busi-
ness-related travels
Charges for last-mile connectivity to member Staff salary and benefits
institutions,
Equipment costs such as transmission equip- Training and H.R. capacity building
ment, switch, routers, access points, firewalls,
controllers, and servers for various services,
License fees for their operating systems at mul-
tiple levels, license fees for different network/
service management software for NOC, etc.,
104 105
Action Plan for Sub-Strategy 4.2: Establishing Campus

Networks and Digital Services Infrastructure
3.1 Planning Phase 1 for Sub-strategy 4.2
Drafting a national plan for the campuses is far more complicated than planning the
NREN due to the scale and the inherent complexity of modern campus infrastructure.
A two-cycle approach to derive the plan (not to be confused with the implementa-
tion phases in the plan discussed earlier) is suggested to get design in place for the
national CANDIS Upgrade plan. In the first cycle the design is estimated for 4 repre-
sentative template campuses. In the second cycle these templates are used and ex-
panded to get accurate estimate for all target institutions. Both steps are explained
in subsequent sections. Fig-2 shows the planning steps. The first step (pre-planning)
includes the planning team’s formation and assignment of team members to collect
base institutional data (data collection tool can be found in the appendix).
In the first-cycle the planning team should divide campuses into four categories
based on their size (number of students): small, medium, large, and research-inten-
sive universities. The exact size parameters of each category should be determined
from the baseline data collected via the data collection tool (please refer to the ap-
pendix). For example, one set of categorization parameters could be campuses with
5,000 students or less - small; 5,000-10,000 students - medium; and above 10,000
students - large. In many African countries more than 90% of HEI and TVET institu-
tions have less than 5,000 students. Those countries can use lower numbers as cate-
gory size parameters. The last category (Category 4) should be comprised of Higher
education institutions (HEIs) which undertake a large number of research activities.
These HEIs will require advanced digital resources. Each category will have different
needs and thus targets and indicators should be set separately.
The next step is to identify four representative campuses from each group and out-
line their design requirements. At this stage, the planning team must use the de-
tailed campus data from these four template campuses for the template design. It
is crucial that I.T. directors (or those who have first-hand knowledge) are engaged in
this phase.
The next step (which would be the first cycle) is to develop the design to upgrade
the CANDIS for these four prototype campuses. The team should iterate the process
to improve and refine those four campus designs and finalize these template drafts
106 107
in the next design meeting. Once these four template plans are drafted, the team
should validate the plans with each of these template universities to seek their buy- Table 4: Sample Framework and Aspiration for CANDIS
in. It a good practice to seek comments from faculty and administrators, besides the
I.T. department of the HEIs/TVET institutions. This will provide a good understanding Category Student Link Capacity Bandwidth (to be IS/IT Skill
achieved in 3 years)
of the effectiveness of this sample plan. If a useful categorization has been done and
Small
reasonably acceptance is received from the template HEIs, the team can move to
estimating a budget for the national scale based on the template campus costs and
Medium
multiplying them by the estimated number of campuses in each category. This cost
can be used for preliminary DSCAP estimation. However, the last mile cost is sub- Large
stantial and thus might add a large variable component to the budget.
Research Intensive
The next-cycle (Step-3) is to draw the full national plan. This step should be under-
taken by teams who want to draft a complete national compendium plan. If this is Current/Baseline Minimum goals Goals that can be Goals that can be
achieved in 3 years achieved in 5 years
the case, the produced templates should be distributed to the respective Campus
Connected Buildings 60% 80%
planning teams in all HEI/TVET included in the Framework. These campus teams
should be invited for training sessions in a workshop (Workshop C). Their tasks would
Connected Classes 80% 100%
be to select the templates that best match their institution and develop a specific
plan and budget for their own institutions. It is important to present the draft design Wireless Coverage 80% 90%
with administration and faculty of the institutions before finalizing them and refine
as needed based on feedback. These localized plans will produce the first draft of Students on LMS 1000/year
a National Compendium of campus network enhancement designs and a much ac-
curate estimate of the costs. The final step will create the National Compendium of Courses on LMS 20/year
Campus Network Enhancement plan. Together with the NREN Master Plan, this will
constitute the Strategy-4 action plan. Students with Cam- 80%
pus Identity
The planning team should identify the primary goals as well as expectations and pri- Campuses on ERP 80%
orities. Table 4 shows a brief articulation of the framework and aspiration level for
CANDIS. Like process for NRENs, these indicators will be used to set the initial goals
for campus network upgrade plan. As such these are expected to get refined after
more data and information is available by the planning process.
A comprehensive CaNDiS budget will be very large, thus the team should ensure
that targets set are aligned with the goals of the DSCAP and broader national goals. 3.2 Scope of Sub-strategy 4.2
First, the team should check if targets are in line with the targets from other strate-
gies, e.g., are the campuses identified as vital in other components receiving suffi- The first commissioning phase should take a maximum of three years to attain a minimum
cient connectivity? Is there an investment component that is not necessarily helping target level of network, services, and infrastructure implemented and commissioned. After
the higher goals? The second check is to see if these targets are also aligned with that, the plan should include an additional program for “rolling” remaining development
the national goals and aspirations of the country. Once the budget numbers are that can be achieved in two more years. The Rolling Development Plan can be revised annu-
available (at the later stage) all strategies might need to be re-tuned to match the ally based on technology changes, users’ requirements, funding sources, and market forces
financing capacity and national plans of the country. after that. Like the case of NREN planning, the Campus Networks and Digital Services In-
frastructure (CanDiS) planning team should adjust the timeline for each phase. These often
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vary from campus to campus. Tentatively, the plan should include what needs to be Table 5
done (aspiration) and can be achieved (reality) to get a functional modern campus
network and digital services network considering a total five-year window. Table-4 Sample Indicators for CanDiS
Area Indicator Suggested Reporting Unit(s) BA
# Number of Campuses with at least 0.25 Gbps* link capacity + Percentage of
CaNDiS Campuses Upgraded
3.3 Composition of the Planning Team Total
# of buildings with Gbps/connectivity # Number + % Percentage of Total
The CaNDiS design team should be familiar with each of the campus types; togeth- Campus Bandwidth consumption Total Gbps, + % of total consumption, + % of need 1mbps/student
er they should have a) knowledge about what is inside the template campuses that Campuses offering LMS Course # Number of Campuses has at least 10* LMS hosted courses
is current network including fibers, cable layout, wireless network components one Training of NREN + IT staff # Number + % Percentage of Total need (40 hours/year* per person
from each category (I.T. director/engineer); b) determine the present and planned
* These targets should be set after some discussion, but should stay fixed over 10 years period so that the country level improvements
operational campus I.T. services and applications such as UMS, LMS, etc., at each
can be tracked in a uniform scale.
of the four categories of institutions. They will also need to be aware of the current
challenges facing I.T. (a cognizant CSE/EEE faculty and I.T. directors); c) develop
familiarity with the campus map, buildings actual layout of the campus exterior and
administrative, academic, research, residential, shared space, building interior, etc.,
about one HEI/TVET from each of the four categories (veteran engineers from the 3.5 Defining a Baseline
representative universities). d) onboard expert(s) who have first-hand operational
knowledge about what the plan wants to achieve i.e., in model advanced digital As described in Section 2.5, before planning, the team should collect essen-
campuses from around the world. tial data about various tertiary education institutions. The data collection tool out-
lines key data to be collected HEI and TVET institutions and can be found in the ap-
For CanDiS, it is important to see that the first-cycle planning team is not entire- pendix. The tool provides specific definitions of all the data elements. The data
ly composed of big and centrally located campuses. More than 90% campuses in does not need to be very detailed in the early stages of the planning process.
most African countries are small campuses. Large campuses have made significant
progress on their own. However, smaller institutions normally require very different
approach for their digitization. The focus of the DSCAP is to raise country wide mass
digital-skills which will require inclusion of majority of these small institutions. 3.6 Steps to Develop the CanDiS Plan
The planning team should ensure that experts with first-hand knowledge about the 3.6.1 Prepare an Inventory of the Campus/Buildings/Facilities
smaller and remote campuses are part of the team. In the second cycle, the issue
is less critical because by design the planning process engages campus teams in The campus network design starts with the campus map and takes stock of each of the
the design of the compendium. Personnel from each of the selected campuses buildings. If it is a multicampus system, then the team needs to follow all the campuses and
should participate in the compendium team to lead the campus-specific design. facilities in its geographically distinct campuses. The key steps are a) identify all the aca-
demic, administrative, shared space, faculty and student residential houses, equipment, at
the detail level of buildings and spaces inside those. This should cover all habituated areas
(by human or network-connected devices). Also, identify the organization and segments.
3.4 Defining Indicators
The planning team should identify a set of indicators to capture the goals of the cam- How many numbers of distinct ’networks’ do you need to build? Universities often create
pus network improvement. Table 5 outlines sample indicators and their definitions: the enterprise network, residential network, and now a day’s research networks distinctly;
Will there be zones in your network- north campus, right Campus, arts, science, business
zones, etc.? b) Identify the locations of all existing (and future) computing data facilities on
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the Campus, such as computer centers, data centers, archives, etc. The spaces of- templates act as a roadmap for the individual HEI/TVET’s in those groups for further cus-
ten require special consideration such as high-bandwidth, excessive power, special tomization.
security. The planning team should obtain the building inventory for the template
campuses with the classification of spaces and blueprints.
Minimum goal: The planning team should plan to account for 90% of all the existing 3.6.4 Assess Non-Campus Connectivity Needs
buildings.
Today’s education requires all the educational systems and services to be available seam-
lessly 24/7 including from one’s home. This was important from the inception of digital
services- but more so due to the COVID-19 experience. Thus, campuses also need to en-
3.6.2 Map External Collaborators sure decent off-campus home connectivity for its student, faculty, and staff for their digital
services to flourish.
The planning team should also survey and identify collaborating HEI/TVET affiliate
institutions outside of the country with whom the faculty of the HEI/TVET collabo-
rates. These can be international research centers and facilities, NGOs, government The first step for the planning team is identify the off-campus locality profile and assess its
research organizations, training centers and academic institutions, national archives, students’ overall digital access situation. This is not only about network- but also about the
public libraries, museums, etc. availability of home computer to the availability of power. Once the problem is understood,
various measures can be planned.
When there is adequate home infrastructure, campus institutions still need to tune services
3.6.3 Sketch the New Outdoor Physical Network Infrastructure for seamless home access, ensure VPN services, etc. On the other spectrum, if there is a se-
vere access problem with home connectivity- education institutions can work with regional
The fiber network for the campus should reach each of the buildings’ main distribu- providers to offer subsidized education-related home bandwidth. If many students lack a
tion boards (MDBs). There are many complex design considerations. The planning home computer, the institute should work with the government to provide computers and
team should identify fiber landing location, the main distribution board (MDB), and bandwidth packages for these students. It can partner with vendors to offer low-cost buy-
a secured well-placed wall cabinet. MDB is a point where the fiber from outside will ing options for students. It can also establish Wi-Fi coverage to select community/public
terminate. The team should plan a core campus backbone made of fiber cables places. There are also special routing arrangements possible with local ISPs to reduce aca-
laid in ducts and trenches with at least 2-point redundancy and reaches those land- demic bandwidth costs (as described in strategy 4.1).
ing points. Campus fibers are prone to frequent cuts and breaks. All outdoor fibers
should be placed underground except for exceptional situations, so the chance that
it gets cut or vandalized is reduced.
3.6.5 Develop Distribution/Building Network: From Core to Classroom
How should the fiber be routed? It is essential to overprovision the investment
in fiber infrastructure. Fiber networks are evolutionary. The team should anticipate Similarly, the building network needs to be planned and estimated, and this work can get
changes that will take place (e.g., new buildings and roads coming up and avoid quite detailed. There are many complex considerations to make, and will need experienced
placing fiber lines there. The team can later reroute- but that will increase hops and engineering. Once the planning team has the building maps, they should hire a profes-
splicing. Without planning, the campus might will end-up with unnecessarily circu- sional team to help with the layout. Broadly, it requires identifying the wall outlets and
itous topology with long fiber paths even when the physical distances might be wireless access points. There are various types of spaces such as classrooms, office rooms,
much smaller. Campuses should minimally have optical fiber to all building(s) with specialized laboratories, computer labs, seminar and meeting rooms, administrative/office
active classrooms and the administrative office. rooms, hallway, and public spaces. Residence quarters will have living spaces. Each comes
in various sizes and utilization density. These make the network design case-specific.
Once the planning team obtains the campus maps and current network layout, and
the building surveys, they should develop the designs for these campuses. The four
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It is important to budget civil and mechanical engineering costs which are often as-
sociated with state-of-the-art networking. The wireless access points and fiber outlet 3.6.7 Plan for Connecting / Peering
locations are to be reached from edge distribution boards (EDB). It is essential to
make the right choice of sites for the MDP/EDPs in a building. These should be eas- The campus network must have uplinks to the regular Internet and other RENs (I2). Most
ily accessible as all cables originate from this closet. These should be secured under NRENs today buy the internet (I1) connectivity in bulk for the member universities. HEI/
lock and key at all times. TVETs can get both I1 and I2 connectivity via their NREN. It is also common for HEI/TVETs
to have backup connectivity to I1 by a second ISP for redundancy. This is the major cost
item for most campuses. The planning team should find any available information on cur-
The planning team will also need to understand the power budget. 24/7 power is rent peering arrangements and costs incurred (if any).
costly, even in advanced countries like the US, many buildings built decades ago
do not have adequate power. So, in many existing buildings, will need extra power,
which will significantly increase the project cost.
3.6.8 Acquire IP Addresses

Also, all major equipment in these locations should have 24/7 uninterrupted power
besides the primary power. This can mean budgeting for additional battery backup Each campus also needs to obtain Internet Protocol (I.P.) address allocations to connect its
system or extra circuits from standby campus generators. The cost of standby power devices to the internet. Campuses doing their network management (all large and medium
grows nearly proportionally with the duration of expected outage which are normally school) should also obtain their own permanent Autonomous Systems (AS). Each device
very high in remote and regional campuses in Africa. needs an IP address to be part of the internet. Without IP addresses, African HEIs/TVETs
will not be able to participate in internet-of-things (IoT) revolution.
The planning team should obtain the building plans for the template universities- at
least for the three most important buildings to be studied. The team should jointly The official allocation of 32 billion IPV4 addresses is over, most of these are now owned by
develop the designs for these specific cases in templates. The three templates will Western institutions and are traded in the secondary market at exorbitant costs. Currently,
serve as roadmaps for the individual HEI/TVET’s in those groups for further custom- new IPV6 addresses are being rolling. Since western countries have a large block of IPv4 ad-
ization. dresses they have little incentive to implement IPv6, but rest of the world is rapidly moving
towards IPv6. Thus, African HEIs/TVETs should obtain IPv6 addresses on priority.
Minimum goal: The planning team should plan for all active classrooms should have
Wi-Fi/Internet. How can campuses get it? These are obtained from AfriNIC, which is the Regional Internet
Registry (RIR) organization for Africa. For Africa, these are allocated by AfriNIC, which is the
Regional Internet Registry (RIR) for Africa. In some countries, the NREN can obtain provider
independent I.P. address blocks for all its member universities and is then allocate those to
3.6.6 Develop a Plan for Outdoor Wireless Network each of HEI/TVET member institution.
The outdoor space on the campuses also needs wireless coverage. This can be done
by placing special wireless access points (AP). These are typically on street lampposts
from which these draw power. A point-to-point wireless meshing creates their back-
haul. The mesh eventually connects to an AP (often with an antenna) located on the 3.6.9 Determine which Applications & Services will be Offered
nearby building’s rooftop. This landing AP. will be connected to an EDPs with copper.
The planning team should identify the open public spaces for template institutions. The main task of modern campus I.T. unit is to exert the power of digital connectivity (via
wired/wireless campus network & NRENs) and transform it into real IT/IS services. An exten-
sive set of enterprise applications and services can serve as an engine for that. The planning
Minimum goal: The team should plan in a way that at least 50% of public outdoor team needs to prepare a stock of all the specific campuses’ services. Many of these services
places (stadium, campus center, and one common study space in each building)
have ample Wi-Fi coverage.
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are integrated into multiple subsystems. Example of such systems are learning man-
agement systems (LMS) used to deliver digital classes, university enterprise resource 3.6.10.1 Role of Campus ITS Units in Universities Administration
planning (ERP) and automation systems that cover almost every business operation
of the institutions. Examples of ERP processes include university finance, student A campus I.T. department needs to serve an extensive range of services besides operat-
admissions, human resource management, to campus bus operation. Each service ing the complex network. These units can be a small cell, a service department, or a full
requires some ‘computing infrastructure’ i.e., network, computing and storage units. division. In many western universities these units have grown and are considered vital that
I.T. units must make business decision where best to place the infrastructure based these units are headed by vice president level officer. This unit is expected to grow and
on their operational and fixed costs, and business and legal constraints. Many are further evolve in the foreseeable future in all HEI/TVETs globally. The planning team should
now operated from off-campus infrastructure which increasingly require cloud inte- analyze the current placement of the Campus I.T. division in the HEI/TVET’s overall admin-
grations. The planning team should create a list of current services and the target istrative hierarchy that will allow it to serve best etc. Often universities have multiple cam-
new sets. This will set the basis for planning the next items. Contracting with third puses. Typically, all I.T. services are easily scalable; thus, software/systemic centralization is
party vendors must be performed with consideration to data privacy and information desirable and cost-saving. However, the service administration design must ensure there is
sharing risks. The details of these services planning are overwhelming because of the on-time/on-the-spot help is available to all ‘edu-persons’ irrespective of their geographic
sheer richness of each. Many of the major educational service by now has eco-sys- or administrative proximity.
tem as large as the network planning itself.
3.6.10.2 Physical Space Requirements

3.6.10 Identify Staff Needs for Campus ITS Units
Finally, the planning team should plan for physical space requirements of the Campus I.T.
Campus Information Technology/Services (Campus ITS) units are no longer a fancy unit. The unit will need space for office, network operating center (NOC), equipment, back-
auxiliary service for an academic institution. Every HEI/TVET today needs a highly up storage, data center, excellent training facility. It will also need strategic presence of its
competent human resources in the information services division. None of the tech- staff across the campus(es) and departments.
nology components, including the network investment, will sustain without a capa-
ble I.S. team on campus. There are however many models to efficiently organize I.T.
divisions in a modern campus. The planning team should collect the current organ-
ograms from model peer I.S. divisions universities. They should also consider the
3.6.11 Develop a Consolidated and Unified Service Framework
major infrastructure (network, computing platform, data center, etc.,), major services
(LMS, ERP), and major technology (unified communication, Data Transfer Node, etc.) The national planning team should think beyond individual institutions.
to be deployed. This will provide the base data for the ideal workforce for its I.S.
unit/division. While an expected core competency is needed, the number of human How does the overall undertaking of campus I.T. fits in a national framework? In many
resources will depend on how much the services will be in-sources or outsourced. cases, the digital services can be offered as a service from one consolidated platform than
Once the base services data is available, the planning team should jointly develop having the same infrastructure in each institution. In the US, student email services are
the organogram for the templates. The three templates can be used as a roadmap increasingly handled by national providers at the backend. In emerging economies, there
for the individual HEI/TVETs in those groups for further customization. are often excellent opportunities to build a national model- which may not have evolved in
the developed world. A different kind of example of unification can be a national IT cad-
Minimum goal: The planning team should identity what human resources that will be re. Can the services in I.T. divisions across the country be placed under a harmonized civil
needed for each of services suggested. service code (position titles, benefits, salary structure, benefits, service rules)? There will be
scope of professional advancement, talent sharing, and talent movement between HEI/
TVETs within this system. Consolidation can help extend services to remote locations and
thus a few units at the central level can serve large number of smaller institutions like TVETs.
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3.6.12 Outline a Human Resources and Capacity Development Plan 3.6.12.1 Training Programs for IT/IS staff
As described in Section 2, at the heart of all technological investment is the human The planning team should account for employee turnover. It is crucial to make training
resource capacity. The equipment itself becomes obsolete in just 5 to 8 years. The accessible to more than the immediate person and train potential future backups. Also,
core of competency is a comprehensive human capacity development and training there is a need to ensure continuity of supply of engineering talent for the organization. As
plan. Operation of a modern Campus I.T. in the background requires continuous an academic organization, they have the luxury of identifying the best first and should use
knowledge upgrade and considerable technical and managerial skills development. it to their advantage (e.g., could plan to have a regular plan for student internships). The
Unfortunately, in the developing world, often the only training, if available, to I.T. institutions should encourage managers to document the detailed processes they follow
personnel are from vendors. Sole reliance on vendor training is often blinding- even and develop a handbook.
if it is received from multiple competing vendors. Ideally, I.T. engineers should obtain
independent knowledge from peers. Secondly, the IT/IS Division also should have an extensive plan for faculty, student, and staff
training specifically for each of its planned user services. There are complex constituencies
Besides the technical knowledge of how to operate and fix, essential managerial and on campus who need to be educated and energized. The faculty, staff, and students often
oversight skills are needed to transform technology into a true service- with must be see very different user and service interfaces. These all need to be customized and grouped
delivered with industry standard quality assurance. Also, increasingly important for and trained when you start/upgrade new services and note that new staff/faculty/student
management to educate themselves about contemporary data privacy and informa- cohorts join yearly. The planning team should develop a plan for continuous training of IT/
tion sharing practices, especially when it comes to contracting. IS divisions.
Like the NREN officers, The I.T. cells in its member institutions will require intense
knowledge sharing and hands-on training, particularly in the early stages of this proj-
ect from design, procurement, handover, commissioning of systems and processes 3.6.13 Estimate Cost of the Plan
to move to operation stages as envisioned in this upgrade. This intense and complex
training need is best provided if it can be arranged with a peer partner. This may For Campus Network and Information Infrastructure component, it is particularly important
include V.C., expert visits, and/or on-site hand-on training in partner facility. Once to sketch out the rough business case of the redesigned Campus IS/IT division and associ-
past the initial stage, Campus I.T. will also need sustained training in years to come, ated investment once it will be operational. As an organ of institutional investment, it will
however, at a reduced intensity. Often country NRENs arrange peer-to-peer training be a permanent part of an existing institution that impacts other equally critical current
programs such as workshops/V.C. etc. Regional NRENs also organize yearly larger operations on the campus.
knowledge exchange summits/meetings. HEI/TVET needs to seek membership and
ensure the continued participation of its engineers in those events. The major expenditure items to consider are:
Minimum goal: The planning team should plan for at least 40 hours of job-specific
training for each position/year. Identify three most compelling topics that the cam- Capital Expenditures (CAPEX) Operating Expenses (OPEX)
pus I.T. has least current knowhow.
• Cost of implementing the campus core • Uplink/transit traffic charges (typically to
and distribution/building network links NREN and another national ISPs)
(preferably fibers)
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Minimum goal: The planning team should identify indicators that contribute to the institu-
• Equipment costs such as routers, access • Staff salary and benefits tion’s mission. Examples are indices that reflect the use of technology in the campus, digital
points, switches, firewalls, controllers, and education, access to remote high-value knowledge, adoption of digital education, ease
servers for the network and various other of access, faculty success in research productivity that relies significantly on digital means,
planned services
number of remote research collaboration that takes advantage of the network, etc.
• Purchase and one time multi-year license • Training and capacity building for human
fees for network software and equipment resource development
features
3.6.15 Assess Current Practices and Suggest Reforms
• Acquisition/upgrade of software/cloud-
based large scale container applications The DSCAP is not a stand-alone project on campus network. For existing Campus I.T., this is
such as LMS and ERP are typical capital the golden opportunity to seek systemwide overhaul of the current practices. The planning
investment cost team should think big and out-of-the-box. The team should evaluate existing practices crit-
ically and identify what can be done differently to help achieve goals more efficiently and
cost-effectively. For example, should the institution adopt a change management software/
wiki to improve the service response time, instead of relying on human memory. Should I.T.
Just like the NREN, campus digital infrastructure upgrade plan also needs to be implement a one-stop helpdesk not only for IT tickets- but for all aspects of campus edu-
realistic. It is important to prioritize the projects based on their cost and benefit to cation? Should I.T. procurement practice change with capable vendors such as demanding
the goals. The priorities are often set with respect to the high-level national goals ‘more value’ and ‘partnership’ instead of traditional ‘customer/vendor’ relationship, such as
as well as institutional goals. For example, with respect to DSCAP goals, the team allowing integration with hardware, software and applications What are the needs of cam-
must consider which campus applications are critical with respect to the higher-level pus research units besides that of academics? Can I.T. help forging an I.T. partnership with
goals articulated in strategy-2 and strategy-3. Which institutions offer most of the a peer institution to subscribe to a new interactive learning tool cost-effectively (partnering
target group students selected in those. The campus network planning teams should with another university is still a novel concept in many countries), perhaps using strategy-3
prioritize connectivity to those. Similarly, it must consider institutional goals. Such as as starting point.
if the institution wants to expand its capacity in certain field by expanding online-ed-
ucation? Does it want to significantly expand international research collaboration? Also, with the scaling up of campus digital capability the issues of student data privacy, in-
formation sharing policies, fair usage policy, digital rights, disability access will need to be
considered. Another important area that needs a critical review the process of contracting
service vendors. The lack of institutional preparedness about the digital regulatory regi-
3.6.14 Determine Performance & Impact Indicators mens and practices without right safeguards in place can seriously impact that very institu-
tions that campus I.T. intends to serve.
Campus I.T. is the cornerstone of the institution’s digital uplift and is connected to
its strategic mission. The planning team should identify a set of non-financial perfor-
mance indicators (P.I.s). These must align with the DSCAP’s broader goals but in the Minimum goal: The planning team should articulate reforms that can improve campus I.T.
long term with that of the institution beyond DSCAP investment. These will vary from capabilities.
institution to institution.
All performance indicators should be measurable. Each phase of financial invest-

ment is expected to improve these achievement indicators. These indicators are to
be measured, tracked after that, and used for plan improvement.
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Appendix
Data Collection Tool
Please visit the link listed below to download the data collection tool:
https://www.worldbank.org/en/programs/all-africa-digital-transformation
122 123
Contents
Background 128
Cuntry context/defining a
baseline 129
Goal for the Strategy 132
Specific programs/activities
133
Key policy changes 155

Indicators 156
Strategy 5 Timelines 158
Capacity building and Implementation 158
business process re- Costing 164
engineering in Ministries Monitoring and Review 166
& Agencies Annexure 168
124 125
neering to evaluate the alignment of the business processes to the goals of the digi-
Summary of this section tal plan. For each of the business process, the planning team will develop indicators
to inform the progress and monitor the milestones achieved in the action plan.
This section will help the planning group1 to: Finally, the logic model is proposed as a framework for the monitoring and review of
the progress of the digital plan. The logic model maps the resources and activities
• Reflect on the current state of staff capacity in the Ministries to the desired effects to be achieved and can be used to identify gaps and needs
during both the design and implementation of the digital plan.
• Identify capacity needs and modalities for building capacity for the digital plan
• Evaluate the current business processes’ alignment to the goals of the digital plan Given the unique contexts and the varying stage of development of each country, as
well the differences in the focus of the digital plan adopted, the capacity needs and
• Re-engineer, where necessary, business processes to better serve the goals of business processes to be re-engineered will differ. Notwithstanding the differences
the digital plan in emphases and priorities, the capacity needs and business processes described
in the following sections are fundamental to the implementation of the digital skills
• Monitor and review the capacity building and business processes efforts
framework.
This section focuses on 2 aspects which are i) Capacity Requirements, and ii) Busi-
ness Processes Re-engineering. In this section, the planning team will identify the
goals in identifying the staffing profile and capacity building for the ministry. The
Background team will also identify the appropriate modalities for capacity building as the ministry
embarks on the digital plan.
As part of preparing the country towards digitalisation in the Higher Education & TVET
sector, it is critical to review and (re)deploy human resources in the ministries which will im- The team will also outline the business processes to be re-engineered and highlight
plement oversight and develop expertise, as part of building up the capacity requirements the alignment to the goals of the digital plan. Aspects relating to stakeholder’s man-
to lead, manage, and staff the digital plan. In this guidance note, the digital plan refers to agement, communication of the benefits of the change, the assessment of the risks
the design, implementation, and review aspects, rather than just the planning phase. involved in the change, as well as the measures to monitor and review the improve-
ments from the re-engineering of the business processes should also be explicated.
It is also equally important to review the organisational structure, and re-engineer business
processes, where necessary to better deliver the results of the new digital plan initiative.
This is critical as the operational processes, management processes, and support process-
es, are central to both efficient and effective implementation of the digital transformation Cuntry context/defining a baseline
efforts.
In this section, the planning team will complete a questionnaire to take stock of the current Questionnaire – Staff capacity
staff capacity and from there, plan for the building of staff capacity to implement the digital
plan. The planning team will also complete a questionnaire on business process re-engi- In order to identify current capacity within Ministry staff, Questionnaire 1 in the An-
nex can be used. The questionnaire serves as a self-assessment tool for the working
1 Throughout this document, the terms “planning group”, “working group”, and “planning team” refer to team group to reflect on the current state in their country, and from there identify gaps
in the current capacity of the ministry in light of the Digital Skills Framework to be
implemented.
126 127
The working group for capacity building and business process re-engineering should be
tasked to respond to the questionnaire. The feedback should be consolidated by a secre- SMART Goal Setting
tariat and presented to the working group for discussion and planning on capacity building.
Questionnaire – Business processes SMART is an acronym that represents Specific, Measurable, Achiev-
able, Realistic, and Timely. These are the characteristics of good goals
In order to identify business processes’ alignment to the digital plan, Questionnaire 2 in the and are typically used in organisation development. The SMART
Annex can be used. The working group is to identify the specific business processes under framework could be used by the working group in their goal setting.
the categories of Operational processes, Management processes, and Support process-
es to evaluate. Each of the process should be addressed with the entire set of questions.
Where there are no ready responses to be made, the working group should note the gap
The goals should be expressed in a specific manner that is measur-
in information and raise that as a point for subsequent discussion.
able, and hence its progress can be tracked. For instance, to have
a team of 5 members that are skilled in qualitative approaches to
The working group for capacity building and business process re-engineering should be programme evaluation. The goal should be actionable in that it is
tasked to respond to the questionnaire. The feedback should be consolidated by a secre- something that the management can influence or mandate. In the
tariat and presented to the working group for discussion and planning on business process above case, the management can send its staff for training to grow
re-engineering. the capability in qualitative approaches to programme evaluation.
The goal should also be realistic within the context of the country.
For instance, perhaps having 5 members trained in this competency
Preparing a baseline is not practicable in some countries, and the number could be scaled
down accordingly. Other countries may choose to outsource this ex-
Using the information collected from the two questionnaires as well as the reflections from
pertise, rather than develop it in-house for practical reasons. Finally,
the discussions, the working group should proceed to set the goals. In the planning for
a timeline, in this case, perhaps 2 years, should be expressed so that
capacity building, specific goals in the areas of 1) Staffing Profile, 2) Capacity Needs for the
progress towards this goal can be tracked and evaluated.
Digital Plan, and 3) Modalities for Capacity Building should be identified. In the planning
for business process re-engineering, the specific business processes should be identified
and evaluated in relation to its alignment and contribution to the digital skills framework.
More information on the setting of SMART Goals can be found at:
These goals set, like the other goals in the action plan, should be specific, measurable, https://corporatefinanceinstitute.com/resources/knowledge/other/
achievable, realistic, and timely. For example, in determining the goals for capacity needs, smart-goal/
it is useful to identify the expertise needed to design, implement, and monitor the digital
plan. Following which, the response to the questions on Skills and Expertise will reflect the
current status of the skills possessed by the current team. The working group can then iden-
A template for setting SMART Goals can be found at: https://www.
tify the specific shortfall in the skills and expertise needed and decide on the best way to
ucop.edu/local-human-resources/_files/performance-appraisal/
possess this capability – either by building up specific staff’s competencies, or by procuring
How%20to%20write%20SMART%20Goals%20v2.pdf
this capability from outsourcing through vendors.
128 129
Each of these processes should be evaluated through the set of questions in the
Goal for the Strategy questionnaire to determine if it needs to be re-engineered in alignment to the goals
of the digital plan. Business processes identified to be re-engineered should be for-
mulated as goals that can be monitored and reviewed based on the questions in the
Capacity Requirement is about the human capability and resources involved in the design, questionnaire.
implementation, monitoring, and review of the digital plan in IHLs and TVETs.
Aspects of capacity requirements include:
• Staffing Profile Specific programs/activities for Strategy 5

• Capacity Needs for Digital Plan
• Modalities for Capacity Building Capacity Building
From the responses to the questionnaire, the gaps in staffing profile and capacity needs
would have been identified. The goals set should relate to the engagement of the staff and Staffing Profile
the bringing in and building up of specific capacity needs required for the digital plan. Fol-
lowing from that, the appropriate modalities for capacity building could also be explored. The success of the digital plan lies primarily with the leadership. However, the mem-
bers of the team contribute significantly to its success as well. As such it is important
to consider the composition of the leaders as well as the team members carefully, in
Business Process Re-engineering involves a review and refinement of existing work process- light of the role which they will play. The digital skills level of the relevant people is
es so as to be more efficient and effective in delivering the business output and outcomes. described in relation to the roles they play.
Business processes are typically organised in the following categories:

Digital Leaders
• Operational Processes
Digital leadership is the strategic use of an organization’s digital assets to achieve
• Management Processes organizational goals. This can be dealt with both organizationally and at an individual
level. Looking at it from an individual level, this is often carried out by those respon-
• Support Processes sible for overseeing the digital assets. An effective digital leader will be aware of the
business goals and knows how their job responsibilities support it. Digital leaders
Operational processes are central to the execution of the tasks of the organisation. Exam- explore how technology can be used to help their businesses become much more
ples of specific operational processes could include the deployment of certain goods and responsive to the needs of their customers and the ever-changing requirements. A
services to the stakeholders. successful digital leader understands the importance of inbound data and the pro-
cesses within the organization that supports it. They place high value on their com-
Management processes relate to the supervisory function of the management and could in- munication, creativity and willingness to explore the ways that new emerging tech-
clude processes for the planning & deployment, budgetary supervision, and the monitoring nology and digital information can be used to help organizational success. In today’s
and evaluation of programmes. world, digital leadership is an obvious balancing act which requires a very unique
set of skills to drive success for that leader, organization and overall workforce. Thus,
leadership is an extremely important function of any management, helping to maxi-
Support processes enable the smooth implementation of operational processes. Examples mize efficiency to achieve business goals.
of support processes include corporate services, such as finance, human resource, admin-
istrative and technical support. Digital leaders are from the coordinating ministry and are the senior leaders in the
ministry. Senior leaders comprise the top management, including the political ap-
130 131
pointment holders. Typically, in the ministry, universities and TVET, a top civil servant
helms the organisation. This could be the Director-General of Education in the minis- Profile of the Chair of the Working Group on Business Processes
try, Presidents, provosts and deans at universities and TVETs. While the top-tier offi- Re-Engineering
cials may not directly be involved in the working group, they should appoint a senior
official, preferably 1 level from the ministers, to chair the working group on capacity 1. Designs and Directs the Strategy on Business Processes Re-Engineering
building and business processes re-engineering. This is critical as it will signal the
2. Coordinates the Business Processes Re-Engineering efforts across ministries
importance which the political heads place on the digital transformation efforts. The
chair of the working group also needs to be sufficiently high-level to make important
decisions relating to capacity building and business process reengineering.
• Senior official that is 1 to 2 Levels from the Minister
Digital leaders have a working knowledge of the role of technology and how it can
be harnessed for digital transformation. However, the digital planners are not techni- • Have strong leadership and management capability
cal experts but are highly skilled in leadership and management of both projects and
• Have proven track -record in leading organisational change
people. The role of the digital leaders is to be in-charge of the business processes,
communication, professional development, and performance management of the
• Have expertise and experience in developing driving Business Processes Re-Engineering
team. They are the top-level executives and administrators of the IHLs and TVETs.
efforts in a ministry or comparable organisation
They will work in close consultation with the digital specialists.
• Have high expertise in organisational development or change management
Profile of the Chair of the Working Group on Capacity Building
• Have a general level of digital skills
1. Designs and Directs the Strategy on Capacity Building
• Background and educational training in business management, auditing, law, or
2. Coordinates the Capacity Building efforts across ministries organisational change preferred
• Previous experience as Director of Organisational Development, Finance, Human Resources,

Business Development, or equivalent, preferred
• Senior official that is 1 to 2 Levels from the Minister
• Have strong leadership and management capability

Digital Specialists
• Have proven track -record in leading organisational change
Digital specialists are technical experts over specific domains. Digital specialist pro-
• Have expertise and experience in developing driving Capacity Building efforts in a ministry vide leadership over specific domains in the digital plan based on their deep knowl-
or comparable organisation edge and experience in the area. For example, in the strategy of capacity building,
the technical experts would include senior technologists who are able to identify the
• Have high expertise in organisational learning and staff development
skills gaps of the team, for instance, the need to develop capacity in interpreting and
using analytics from learning management systems, to inform policy design and pro-
• Have a general level of digital skills
gramme evaluation. They are the engine that power the digital transformation efforts
• Background and educational training in education management or technology-based of the country. As such, investments in building the capacity of digital specialists will
courses preferred ensure the sustaining and scaling up of the digital plan over time.
• Previous experience as Director of Human Resources, Finance, Education Management,

Organisational Development, or equivalent, preferred
132 133
Examples of domains for digital specialists include:
• Digital Security – this relates to the maintenance of the confidentiality, integrity, and Competency area Digital specialist level Proficiency level Domains of knowledge
protection of data as well as the systems across various environments.
Systems Engineering
• Enterprise Mobility Management – this relates to the use and access of mobile devices as
well as corporate apps and intranet services, at any place and at any time. Application Development
• Cloud Computing – this relates to the exploitation of cloud services for the storage, Component integration
retrieval, and processing of data and for the access to computing power from data centers
over the Internet Architecture Design
• Digital Applications – this relates to knowledge and skills in the operations of the specific Lead professionals / Senior Digital Specialist (DSp) Level 4 Needs identification
platforms, such as learning management systems, developed and used in the organization Highly Specialized Managers / Principal &5
Testing
• Big Data Analytics – this relates to the harnessing of big data collected from various
platforms such as learning management systems. Based on trends and patterns, projections Solution Deployment
can be identified for planning.
Documentation production
Information security man-

agement
Advanced Senior professionals / Man- Digital Specialist (DSp) Level 2

agers &3
Digital specialists are the thought-leaders and subject matter experts. They can be in-
house, or contracted, authority who will provide the professional perspectives on the issues Intermediate Associates/junior professionals Digital Specialist (DSp) Level 1
experienced. While the technical experts may report to the Executive Management Lead-
ers in hierarchy, they should be represented on high-level committees and involved in ma- Middle Managers
jor decision-making. Technical Experts are specialist that provide leadership over specific
domains in the digital plan based on their deep knowledge and experience in the area. For The middle managers are the line supervisors. Depending on the complexity of the
example, in the strategy of capacity building, the technical experts would include senior digital plan, the middle managers can be organised to look after divisions, branches,
technologists who are able to identify the skills gaps of the team, for instance, the need to and sections. An example of the organisational chart of an Infocomms Division, with
develop capacity in interpreting and using analytics from learning management systems, to Physical Infrastructure Branch, and Digital Infrastructure Branch, as well as its respec-
inform policy design and programme evaluation. tive sections is represented in Figure 1. The middle managers, like the staff, should
have a working level of digital skills in the operations which they oversee. However,
as middle managers, they are expected to demonstrate leadership and supervisory
capability as well. Their appointments could be either as Deputy Directors or Assis-
tant Directors, as shown in the example of an organisational plan in Figure 1.
134 135
The administrative staff focuses on the support for the team, particularly in ensuring
Staff efficient processes and documentation. They need only to have a general level of
digital skills, mainly in technical skills related to administrative productivity activities.
The rest of the team members are organised into operational staff and administrative staff.
The operational staff focuses on the delivery of the business proposition of the section they
are a part of. The operational staff would have a working level of digital skills to be able Figure 1: Middle Managers in an Organisational Structure
to support the functions of the team. As shown in Figure 1, the Infocomm Infrastructure
Division has two branches – Physical Infrastructure, and Digital Infrastructure. The Physical
Infrastructure branch is responsible for the providing the hardware, including computing
equipment for the organisation, as well as ensuring the maintenance and optimisation of
the wireless network in the organisation. Operational staff in the Facilities Section will need
a working level of digital skills in, for example, providing technical support, on the use of
the equipment procured. Operational staff in the Connectivity section, would need a work-
ing level of digital skills to on network connections.
Likewise, the Digital Infrastructure Branch is responsible for the digital services for the or-
ganisation. These including the digital initiatives and programmes that the organisation
offers, such as online courses, the use and maintenance of major applications platforms,
such as the learning management systems, as well as research and innovations activities.
Operational staff in the programming section are required to have a working level of digital
skills in relations to the specific programme they look after. Examples of such programmes
can range from digital inclusion initiatives to online courses for digital learning. Operational
staff in the Applications section are required to have a working knowledge of the specific
applications used in the organisation. This could include the creation and maintenance of a
digital repository of professional learning e-resources, and a learning management system
for the delivery of digital learning. Operational staff in the Innovations section are expect-
ed to have a high level of digital skills as they are responsible for the experimentation and
innovation projects of the organisation. Examples of such projects could include the use of
virtual and augmented reality for digital learning, or exploratory work related to harnessing
advanced analytics and artificial intelligence in education. Operational staff in the Innova- Tip:
tions section would work closely with the Technical Experts, who may serve as project leads
or consultants.
Digital leaders are generalists but ‘watches the game’ and lead
the administration. Digital specialists that have deep expertise
and domain knowledge. Both should be equally involved in deci-
sion-making.
136 137
financial and budgetary planning. Specialisations in accounting and financial management,

Capacity Needs for Digital Plan with specific understandings of the requirements of technology, both for infrastructural and
programming are useful. If such specialisations are not available in the ministries or agen-
The team needs to possess the right skillset to implement the various aspects of the cies, it is recommended that partnership with industry be established. For instance, other
digital plan effectively. They are described as aspects, rather than phases, so as to experts from industry could be represented in the committee and tasked to jointly work on
challenge the conventional thinking that they occur sequentially, that is from design, the costing forecast and budget requirements.
to implementation, and to review. Instead, it is crucial to recognise that in the digital
plan, the three aspects should be considered at the same time. For instance, as the
implementation is occurring, design, and re-design of the digital plan must continue
to happen. Also, as the digital plan is being designed, the review aspect must be
Implementation:
an essential component in the formulation, rather than an afterthought. As such, the
3 aspects are not just iterative, but also simultaneous. This recognition demands The implementation aspect requires people with deep expertise and knowledge of a spe-
specific people, with niche expertise, to be responsible for the specific aspect of the cific area related to the scope and deliverables of the business. For example, specialists on
plan. digital applications are needed to effectively support the work in the appropriate curation
and selection of available digital applications marketed by external vendors, as well as the
While most expertise is relevant for creation and customisation of new digital applications for the unique needs and purposes
all aspects, there are specific exper- of the business. These specialists also need to be concerned with issues such as practicabil-
tise needed in certain phases. The ity, sustainability, and scalability of projects, innovations, systems and processes. The spe-
aspects of the digital plan are rep- cialists focus on change management and lead in the areas of strategy, business processes
resented in Figure 2 and the niche re-engineering, as well as in the monitoring and addressing of feedback arising from the
expertise needed for each aspect implementation of the digital plan.
is described in the following para-
graphs.
Review:
Figure 2. Aspects of the Digital Plan In the review aspect, the expertise needed included include assessment and facilitation
skills. Assessment expertise include being able to propose, monitor, and measure the per-
formance indicators specific to the business as well as distinguish between quantitative
and qualitative indicators, as well as the difference between output and outcomes. Output,
such as the number of students trained, is usually measurable through quantitative means.
Outcomes are a result of specific output, and are usually less tangible, and are often mea-
sured through qualitative means and by proxy indicators. An example of an outcome is the
sense of the extent in which students are prepared for the future careers.
Design:
Skills and expertise needed in this aspect include people capable of doing horizon Facilitation skills are also needed in the review aspect of the digital plan to collect the views
scan and future-casting. They must have the knowledge of developments in the of the staff, as well as the stakeholders. The stakeholders can include the target beneficia-
digital landscape internationally and have the ability to synthesis this information ries of the IHLs and TVETs, such as students, parents, employers. They also should include
and situate them in a contextually appropriate and nuanced manner. These experts the political leaders and top managements in other parallel organisations, such as other
need to have a strong sense of imagination, be creative, while having a grounded ministries. Facilitation skills are needed to elicit meaningful feedback and highlight issues
appreciation of the realities in the country. A critical set of expertise is in the area of from the stakeholders that can improve the next cycle of iteration.
138 139
contribution of the new hire to the digital transformation efforts is clearly made and weight-
Tip: ed against the cost of an additional employee.
The Design, Implementation, and Review aspects are not se- Talent Acquisition
quential but simultaneous. Plans for review should not be an af-
ter-thought but should be considered during the design. The talent net should be cast as wide as possible, subjected to constraints, such as wheth-
er the role must be filled by a citizen of the country. Professional head-hunting companies
could be engaged so as the best candidates for the role could be surfaced for consider-
ation.
Modalities for Capacity Building
The capacity required for the digital plan can be either outsourced, through consul- To Develop In-House or to Out-source Expertise? Here are some considerations:
tants and contractors, or in-house, through strategic hiring and a systematic process
of talent identification and development of present staff.
First, is the expertise gap a regular or once-off requirement? For in-

Strategic hiring is important to build up the organisation’s capability in identified stance, while it is possible to engage consultants to evaluate the suc-
areas of priority and importance. Strategic hiring involves a focus on the following 3 cess of the business, in light of the importance of the review aspect
areas: in the digital plan, it is useful to nurture in-house expertise to serve
this regular and strategic priority.
1. Capacity Needs Identification
2. Role Development
Second, is the cost of out-sourcing lower than the cost of nurturing
3. Talent Acquisition and maintaining in-house experts? This is more than just a financial
question as there could be opportunity cost in the process of hiring,
as well as the lost opportunity in developing local expertise.
Capacity Needs Identification
Strategic hiring begins from a keen assessment of the needs in which the role should Third, if outsourcing is required due to the current gap in in-house
serve. This can be achieved through reflecting on the answers to the questionnaire expertise, are there plans and systems in place for expertise-transfer?
offered in this guidebook and using them as a form of skills gap analysis to identify This will allow local staff to be mentored, guided, and developed
capacity needs in the digital transformation efforts. over time.
Role Development
The responsibilities of the role and the success criteria of the role should be clearly
explicated and worked out in consultation between the director, where the role will The value of developing in-house expertise include 1) having people with high nuanced
be situated, and the human resources director. This is important so that the potential contextual understanding and institutional knowledge, 2) building up a consistent team
140 141
that has a long-term commitment to the project as well as a greater sense of own- learning communities. Top-down support can include giving recognition, resources, as well
ership, and 3) optimising the human capital of the country by investing in the pro- as incentives to encourage the formation and sustenance of learning communities.
fessional development and growth of its people. In the following paragraphs, the
various strategies to build the capability of staff are discussed.
Overseas Visits and Attachment
Courses High potential staff could be offered opportunities for international exposure. This could be
short-term, such as participating in an international conference or embarking on a study trip
Training of staff can be systematised through milestones courses that are conducted. to another country. It could also be mid to long-term where the staff is seconded to a simi-
For instance, new staff are provided with on boarding training. Staff, with high poten- lar organization in another country to learn some of the best practices from other systems.
tial can be sent for milestones courses that prepare them for managerial responsibil- Investment of finances and time for these overseas attachments for high potential staff can
ities, and those groomed for top appointments can be sent for courses that include reap dividends in building up leaders and managers that have a more global awareness and
an overseas attachment or visit component, so as to broaden the staff’s horizon. In outlook. They are then poised to bring about improvements to the system by challenging
addition to structured programmes, topical courses can also be mounted at an ad- traditional mind-sets and deep-seated assumptions held over time within the institution.
hoc basis to meet specific needs or to ride on certain trends. These topical courses
can be interest-based or tend-based. For instance, a workshop on the Learning An-
Mentoring and Developmental Assignments
alytics in the IHL can equip staff with the latest developments and applications of
technology in their area of work. For younger staff that has the potential for managerial and leadership appointment, they
should be assigned to a mentor that can guide them on a personal level as well as serve as
Online Courses a role-model and inspiration for them. These staff should be also be given developmental
assignments to stretch their capability and further test their ability. Developmental assign-
The Internet offers access to a wealth of resources for professional learning. Online ments usually consist of wicked problems, where there are no easy solutions. Very often,
courses allow for learning anywhere, anytime, and at any pace. Massively Open On- trade-offs are an essential part of the solution for the problem. In evaluating how the staff
line Courses (MOOCs), from top universities internationally, are available for staff make decision and reconcile trade-offs, the management and mentor can have a deeper
to learn based on their interest and motivation. The challenges plaguing MOOCs understanding of the values, beliefs, and convictions of the staff in question.
include low completion due to the student’s loss of motivation, and uncertainty if
the accreditation from the MOOCs are valid. As such, it is important if the organiza-
Scholarships
tion wishes to encourage staff to embark professional development through online
courses to have ways of motivating staff to complete the online training, and recog-
Staff should be encouraged towards life-long learning so as to continuously improve them-
nize the accreditation obtained from MOOCs.
selves and keep relevant. This especially pertinent for staff working on the digital plan as
they need to stay abreast of the rapidly advancing and changing technology. Scholarships
Learning Communities should be provided for meritorious staff who can then be financially supported as they
pursue further studies, either within the country or overseas. A bond can be attached to
At the workplace, professional development of staff best happens in-situ, rather than scholarships given to staff, so as to ensure that there is return of investment after the staff
through formal courses. As such, communities of practice should be encouraged, complete his studies. Scholarships can also be given to bright and promising students in
where people working in the same area, or are interested in the same topic, or the universities, as part of green harvesting. These students could be offered a Masters of
assigned similar roles in the organization, should come together, to share their ex- PhD scholarship from the IHLs and TVETs for further studies in other local or international
periences, challenges, and ideas. This seldom naturally of course, and should be universities. This is where the IHLs and TVETS recruit students even before their graduation
intentionally cultivated, and encouraged. While some may be ground-up initiatives, so as to secure the best amongst the cohort.
it is more often than not, that top-down support is instrumental in nurturing these
142 143
Tip: Partnership with International Organisations
Investments in professional development of staff is good not just

for building staff capacity but also for nurturing a culture of learn-
ing. It is good for staff morale too. In resource-poor environments, partnerships with international aid
agencies as well as international financial institutions, such as the
World Bank can serve as catalyst to initiate well-conceived devel-
opment programmes on capacity building for the country. African
countries are encouraged to tap into the opportunities provided to
As the African countries differ in contexts and readiness, not all the knowledge and train its people in preparation of the digital transformation.
skills described in this guidance note may be present amongst the current staff. It is
useful to take stock of the gaps, as identified through the questionnaire, and grow Web portals such as Opportunities for Africa highlight resources
the capability of the team over time. For instance, while there may not be current and opportunities on capacity building for African countries from all
technical experts, for example, in the area of programme evaluation and assessment, around the world.
it will be adequate to begin by identifying staff with interest and potential to grow in
One example of an opportunity is the Partnership for Skills in Applied
this area. They can be trained, through the various modalities described above, over
Sciences, Engineering and Technology (PASET) in Africa, which pro-
time. Meanwhile, this capacity needs can be outsourced through short-term appoint-
vides the Regional Scholarship and Innovation Fund (RSIF) to train
ments from industry, as well as through contracting experts from overseas.
high quality PhD and post-doctoral students to address the human
resource gap of highly qualified specialists in the fields of applied
sciences, engineering, and technology (ASET) and to contribute
to improving research and innovation capacities in those fields in
sub-Saharan Africa.
RSIF is currently funded by contributions from African governments,
the World Bank and the Government of Korea; and implemented
by the International Centre of Insect Physiology and Ecology (icipe),
Nairobi, Kenya, as the RSIF Regional Coordinating Unit (RCU-icipe).
More information from: https://www.opportunitiesforafricans.com/

paset-regional-scholarship-innovation-fund-2019-2020/
144 145
Importance of Capacity Building: Major attention must be given to the development

of human resources and capacity at ministry level, universities and TVETs. Human re- Business Processes to be Reengineered
sources programmes, especially education, training and development programmes
must be consistent with the current HEIs landscape. Well planned human resources Business processes can be classified into 3 categories. They are Operational Processes,
development strategies create a pool of experts that are key for improved service Management Processes, and Support Processes. Examples of business processes include
delivery and effective execution of organizational responsibility. The ultimate aim of Policy development and development of standards and regulations, Development of skills
strategic capacity building initiative is to secure/avail a workforce that has the skills framework, Procurement, Staff hiring, and Technical assistance.
and knowledge to undertake the tasks required, and that is eager to learn new skills
in order to be able to meet future challenges. Examples of business process reengineering could include the setting up of standards and
specifications for institutional accreditation process and periodic quality checks in the as-
pect of technical infrastructure, procurement specifications, organizational structures and
staffing qualifications. Such standards and specifications may, in time, build a maturity mod-
el that tertiary educational institutions can benchmark themselves against. One such set
Business Process Re-engineering of standards could be having the ministries define a reference enterprise architecture that
includes technology architecture, application architecture, data architecture, and business
Business Process Re-engineering (BPR) involves a review and refinement of existing
architecture. The setting up of enterprise architecture helps to connect between process
work processes so as to be more efficient and effective in delivering the business out-
management and data management with the underlying applications and technological
put and outcomes. BPR is the fundamental rethinking and radical redesign of busi-
infrastructure.
ness processes to achieve dramatic improvements in critical, contemporary measures
of performance such as cost, quality, service and speed. BPR focuses on processes
where it works to redesign the strategic and value-added process which transcends An illustrative case for this could be that following the Country Survey Responses at the 5th
the organizational boundaries. It is a cross functional approach and requires support PASET Forum, it was identified that interoperability of systems Is still a major bottleneck in
from almost all the departments of the organization. Managerial support is prime for my countries. As such, it would be useful for the countries with these challenges to develop
the approach to be a success, which also involves a tactful and well-planned culture a clear framework, with a set of policies and guidelines to address this challenge.
change management program. It involves identifying the processes first and then
doing a through and in-depth As-In analysis. Once it’s done, the processes can be
identified for updating or review. Then a To-Be analysis is done and designed so that
the organization knows where is has to go and what it has to achieve. Once the plan
is in place, the reengineering process is implemented, and continuous improvement
is aimed at.
At the strategic level, the gaps between the present state of business processes and
requirements and the desired state of business processes and requirements should
be identified. Following that, the improvements to be made would have to be pri-
oritised. The team should also identify the areas of quick wins as well as those that
require a longer-term investment of time and resources. Finally, a culture of continu-
ous improvement, excellence and efficiency should be cultivated so that the change
can be sustained.
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Example: Designing for Interoperability in Mauritius Example: Considerations in Re-engineering the Business Process of Educational
Technology Procurement
Recognising the importance of interoperability, the government in

Mauritius has established an e-government interoperability frame- • Put in place basic procurement regulations because public money is involved.
work as part of its business processes re-engineering. The e-Gov-
ernment Interoperability Framework (e-GIF) provides clearly de- • The procurement process and decision to purchase should be fair, open and good value
fined policies and specifications for interoperability and information for money.
management. The framework defines the minimum set of technical
• The higher the value of the purchase and the more public money involved, the more
policies and specifications governing information flows across gov-
stringent the processes and higher in hierarchy the approval authority must be.
ernment and the public sector. They cover interconnectivity, data in-
tegration and information access. Details are provided at http://cib. • Consider a faster and less stringent process for small value purchases by empowering
govmu.org/english/documents/downloads/egif.pdf. middle managers with greater authority.
As part of this initiative, Mauritus has also set the Information High-
way platform to provides electronic data interoperability and shar- • Set up period contracts with vendors to facilitate ease of procurement for subsequent
ing platform The InfoHighway provides for sharing of data amongst purchases.
Government agencies and is designed as the service platform, which
allows multiple Government agencies to share data via E-Services
to other agencies. Mauritius is one good example in which the Gov-
ernment can take the lead in improving the business process of data
sharing across agencies to be more efficient and seamless. Details
In the re-engineering of business processes, it is necessary to examine the 3 categories of
of the InfoHigway can be found at ih.govmu.org.
processes - Operational Processes, Management Processes, and Support Processes, and
identify examples of processes in each category. Each of these processes should be evalu-
ated on the relevance and extent in which they serve the goals of the digital plan.
In the same survey, it was also identified that the procurement of educational tech-
nology poses enormous challenges in almost all countries. As such, it is useful to
explore how the business process related to the procurement of educational tech-
nology can be re-engineered to address the specific challenges identified. These
challenges include lack of information and standards on interoperability, discussed
earlier, as well as cumbersome procurement process which is not appropriate in
choosing the best technology. While in most countries, the procurement process is
guided by the Public Procurement Act or Public Procurement Regulatory Authority,
it is worthwhile to consider if these processes can be re-engineered in light of the
nature of educational technology procurement, as part of the digital transformation
efforts.
148 149
potential areas for improvement within this business process.

Example: Communication and Engagement Process
A common cause of organisational ineffectiveness is the failure in

communication. There are internal communication and external The next set of activities are related to the re-engineering of new processes or improving
communication. Internal communication involves making clear the current processes. The working group should identify how the areas of inefficiencies can be
organisation’s vision and mission, as well as the business objectives practically addressed. The contribution of the business process to the goals of the digital
to its staff. Whenever there are shifts to the IHLs and TVET’s priorities plan should also be clearly expressed. The Logic Model, described in the section on Review
and strategies in light of new demands and the changing environ- and Monitoring, can also be used to explicate the alignment between the input, processes
ments, it is critical to communicate them clearly and persuasively with the desired output and outcomes.
to the staff. Channels of internal communications include forums,
townhalls and meetings, newsletters, videos, websites, social media,
Following this, the working group should identify the groups of people involved in the
wall displays and banners, as well as in-person presentations. The
specific business process and consider how each set of stakeholders will be affected by
strength and power in the mobilisation of an organisation is depen-
the changes made in the business process. The working group should also look at ways in
dent on the effectiveness of its internal communication.
which the affected stakeholders can be supported through the change, where necessary.
External communication refers to engagement with the stakehold- As part of engaging with the stakeholders, the working group should also highlight the
ers. For the IHLs and TVETs, external stakeholders can include past, benefits in making changes to the business process. This should be communicated to the
present, and potential students, parents, the general public, as well stakeholders, and ways to do so should be explored.
as political leaders. External communication is closely associated
with the marketing and branding of the organisation. External com-
munication is done primarily to shape perception and make an im- In the re-engineering of the business process, the working group should also identify the
pression. As such, it should be done in a style that is consistent to potential risks created by making changes to the process. This should be studied carefully,
the identity, values, and ethos of the organisation. The reputation of and if the rewards from making the change justifies the risks, they should look at ways in
the organisation rests on the success of its external communication. which the risks can be mitigated.
Finally, the working group needs to think about how the improvements from changes in the
business process can be quantified. They should also consider ways in which evidence of
improvement from the change in business process be collected and eventually communi-
Activities to be undertaken in Business Process Re-engineering cated to the top management as well as the stakeholders involved. This is to build up con-
fidence in the efforts in re-engineering business processes towards digital transformation
For each of the business process, the following activities, following from the structure and to cultivate a culture of innovation and improvement within the ministry.
in the questionnaire for the re-engineering of the business processes should be un-
dertaken. The working group should identify the specific business process under the
categories of operational, management, and technical processes for review.
The first activity is to identify the purpose of the specific business process. The work-
ing group should consider how the business process is aligned to the goals of the
digital plan. If they are not, how can the process be improved to ensure a more
explicit alignment to the outcomes. This is followed by the review of the business
process by seeking out areas of inefficiencies within this process. Potential for syner-
gy and streamlining should be explored as well. The working group should identify
150 151
The sequence in business process re-engineering are as follows. Example: Corporate Services Processes
First, identify the business process within the 3 categories of Organi-

sational Process, Management Process, and Support Process.
The engine that enables the business is the corporate services. This
Next, for each of the business process identified, conduct the follow- includes the finance and human resources departments of the organ-
ing activities: isation. Examples of indicators of efficiency could be evident from
the average turn-around time of responses, a good audit record, and
• State the purpose of the business process regular reviews to streamline of bureaucratic process. Effectiveness
of the corporate services can also be gleaned from a positive em-
• Review the business process in light of the digital goal
ployee satisfaction survey, a conducive work culture and the service
compliments received.
• Propose ways in which the business process can be improved
• Consider the impact of the change on stakeholders

Corporate Services can also include the internal processes by which
• Highlight the benefits from the re-engineering of the business process the management operates. This includes, for example, the regularity
of management meetings and the nature of issues discussed. Man-
• Assess and mitigate the risks from the change in the business process agement processes also includes the extent of time and effort devot-
ed to strategic planning and the review of programmes.
• Develop instruments to measure the improvements from the re-engineering of the business
process.
Key policy changes Strategy 5
The policies change required in capacity building and business processes reengineering
centre on the following 3 main areas:
• Human Resource Policies, in hiring, retention, rewards and promotion
• Professional Learning Policies, in supporting staff’s development and growth
• Organisational Development Policies, in promoting a culture of improvement and

innovation
Embarking on the digital plan to transform the ministry would necessary entail a com-
mitment to be prepared to challenge, make adjustments, and make new policies in the
domains of human resource, professional learning and organisational development that
would support the capacity building and business processes re-engineering efforts.
152 153
Indicators
Example of Indicators, Timeline and Deliverables
The indicators for Strategy 5, at the macro-level, could track the progress in the de-
velopment of specific policies. For example, this could include review, development, Milestones Timeline Deliverables Mapping to objectives Responsible
approval, and institution of a structured capacity building and training programme

Governing Director General of Ministry
for digital leaders, shorter course approval process for Higher Education and TVETS
Develop governing board and 2021 board and Strategy 5.2 objective 1
curriculum on digital skills, responsive and efficient procurement process for small its legal
establish its legal framework
value purchases by empowering middle managers with greater authority. framework
developed
Reform governance structure to 2020 Governance Strategy 5.2 objective 1 HR Director of Ministry
accommodate evolving education structure
needs reformed
Examples of Indicators for Strategy 5
Develop a faster and less stringent 15 processes Director of Procurement
process for small value purchases 2021 re-engineered Strategy 5.2 objective 3
by empowering middle managers
Indicator Suggested Reporting Unit(s)
with greater authority.
Structured Training Programme for Digital Leaders Completion of the Stages for Programme Development 1) Review, Develop a structured capacity A capacity Director of HR
2) Development, 3) Approval, 4) Institution building and training programme 2021 building Strategy 5.1 objective 1
for digital leaders and training
Shorter Course Approval Process on Digital Skills for Completion of the Stages for Process Reengineering 1) Review, 2)
programme
Higher Ed and TVETs Development, 3) Approval, 4) Institution
developed
Responsive Procurement Process for Small Value Pur- Completion of the Stages for Policy Reengineering 1) Review, 2)
chase Development, 3) Approval, 4) Institution Establish a structured internship 2023-2025 internship Strategy 5.1 objective 3 Director of HR
programme programme
established
The indicators are specific to the capacity needs and business processes identified.
The indicator should operate on the micro-level to provide meaningful feedback on
the progress of the goals. It should also be reviewed regularly, so that obstacles to
the goals can be identified in a timely manner. Develop easy proxy indicators that
can serve as a quick alert to the management on issues to pay attention to is pro-
ductive and efficient. The indicators need not be comprehensive and should not too
unwieldy. The purpose is to signal for attention on issues in specific work processes.
154 155
Timelines Examples of Objectives and Activities in Capacity Building
Objective 1: Develop capacity of digital leaders at Ministry, TVETs and HEIs

The planning phase of the capacity building and business process re-engineering
efforts should happen in the first 1 year of the project. 1. Sub-objective 1.1: Enhance digital skills leadership and management capacity at
Objective 2: Develop
Ministry, managerial
TVETs and HEIs capacity of digital specialists at Ministry, TVETs and
In the planning phase, the working group should seek to collect the data to answer HEIs
the questionnaires and discuss the findings. Goals for each of the areas should ide- o Activities:
ally be formulated by the end of the first year. The operationalisation of the plans Activities:
should take place in the next 2 years, with a mid-term review in the third year. Fol- • Commission a coordinating committee to oversee the digital leadership
• training
Commission
for ministries,
a coordinating
TVETscommittee
and HEIs to oversee the digital specialist
lowing from the changes in the mid-term review, and end-term review should be
training for ministries, TVETs and HEIs
conducted by the end of the 5th year. • Develop a structured capacity building and training programme for digital
• leaders
Develop a structured capacity building and training programme for digital
specialists
• Develop resource mobilization capacity of staff
Implementation • Mentor technical staff of universities/TVETs/agencies through an internship
• Use
program
consultants from stakeholders in short-term partnership basis
In this section, you will identify the goals in identifying the staffing profile and ca- 2. Sub-objective 1.2: Improve capacity for digital skills related project planning,
pacity building for your ministry. You will also identify the appropriate modalities for design and management
capacity building as the ministry embarks on the digital plan.
o Activities:
You will also outline the business processes to be re-engineered and highlight the Objective• Update
3: Recruit,
project
develop and retainand
management adequate and quality
administrative management and tech-
systems
alignment to the goals of the digital plan. Aspects relating to stakeholder’s man- nical personnel in Ministry, TVETs and HEIs
agement, communication of the benefits of the change, the assessment of the risks • Provide refresher courses for project staff
involved in the change, as well as the measures to monitor and review the improve- Activities:
• Ensuring that all procurement, technical installation contracts and
ments from the re-engineering of the business processes should also be explicated.
• administrative
Constitute a taskforce
systems are
to surface
supported issues
to deliver
and challenges
on their intended
in recruitment
promise
and retention of staff
3. Sub-objective 1.3: Develop capacity of digital leaders about digital skills related
policy
• Recruit
design,
adequate
development,
numberimplementation
of staff for Ministry,
and evaluation
TVETs and HEIs
o Activities:
• Establish a staff development programme to be centrally coordinated
• Constitute
Establish a astrong
Task Force
and structured
to develop
internship
policy guidelines
programme
• Develop
Train members
best practice/
of the policy
guidelines
taskforce
foron
ICT
key
management
stages involved
and in
operations
developing
policies (Need identification, Policy Design, Implementation and Evaluation)
• Identify policy challenges confronting Digital skills development in ministry/

universities/TVETs
• Institute policy to ensure senior appointment holders attend digital

leadership training within 6 months of emplacement
156 157
Examples of Objectives and Activities in Business Processes Reengineering Objective 2: Streamline operation processes and improve efficiency
Activities:
• Establish a committee to oversee the coordination of increased productivity

Objective 1: Enhance management processes and administrative systems (i.e. Have efforts and review operation processes
effective mechanisms for accountability of the stakeholders)
• Review the performance management system to ensure that the
Activities: compensation and reward systems to productivity and value-add of the
staff to the organization is aligned.
• Develop EthERNet governing board and establish its legal framework
• Develop recognition and award schemes to reward good performance
• Review all EthERNet legal documents and standard working procedures and encourage innovations
• Reform EthERNet’s governance structure to accommodate evolving • Institute a mechanism to deal with bureaucratic inefficiency, corruption
education needs and abuse of power
• Develop a comprehensive EthERNet management structure with its • Set up channels to obtain regular feedback from stakeholders
appropriate functions
• Develop appropriate job descriptions
• Constantly reviewing the management, procurement and administrative

systems to be responsive to organizational needs
Objective 3: Improve Support Process of Procurement
• Introduce a business development unit/function at EthERNet and in ICT
offices of universities/TVETs Activities:
• Review procurement regulations to ensure that he procurement process

and decision to purchase is fair, open and good value for money.
• Consider a faster and less stringent process for small value purchases by
empowering middle managers with greater authority.
• Set up periodic contracts with vendors to facilitate ease of procurement

for subsequent purchases.
158 159
Costing
A working group should be formed to lead in the capacity building and business
process engineering efforts.
Specific to the capacity building and business process re-engineering issues, the key cost
drivers are training costs, incentives costs, and administrative expenses.
The working group should ideally comprise:
Capital Expenditures (CAPEX) Operating Expenses (OPEX)
Management Leaders in the following domains: • Human Resource • Human Resource
• Human Resources Director • Capacity Building Programme Development • Programme Management
• Organisational Development Director • Task Force Administration • Training Cost for Each Modality
• Staff Training and Development Director • Monitoring and Evaluation
• IHL and TVETs Presidents/Deans
Monitoring and Review

Technical Experts with the following specialisations:
• Change Management Consultant The review aspect of the digital plan can occur from the onset at the Planning phase. This
is where the resources, programmes and processes, are developed with the end in mind.
• Curriculum Specialist A useful tool to enforce discipline in planning through being mindful of the results in the
Logic Model. A Logic Model makes explicit the relationships across resources, activities,
• Programme Evaluation Specialist
outputs, outcomes, and impact for your program. It draws the link between the programme
activities and its goals, by making a clear chain of cause and effects.
• Educational Technologist
For more information on how to develop and apply a Logic Model to monitor and review
your programmes, visit: https://ctb.ku.edu/en/table-of-contents/overview/models-for-com-
Representatives from munity-health-and-development/logic-model-development/main
• Faculty
Beyond the review aspect in the planning stage, it is ideal to structure in regular meetings
• Administrative Staff every quarter where the reports of the progress of the initiatives, as well as the related indi-
cators of each programme, is presented to the Working Group. Summary of these reports
• * Technical Staff could be presented after the quarterly meetings to the political sponsors of the digital plan
to update them on the progress.
160 161
In addition, it is useful to conduct a mid-term review on the progress of the digital

plan, including the capacity building and business re-engineering efforts. The mid- Annexure
term review can be conducted by internal assessors and reviewed by an international
advisory panel. The role of the international advisory panel is to audit and validate
the reports from the internal assessors from the ministry. The mid-term review will
provide timely feedback to the implementation of the digital plan and allow for im- 1. Assessment of Current Status for Capacity Building
provements to be made after 2 years of its implementation. A final end-term review
should also be conducted, both by internal assessors, and an international advisory
panel, to consolidate the achievements, as well as opportunities for further develop- Please take time to discuss and answer the reflection questions. The questions are based
ment at the end of the digital plan. on the guidance notes and serve as conversational prompts for your team to help you as-
sess the current state of your team in the area of staff capacity.
Roles and Functions: Identifying the Right People
1. Do you think your current team can deliver the digital plan? Why or Why not?
2. Skills and Expertise: Identifying the Skills Gap
3. What are the skills needed for the Design of the Digital Plan?
4. What are the skills needed for the Implementation of the Digital Plan?
5. What are the skills needed for the Evaluation of the Digital Plan?
6. What are the skills that are present in your team?
7. What are the skills that are absent?
8. Professional Development: Identifying the Right Training
9. Are your current expertise out-sourced on in-house? Why?
10. What are the training opportunities provided for your staff?
162 163
2. Assessment of Current Status for Business Process Re-engineering
Please take time to discuss and answer the reflection questions. The questions are
based on the guidance notes and serve as conversational prompts for your team to
help you assess the current state of your business processes.
Business Processes
1. List the Ministries and Regulatory Agencies that are involved in the Digital
Plan.
2. Describe how the coordination across the various organisations happens.
3. What challenges do you foresee in the coordination across the various

organisations?
4. Should a new programme office be set-up for the coordination? Why or why
not?
5. What are specific business processes that need to be re-engineered for the
digital plan? Think of the pain-points experienced previously.
164 165
The Consistency Matrix

template can be used by the
overall national planning team
to coordinate and align the
work of the teams working on
different strategies. It can be
used at the outset to develop
broad goals that can orient
each of the working groups;
at various stages in the
planning process when the
submissions from different
working groups are reviewed
and corrected; and at the end,
to ensure consistency across
goals and activities decided
under the various strategies.
Consistency
Matrix
166 167
Executive Summary Section 1: Strategy 1 Section 2: Strategy 2 Section 3: Strategy 3 Section 4: Strategy 4 Section 5: Strategy 5
What are the number of

students in target year
(Higher Ed/ TVET)?

faculty in target year?

institutions in target year?
Does the Section 2, mention

Strategy 1? Does the Section 3, mention Does the Section 4, mention Does the Section 5, mention
Strategy 1? Strategy 1? Strategy 1?
Are there any inconsistencies

Section 1: Strategy 1 - Does the Executive Summary mention or misalignment? Are there any inconsistencies or Are there any inconsistencies or Are there any inconsistencies or
Establishing Enabling Strategy 1? Are there any inconsisten- misalignment? misalignment? misalignment?
Policies, Digital Skills cies with what is described in Section X E.g. Are policies that would
Framework, and Digital 1? affect implementation of E.g. Are policies that would af- Are policies that would affect E.g. Are policies that would affect
Skills Assessment Strategy 2 included? fect implementation of Strategy implementation of Strategy 4? implementation of Strategy 5?
3?
like Guidelines for course up- E.g. Policy for procuring equip- E.g. Policy for Staff hiring, profes-
dating, process to introduce Like Policy for procuring devices, ment sional development, and retention
new courses, etc.
Does the Section 3, mention Does the Section 4, mention

Does the Section 1, mention Strategy 2? Strategy 2? Strategy 2? Does the Section 5, mention
Strategy 2?
Are there any inconsistencies or misalign- Are there any inconsistencies or Are there any inconsistencies or
Section 2: Strategy 2 - Reform of Does the Executive Summary mention Strategy 2? ment? misalignment? misalignment? Are there any inconsistencies or
Digital Skills Programs Are there any inconsistencies with what is described X misalignment?
in Section 2? Have the policies, guidelines, etc. that Are the courses that would be Are the institutions that will
would affect Strategy 2 included in Section reformed, aligned with courses reform courses same as the Do Universities have the capacity
1? chosen for enhanced use of ones that will be connected to and business processes for imple-
technology in Strategy 3? internet? menting this strategy?
168 169
Executive Summary Section 1: Strategy 1 Section 2: Strategy 2 Section 3: Strategy 3 Section 4: Strategy 4 Section 5: Strategy 5
Does the Section 1, mention Strategy 3? Does the Section 2, mention Strategy 3? Does the Section 4, mention Does the Section 5, mention
Strategy 3? Strategy 3?
Are there any inconsistencies or misalign- Are there any inconsistencies or mis-
Section 3: Strategy 3 - Enhance Use Does the Executive Summary mention Strategy 3? ment? alignment? Are there any inconsistencies or Are there any inconsistencies or
of Technology in Teaching Learning Are there any inconsistencies with what is described X misalignment? misalignment?
in Section 3? Have the policies, guidelines, etc. that Are the courses chosen for enhanced use
would affect Strategy 3 included in Section of technology, aligned with courses that Are the institutions that will Do institutions have the capacity
1? will be reformed in Strategy 2 introduce online courses same as and business processes for imple-
the ones that will be connected menting this strategy?
to internet?
Section 4: Strategy 4 - Connect HE Does the Executive Summary mention Strategy 4? ment? alignment? Are there any inconsistencies or Are there any inconsistencies or
and TVET institutions to affordable Are there any inconsistencies with what is described misalignment? X misalignment?
highspeed broadband in Section 4? Have the policies, guidelines, etc. that Are the institutions that will reform cours-
would affect Strategy 4 included in Section es included in the list of institutions that Are the institutions that will Have the capacity requirements
1? will be connected to internet? introduce online included in the and business processes for imple-
list of institutions that will be menting this strategy included in
connected to internet? strategy 5?
Section 5: Strategy 5 - Capacity Does the Executive Summary mention Strategy 5? ment? alignment? Are there any inconsistencies or Are there any inconsistencies or
Building and Process Reengineering Are there any inconsistencies with what is described misalignment? misalignment? X
in Section 5? Have the policies, guidelines, etc. that Do Universities have the capacity and
would affect Strategy 5 included in Section business processes for implementing this Do institutions have the capacity Does the NREN and universities
1? strategy? and business processes for im- have the capacity and business
plementing this strategy? processes for implementing this
strategy?
170 171
Contents
Prework/Baseline 194
Goals for this Strategy (up to

2025 and 2030) 196
Activities and timeline for

implementation 197
This document has been prepared for
Digital Skills Country Action Plan Action Plan Template Working Groups to plan effectively to
achieve the goals agreed during the Digi- Budget 199
Strategy 1: Establishing
tal Skills Country Action Plan process. This
document is intended to be completed by
the Head of each Working Group with input Partnerships 200
Enabling Policies, Digital

from all working group members as well as
the consultant assigned by the World Bank
Risks and Mitigation Plan 200
as support.
Skills Framework, and has to be completed by the Head of the

Working Group with inputs from members Timeline and implementation
Digital Skills Assessment

of working group. This document has the plan 201
following sections –
Next steps (1 month & 3 months)

202
Country Name: Please refer to the Guidebook, Overview PPT of
Strategy 1, and Detailed PPTs of Strategy 1 for
more information on Strategy 1.
Head of the Working Group:
Names of Working Group Members:

(name, position)
172 173
Prework/Baseline Digital Payments
Cross Border Use of Data
National policies, strategies, regulations and standards will affect the extent to which Digi-
tal Skills programs can be reformed, the use of technology in teaching and learning and the Intellectual Property
(regarding online
spread of broadband connectivity. content)
In the following table please list policies (including draft policies) undertaken by the gov- Data Protection and
Privacy
ernment focused on developing digital skills of students at the higher education/TVET level
Cybersecurity
and related issues of digital infrastructure, cybersecurity, etc. A suggestive list of themes
has been provided in the table.
Artificial Intelligence
Procurement Policy & HR

Policy for recruitment of
Section 6.1 - Establishing policies and regulatory frameworks (Page Digital Talent
47 of Guidebook) provides an overview of various relevant policies
(please add other theme)
and policies themes that must be considered by the Country Plan-
ning Team. Please review before completing Table.
(please add other theme)
List of relevant policies
Policy Theme Ministry Name of the Policy Year of document Link to document
Digital Skills
Development in Higher
education
Digital Skills
development in TVET
NREN policy
ICT/Broadband Strategy
Universal Access Funds
Taxtion policy
(provisions for the use
of IT equipment in the
education sector)
174 175
Goals for this Strategy (up to 2025 and 2030) Activities and timeline for implementation
Having established the baseline, it is now important to determine the high-level goals for In the following table please list activities that will be undertaken to achieve goals for
this strategy in the following table. Each should be realistic and achievable in the time each sub-strategy.
frame planned (2025 and 2030).
To determine what the activities to be selected are, we build on what has been done
Once the activities are budgeted, it may be necessary to revise the goals on the basis of in the previous sections. In previous sections, we have
the costing figures.
• Determined the baseline – what the current status today in Ethiopia, for each
of the sub strategies.
Sub-Strategy By 2025 By 2030 • Set targets for the 2025 and 2030 timeframe, for each of the sub strategies.
Names of the Policies/Policy themes that will be developed – In this area of work, we want to develop a clear listing of what specific activities must
1. be undertaken to achieve the goals by the 2025 timeframe. These should be listed
1.1 2. out below in each of the tables, providing as much detail as possible. One example
3.
has been completed for each area which is shown in italics.
4.
Digital Skills Framework – Sub-strategy 1.1: Establishing enabling policies

1.2 Framework for all professions and ICT professions will be adapted
Or
Existing frameworks will be benchmarked with international standards. Activity Description Timeline Deliverables Person
Responsible
1.3 Digital Skills Assessment – Establish a policy for providing NREN access to all -Completed pol- M. Jones, Head
% of students whose Digital Skills will be assessed (1) TVET and Higher Education institutions Dec 2020 icy, presented to of Policy at
parliament MoSTE
What is the rationale for these High-Level Goals?
(Please explain how it will support the digital plan for the country. Please explain how the
goal is important in contributing to the development of digital skills of students)
176 177
Sub-strategy 1.2: Digital skills framework Budget
Activity Description Timeline Deliverables Person Responsible In this section, please identify the key cost drivers for implementing the proposed
activities in the previous sections. Please classify the costs as capital and recurrent
Establish the appropriate Digital Skills Framework -Draft digital skills J. Afee, Head of Training at costs -
(1) for Ethiopia based on the EU DigiComp 2.0 Dec 2020 framework MoSTE
• Identify the Key Cost Drivers
• Identify the Capital and Recurrent costs
Capital Cost (Year 1)
Cost Driver Unit Quantity Sub-Total
1.
2.
Sub-strategy 2.3: Digital Skills Assessment

3.
Activity Description Timeline Deliverables Person Responsible Total:
Agreement F. Isshaw, Student Develop-

Build a partnership with an organization able to developed on ment at MoSTE Recurrent Cost (Year 1 to Year 10)
conduct digital skills assessments how a digital skills
(1) Dec 2020
assessment could
be completed
nationally
1.
2.
3.
Total:
Grand Total Over 10 Years:
178 179
Partnerships Timeline and implementation plan
What partnerships need to be established in order for you to meet your goals? (Con- • Timeline for implementation
sider other Digital Skills Country Action Plan strategies, private sector organizations
or others). Include partners and descriptions of partner outcomes expected. • Overview of implementation process 2020-2025
Partners Rationale Outcomes Expected
Key milestones up to 2025, year-by-year
Milestones Timeline Deliverables
Risks and Mitigation Plan
What risks do you anticipate in executing your plan? How will you mitigate these
risks? What’s the likelihood of these risks? Please populate the following table:
Risk Mitigation Strategy Likelihood
An Example of Timeline
First policy in parliament Dec 2020 Policy ready for imple-

mentation
Digital Skills framework ready Dec 2020 Digital Skills framework

for adoption ready for adoption
180 181
Next steps (1 month & 3 months)
Q1. What activities will you conduct in the coming months to meet the goal?
Tasks to be completed in the coming 1 month
Description Timeline Responsible Definition of Done
Tasks to be completed in the coming 3 months
182 183
Contents
Prework/Baseline 206
Goals for this Strategy (up to

2025 and 2030) 211
Activities and timeline for

implementation 213
Budget 216
Partnerships 217
achieve the goals agreed during the Digi- Risks and Mitigation Plan 217
Strategy 2:
the Head of each Working Group with input Timeline and implementation plan
Reform of Digital Skills

from all working group members as well as 218
as support. Next steps (1 month & 3 months)
Programs has to be completed by the Head of the
Working Group with inputs from members
of working group. This document has the
219
following sections –
Country Name:
Head of the Working Group: Please refer to the Guidebook, Overview PPT of
Strategy 2, and Detailed PPTs of Strategy 2 for
more information on Strategy 2.
(name, position)
184 185
Prework/Baseline Demand side
This information is recommended to be collected, but may not be easily collected.

An assessment of the current and prospective demand for Digital Skills
is essential to setting realistic targets for the Digital Skills Country Action The tables given below present templates for collecting and synthesizing information
Plan. about digital skills demand from the principal use sectors like Government, Health,
Education, and Banking and ICT sectors respectively. Some of this information is
There are two types of baseline information that are requested: directly related to current and projected demand, whereas some utilizes proxy mea-
sures to estimate demand. Given that this is the start of this process, ‘best-guess
• Supply side (current status) estimates’ including those informed by discussions with experts in the field are good
substitutes for exact information
• Demand side (current status) – recommended but not required.
Supply side
Section 4.1 - The Demand for Digital Skills (Page 29 of Guide-

Indicator Description Indicator Year Source of Data book) provides an overview of what is the value and the use-
fulness of demand forecasting for Digital Skills. Please review
TVET Gross Enrollment Ratio
before completing tables below. Please refer to Section 3.4
(ISCED level 4)
- Understanding the Range of Digital Skills for specific infor-
Non-university tertiary Gross Enroll-
ment Ratio (ISCED level 5)
mation on Digital Skills Frameworks (Page 20 of Guidebook).
Higher Education (Undergraduate)
Gross Enrolment Ratio (ISCED level
6)
Number of students in TVET (ISCED

level 4)
Number of students in non-univer- Indicators of Demand for Digital Skills from Principal Use Sectors (Jobs and
sity tertiary (ISCED level 5) Users)
Number of undergraduate students
in universities (ISCED level 6) Potential Types of
to expand digital skills
Key Use Sectors Indicators of demand for digital skills Source
in next 5 that will be
years required
Number of undergraduates in Number of (Indicate which of the four
users, number of proficiency levels from the
STEM related courses
jobs or number Digital Skills Framework - Basic,
Number of institutions: Specify whether us- of service pro- (Very likely, Intermediate, Advanced, Highly
ers, jobs or number viders. somewhat likely, Specialized)
a) TVET institutions (ISCED level 4) Area
of service providers not likely)
b) Institutions offering short-cycle Government e-Government services Users

tertiary programs (ISCED level 5)
c) Universities (ISCED levels 6-8) Government jobs requir-

ing advanced or highly
proficient digital skills. This Jobs
includes all levels of the
government including local
and city governments.
186 187
Public enterprise jobs re- Education Number of installed laptops Service pro-
quiring advanced or highly and tablets in schools in vider
proficient digital skills. This country
includes all pubic services
Users Jobs requiring digital skills Jobs
such as police, utilities (wa-
- teaching
ter, electricity, waste, roads
etc.) as well as state-owned Jobs requiring digital skills - Jobs
enterprises. education administration
Banking Jobs requiring digital skills Jobs

Smart phones Users
Number of users of banking Service pro-
services vider
Mobile Internet Users Number of insurance com- Service pro-

panies operating in-country vider
Current number of em- Jobs Mobile-banking Users

ployees at mobile phone
providers Number of international Service pro-
Current number of mobile Users cities reachable via a direct vider
money accounts flight from the capital city
Fixed Internet Users Transport and Annual volume of contain- Service pro-
Logistics ers (if there is a port) vider
Agriculture Number of farmers imple- Users

menting smart irrigation Number of active drivers
technology. in-country on Uber and all Jobs
Uber-style shared mobility
Number of active/usable Service pro-
platforms
tractors in-country vider
E-commerce Number of delivery persons Service pro-

Number of food processing Service pro- operating in-country vider
or food storage companies vider Business Process Number of jobs in the BPO Jobs
in-country Outsourcing field
(BPO)
Numbers of companies Service pro-
offering drone surveying of vider Media and Number of jobs at radio
agricultural land. entertainment and TV broadcasters op- Jobs
erating at the national and
Healthcare Number of active MRI or Service pro-
state/provincial level
CT scan machines for use vider
in-country. Construction Number of jobs requiring Jobs
Jobs requiring digital advanced or highly special-
skills in the areas of health ized digital skills
Jobs
administration including Services Number of jobs requiring Jobs
electronic health manage- advanced or highly special-
ment systems. ized digital skills
Manufacturing Number of jobs requiring Jobs

advanced or highly special-
ized digital skills
188 189
Indicators of demand for digital skills in ICT and Telecommunications Industries Goals for this Strategy (up to 2025 and 2030)
Current Potential to expand in next 5 years Having established the baseline, it is now important to determine the high-level
number
Sector Sub-sector Source goals for this strategy in the following table. Each should be realistic and achievable
of jobs (Very likely, somewhat likely, not likely)
in the time frame planned (2025 and 2030).

Technician Professional Senior Advanced Highly specialized
professional
Once the activities are budgeted, it may be necessary to revise the goals on the basis
ICT Software of the costing figures.
Hardware
(Add Sub-Strategy By 2025 By 2030

others)
Intermediate level Digital Skills for all students

Telecomms Mobile % of institutions offering intermediate level digital skills training
towers
2.1 % of students enrolled in above institutions who will receive intermedi-
ate level skills
Total number of students

Fibre optic
networks
(Add Advanced Digital Skills for students in Electrical Engineering, Computer

others) Science, and other related fields
Number of Universities that will update courses

2.2 Number of courses that will be updated
Number of courses that will be developed
% of students that will be enrolled in updated courses
% of students that will be enrolled in new courses
Highly specialized digital skills for students in Electrical Engineering,

Computer Science, and other related fields
Number of Universities that will update courses

Number of courses that will be developed
Number of students that will be enrolled in updated courses
Number of students that will be enrolled in new courses
190 191
Intermediate level skills for students in TVET institutions Activities and timeline for implementation
Number of TVET institutions that will update courses
Number of courses that will be developed In the following table please list activities that will be undertaken to achieve goals for
Number of students that will be enrolled in updated courses each sub-strategy.
Number of students that will be enrolled in new courses
To determine what the activities to be selected are, we build on what has been done
Rapid Skilling Programs – in the previous sections. In previous sections, we have
2.5 Number of students that will be enrolled in Rapid Skilling programs
• Determined the baseline – what the current status today in Ethiopia, for each
of the sub strategies.
What is the rationale for these High-Level Goals? • Set targets for the 2025 and 2030 timeframe, for each of the sub strategies.
(Please explain how it will support the digital plan for the country. Please explain how In this area of work, we want to develop a clear listing of what specific activities must
the goal is important in contributing to the development of digital skills of students) be undertaken to achieve the goals by the 2025 timeframe. These should be listed
out below in each of the tables, providing as much detail as possible. One example
has been completed for each area which is shown in italics.
Sub-strategy 2.1: Intermediate level Digital Skills for all students
Activity Description Timeline Deliverables Person

Responsible
-Course content (curric- A. Smith, Head

Develop a course suitable for all higher education ulum) of Curriculum at
and TVET students (including those in non-techni- MoSTE
-Teaching materials
cal fields) to pick up intermediate level digital skills. Dec 2020
(1) -Oversight/ board to
ensure quality control
-Agreement from a set of

institutions to implement
this course
192 193
Sub-strategy 2.2: Advanced Digital Skills for students from EE, CA, and Sub-strategy 2.4 Reform of key courses at TVET institutions
related fields
Responsible
Responsible
Survey responses
Develop an advanced programming course suit- -Course curriculum A. Smith, Head Selection of key industry needs for TVET institu- from all PhD stu-
able for all EE, CS and related fields, to be taken as Dec 2020 of Curriculum at tions to provide through a survey of key infrastruc- dents identifying
(1) -Feedback from (1) August 2020
part of undergrad MoSTE ture companies. the following key
industry on
information:
relevance to their
hiring needs
Sub-strategy 2.5: Rapid Skilling Programs
Sub-strategy 2.3: Highly specialized Digital Skills for students from EE, CA, Activity Description Timeline Deliverables Person
Responsible
and related fields
A list of key areas Smith at MoSTE
Build a list of key areas in which rapid skilling pro- in which rapid
skilling programs
Activity Description Timeline Deliverables Person (1) grams are needed Sept 2020
Responsible are preferable to
training through
Survey current PhD students in EE/CS/related fields Survey responses M. Johnson, higher ed or TVET
(1) to determine strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, August 2020 from all PhD stu- MoSTE institutions.
threats from their training model dents identifying
the following key
information:
194 195
Budget Partnerships
In this section, please identify the key cost drivers for implementing the proposed activities What partnerships need to be established in order for you to meet your goals? (Con-
in the previous sections. Please classify the costs as capital and recurrent costs - sider other Digital Skills Country Action Plan strategies, private sector organizations
or others). Include partners and descriptions of partner outcomes expected.
1.
2.
3.
Risks and Mitigation Plan

Total:
What risks do you anticipate in executing your plan? How will you mitigate these
risks? What’s the likelihood of these risks? Please populate the following table:
Recurrent Cost (Year 1 to Year 10) Risk Mitigation Strategy Likelihood
1.
2.
3.
Total:
196 197
Timeline and implementation plan Next steps (1 month & 3 months)
Q1. What activities will you conduct in the coming months to meet the goal?
Timeline for implementation
• Overview of implementation process 2020-2025 Tasks to be completed in the coming 1 month
• Key milestones up to 2025, year-by-year Description Timeline Responsible Definition of Done
Tasks to be completed in the coming 3 months
An Example of Timeline
Completing 1st rapid skilling training Dec 2020 200 students
Launching intermediate training for Aug 2021 Course launched at X institutions

Digital Skills courses for all students
198 199
Contents
Description of the Strategy 222
Goals / Objectives of the Strategy

224
Sub-Strategy 3.1 - Activities 225
Sub-Strategy 3.2 - Activities 230
Changes to Policies, Regulations

and/or Rules to achieve Strategy
This document has been prepared for 235
achieve the goals agreed during the Digi-
Implementation timeline and
Strategy 3: Enhance Use
document is intended to be completed by arrangements 236
the Head of each Working Group with input
of Technology in
Budget 237
as support.
Teaching and Learning It has to be completed by the Head of the

Risks 239
following sections:
Country Name:

(name, position)
200 201
Description of the Strategy
Populate the following chart:

Contribution to the Digital Skills goals
• Describe how the strategy contributes to the overall goals of the Digital Skills Action
Plan What is a baseline for online course work in both
distance learning and brick and mortar settings?
Identify a single example which does a good job of
• Put a diagram that shows the results chain, if possible distance or online learning.
Sub-strategies What is the baseline data on the current use of

online coursework to teach intermediate level digital
skills in both distance learning and brick and mortar
• Briefly describe the sub-strategies and their linkages settings? How many courses teach intermediate
level digital skills to teachers? To students?
Baseline Status
What is your desired state by 2025, and 2030?
• Briefly describe the current status
What existing initiatives are in support of expanding

and improving online course work (distance learning
and brick and mortar settings)? List the initiatives
and their purpose.
Highlight the difference/progress that will be made

with the plan
202 203
Goals / Objectives of the Strategy Sub-Strategy 3.1 - Activities
• Put a measurable goal for the strategy Key Activities
• Put indicator(s) if appropriate and means of measurement (if appropriate)
What key activities will you do to reach the high-level goal of expanding and im-
proving online coursework? Include detailed descriptions and expected outputs, if
Populate the following chart: possible.
Quality Standards: Populate the following chart:

Measurable goal (include number of students, Indicators and Means
universities involved) of Measurement
Goal for Substrategy 3.1: Suggested high-level goal: What Quality Standards What is your rationale What agencies did you involve in How do these
will you adopt to to support the adoption (consider relevant Ministry standards
3.1 – (a) Two courses (incl. which courses, if available) deliv- evaluate quality of online adoption of these Departments, University leadership, support your
Expanding and improving online ered online-first. (b) 20,000 students taking these courses. coursework? standards? other policymakers). What is the timeline goal(s)?
coursework (distance learning and brick for approval?
and mortar settings)
Goal for Substrategy 2: Suggested high-level goal:

3.2. # of faculty/teachers trained to integrate technology
Expanding and improving the use of into teaching & learning
technology for teaching and learning in
classrooms
Additional goal (optional)
Course Selection, Faculty Development, Minimum Standards. Populate the

following chart:
Which courses will you prioritize What is your What are minimum
to offer online to meet the goal of strategy standards and
Which institutions will
expanding and improving online to develop guidelines for
offer these courses
coursework? Name the specific Why these faculty to faculty in these
(name specific
courses. courses? teach these courses?
universities) courses?
204 205
Online Course Management. Digital Tools: What digital tools will you use in service of the new online
courses?
Where will courses be housed?

(identify LMS, the current faculty Current
and student usage by percentage, Faculty Usage
of targeted
or Online Program Manager). tools
Who will manage courses? What strategic Current Student
Explain how they will be housed investments will you Usage of
What is your strategy for Explain departments/titles List by name all All (90-100%) Tool Plans
(centrally, at individual universities, make, and in what targeted tools
online course management? tools you plan
involved. areas? Tool Plans What For what Tool plans
etc.) to use in service Most (75%-
new tools (if any) purpose will
of new online 89%) All (90-100%) What will
will you use to you utilize these
courses you need
Four of the six targeted universi- We plan to create a structure Some (40%- Most (75%-89%) meet your goals tools?
to purchase
and usage goals?
ties already use Canvas LMS to list and clear guidelines for course (e.g., Canvas 60%) Some (40%-60%) and why?
assignments and due dates, so they management at the university What are the
LMS, Google Few (10%-39%) Few (10%-39%) Name specific Be specific for estimated
will be housing their own cours- administration level, to ensure
Tool Type Suite, etc.) None None tools each tool costs?
es. Two universities use Moodle, consistency. This will involve
SAMPLE STRATEGY but with very limited usage. Our the director of each campus
FOR ONLINE COURSE
Learning
MANAGEMENT: NREN will manage centrally initial technology department (or CTO,
Management
helpdesk support for the Moodle if the university has one) and We plan to invest heavily System
universities and build capacity to departments offering courses in researching and build-
help them take over that functional- will have clear responsibilities ing out strong HelpDesk
Our technology department Data Analytics
and a few “super users” will ity themselves. and timelines for their course models, course exem- Platforms
train management. plars, and guidelines.
Content Delivery
and Presentation
tools
Strategy
Assessment,
Proctoring and
Quizzing tools
Content, Coaching
and Aggregator
tools
Research and
Organization tools
Communications
tools
Mobile Applications
Other Digital Tools
206 207
Access to Devices and Learning Center Plans: What is your strategy to build learning centers?
Populate the following chart: Populate the following chart:
Access to Access to Internet access on Internet access off

devices on devices off campus campus
campus campus
All (90-100%) All (90-100%) All (90-100%) All (90-100%) What is your strategy to build
learning centers? (number
Most (70%- Most (70%-89%) What ratios will Device access plans (list on and Most (70%-89%) Most (70%-89%) of learning centers to build,
89%) you achieve with off campus separately, include
Some (40%- What are your Some (40%-69%) Some (40%-69%) number of students served by
this strategy, an explanation of how students
69%) current student each learning center, locations
Some (40%- given the levels will access devices and estimated Few (10%-39%) Few (10%-39%)
to device ratios of learning centers, rationale)
69%) of ambition numbers of devices to reach
Few (10%-39%) at targeted and enrollment targeted ratios)
institutions?
Few (10%-39%) targets?
Institution 1
On campus: If we return to campus
this year, we’ll designate at least one Institution 2
lab of 50 computers solely for this
initiative and create strict scheduling
Add names...
to ensure equity to devices.
Off campus: We’ll create de-

vice-sharing systems through mobile
digital labs so that students without
devices can borrow devices for lim-
ited time. We plan to build courses
None now. in which all resources are download-
On campus able and readable off-line, so that
previously had 1
Example: 1:100 on 5:1 for students students may access content on
Targeted device per 100 average in the in targeted mobile devices and tablets, enabling
Few (10%)
Institution 1 students building courses content delivery to be “flipped.”
Targeted
Institution 1
Targeted
Institution 2
Add names...
208 209
Sub-Strategy 3.2 - Activities Select Digital Tools, Develop Faculty, Establish Minimum Standards and
Guidelines
What key activities need to be carried out to reach the high-level goal of expanding and Populate the following table with the tools you plan to use to improve teaching and
improving online coursework? learning using technology
Strategy and Course Priorities List by name all Current Faculty Current Student
tools you plan Usage Usage
to use in service
Populate the following chart: of expanding All (90-100%) All (90-100%)
and improving
the use of Most (75%-89%) Most (75%-89%)
What is your strategy to Which courses will you technology Some (40%-60%) Some (40%-60%)
expand and improve the use prioritize to meet the for teaching
Which institutions will and learning Few (10%-39%) Few (10%-39%) How will this tool help you meet
of technology for teaching goal of expanding and
provide these courses? at select your goals?
and learning. Explain your improving online courses? Why these courses? Tool Type None None
Why? universities
plans.
SAMPLE STRATEGY: These courses rely on a high degree Initially, only the National Learning Management
Increasing opportunities of collaboration and feedback University will provide these System
for students and faculty to
collaborate with each other between faculty and students, and courses as they are best Content Delivery and
online using Zoom breakout among students. Additionally, our equipped to do it. After one Presentation tools
rooms and the Google Suite Freshman English, Literature,
liberal arts departments are eager to semester, we’ll roll it out to
of tools and Writing courses Assessment, Proctoring
connect with students in new ways five other universities who
and Quizzing tools
and hold tremendous political sway have expressed interest.
across the campus Content, Coaching and
Aggregator tools
Research and
Organization tools
Strategy 1
Communications tools
Strategy 2
Mobile Applications
...
Other Digital Tools
210 211
Faculty Development and Minimum Standards and Guidelines: What is your

strategy to develop faculty? ACCESS TO DEVICES: What is your strategy to increase access to devices?
What are your current student to device ratios at institutions? What ratios will
Populate the following chart: you achieve with this strategy, given the levels of ambition and enrollment
targets?
What is your strategy to develop faculty in the use of What are minimum standards and guidelines for expanding and Populate the following chart:
these tools? improving online coursework under this substrategy?
Explain your approach, timeline, supports you plan to utilize,

numbers of faculty needing training, measurable outcomes.
Access to Access to devices

devices on off campus
What ratios
campus
will you
All (90-100%) achieve with
All (90-100%) Most (70%-89%) What are this strategy, Device access plans (list on and
your current given the off campus separately, include
Most (70%-89%) Some (40%-69%) levels of
student to an explanation of how students
Some (40%-69%) Few (10%-39%) device ratios ambition and will access devices and estimated
at targeted enrollment numbers of devices to reach
Few (10%-39%) None institutions? targets? targeted ratios)
None
On campus: If we return to campus

this year, we’ll designate at least one
lab of 50 computers solely for this
initiative and create strict scheduling
to ensure equity to devices.
Off campus: We’ll create device-shar-

ing systems through mobile digital
labs so that students without devices
can borrow devices for limited time.
We plan to build courses in which
all resources are downloadable and
None now. On 5:1 for readable off-line, so that students may
Example: campus previous- 1:100 on students in access content on mobile devices and
Targeted ly had 1 device average in the targeted tablets, enabling content delivery to
Few (10%)
Institution 1 per 100 students building courses be “flipped.”
Targeted
Institution 2
Add names ..
212 213
What partnerships need to be established in order for you to meet your goal to Changes to Policies, Regulations and/or Rules to achieve
expand and improve online learning? (Consider other Digital Skills Country Action Strategy
Plan strategies, private sector organizations or others). Include partners and
descriptions of partner outcomes expected.

Which policies need to

be revised or created?
What partnerships need to be Which ones are priorities
established in order for you to
Current status of this for this strategy?
meet your goal to expand and
partnership (Consider intellectual
improve online learning? Describe precisely what If the policy lies outside the
property, data privacy,
etc.) changes or additions Ministry’s authority, describe how
(Consider private sector orga- How will this partnership Describe expected (have not made contact, in Who is responsible for this
need to be made and the this will be addressed
support your work on outcomes from this policy?
nizations, universities in other conversation, have/had an es- reasons
this strategy? partnership
countres, or others. ) tablished partnership, other)
They have agreed to let University instructors Policy does not adequately
us use their online training at 3 institutions will In discussion: We expect to address who owns online
modules for teachers to learn how to use XYZ courses taught by faculty
SAMPLE: University of South sign an MOU by the end of SAMPLE POLICY:
Africa, Technology Services rapidly upskill them on the technology tools May. Intellectual property and needs to be revised to
Ministry of Higher Education, in Ministry, with help from legal, will
Department XYZ technology tools delineate between courses
concert with administration at draft two intellectual property policies
built and specific content
targeted universities from which to choose for universities.
Partnership 1 owned by faculty
(name of organization)
Policy 1
Policy 2
214 215
Implementation timeline and arrangements Budget
Describe timeline for activities and who will be responsible Describe main cost drivers for the strategy
Describe how these agencies/ organizations will be coordinated , if needed Estimate and show recurrent and capital expenditures, by main heads
• Overview of implementation process 2020-2025

• Key milestones up to 2025, year-by-year

Who will be Responsible and
how will different agencies be
Milestones Timeline Deliverables 1.
coordinated?
2.
3.
Total:
Recurrent Cost (Year 1 to Year 10)
An Example of Timeline for Improving and Expanding Technology for Teaching and Learning Cost Driver Unit Quantity Sub-Total
1.
Milestones Timeline Who will be responsible Deliverable
2.
Development of Course 6th month University identified faculty Course designed
3.
Launch of Course 7th month ICT leadership, in concert with faculty Course launched
Total:
500 Students complete 1 Year ICT leadership, in concert with faculty 500 students complete course
course with 80% pass at a pass rate of 80%
rate
Grand Total Over 10 Years
216 217
An Example for Teaching and Learning Risks
Capital • Describe the main risks
Cost Driver Unit Quantity Sub-Total • What is the likelihood of these risks
1.Devices for faculty X X X • How will risks be mitigated
Recurrent Risks
Consider change management risks,
Cost Driver Unit Quantity Sub-Total personnel risks, organizational culture
risks, academic risks, leadership risks,
and anything else that you think might
1. Software licenses for targeted software (cost/ X X X
student/year) affect the outcome of this implementa-
tion of this strategy.
2. Unit cost of professional development
(specialized skills programs), USD per year
X X X Likelihood Mitigation Strategy
We plan to leverage our faculty webpage (which has a

lot of traction across the institution) to disseminate clear,
simple messages and expectations to teachers, compile all
mini-instructional videos to learn the identified software,
SAMPLE RISK: Faculty pushback. Very likely. We have
We rolled out our LMS (Moodle) 2 and offer FAQs to address faculty concerns as they come
a culture that distrusts
years ago and because of a bunch up. Our network is much stronger than it was two years
of infrastructure and messaging new technologies, even
ago, but we’ll run a few tests prior to launch to insure it
challenges, many faculty members though 25% of our faculty
gave up and refused to get online. can handle a major uptick in traffic.
are strong users.
Risk 1
Risk 2
Add more risks as identified...
218 219
Contents
Description 242
Goals / Objectives 245

Digital Skills Country Action Plan Action Plan Template Working Groups to plan effectively to Sub-Strategy #4.1 - Activities
achieve the goals agreed during the Digi- 248
Strategy 4: Connect
the Head of each Working Group with input Sub-Strategy # 4.2 - Activities
higher education and

from all working group members as well as 251
as support. Changes to Policies, Regulations
TVET institutions to It has to be and/or Rules 253
affordable high-speed
completed by the Head of the Working
Group with inputs from members of work- Implementation timeline and
ing group. This document has the following arrangements 254
broadband and
sections:
Budget 257
Improving Campus Risks 261
Network Digital Services
Country Name: Names of Working Group Members:

(name, position)
220 221
Description of the Strategy: Sub-strategies
• Briefly describe the sub-strategies and their linkages
Strengthen or establish National Research and Education Networks (NRENs) and Modern-
ization of Campus Networks and IT preparedness at the campus level. It has two parts:
For example: Affordable bulk bandwidth is critical for the country to develop and
Sub-Strategy 4.1: Strengthen or establish National Research and Education Networks capitalize on its digital skill. This require capable digital services such as ERP, LMS,
(NRENs): The purpose of this activity is to ensure abundant and reliable digital connectivity and e-learning services running in the campuses, backed by capable IT engineers,
to higher education and TVET institutions and includes development of capacity to manage and strong campus network and a fiber-based NREN to provide the national educa-
networks and data infrastructure. This will include a management and human resource plan. tion bandwidth affordably.
The deliverable for this component is an upgraded plan for country NREN.
Substrategy 4.2: Modernization of Campus Networks and Digital Services (CaNDiS): This Here are some example steps how Sub strategy 4.1 ad 4.2 can be achieved:
activity will provide effective broadband access all the way to faculty and students in higher
education and TVET institutions and develop capacity to manage the campus infrastructure
and digital services to put the digital infrastructure in real academic use.
4.1 Start/Modernize NREN
The deliverable is a national compendium of campus network modernization plans. For this
phase we will first classify the higher education and TVET institutions into several categories • Fiberized Super-scaler intranet for HEI/TVETS
(such as small, medium, large, and research-intensive institutions) and devise a upgrade
plan for modernization and management of the network and IT infrastructure for represen- • Nationwide availability of bulk bandwidth for the HEIs/TVETS
tative campuses from each category. These will be used as a template to further detail plan
for each campus and build the compendium. • Enhance the engineering skills/manpower of the NREN to meet the need of
the HEIs/TVETS
• (add additional steps)

4.2 Modernize Campus IT Infrastructure
• Network to every classroom and lab
• Describe how the strategy contributes to the overall goals of the Digital Skills Action • Prepare campuses for emerging digital education services/applications.
Plan
• Preplace IT/IS engineering talent right in the HEIs/TVETS
• Put a diagram that shows the results chain, if possible
• (add additional steps)
222 223
Baseline Status Goals / Objectives of the Strategy
• Briefly describe the current status • Put a measurable goal for the strategy
• Put indicator(s) if appropriate and means of measurement (if appropriate)
Answer the following:
For goal setting we will first classify the higher education institutions (HEI) and Tech-
Current Update nical and Vocational Education & Training (TVET) institutions into several categories
Status
(such as small, medium, large, and research-intensive institutions). Here is a sample
1 How many institutions are
connected right now? classification but it will be good idea to adjust the classification characteristics based
on the nature of the institutions.
2 What is the geographical coverage
of the network?
3 What is the state of manpower and Table-1 Sample

skill of NREN? Framework and
Aspiration for Strategy-4
4 What is the status of campus
network in the HEI (how many
Category Student Link Capacity Bandwidth 2023 IS/IT Skill
buildings, classrooms, labs are
connected)?
Small <5,000 5x1 Gbps 1 Gbps ?? ~10
5 What percentage of campus area
has Wi-Fi coverage?
Medium <10,000 10 Gbps 1-3 Gbps? ~30
6 What is the status of network
connectivity of students and staff
Large >10K-50K 10 Gbps 3-5 Gbps ?? ~150-200
at home?
7 How many students have access Research Intensive 4x10 Gbps x10 Gbps
(i.e. broadband, laptop and devices,
and broadband coverage) to
connect from home?
8 How many universities have ERP? The next step is the set the high-level goal in terms of digital preparedness aspira-
tion of the country. We will set the goals in three levels of aspirations.
9 How many universities have access
to LMS platform (number of courses
online)?
10 How many students, teachers and • Minimum that must be attained.

staff have university provided
campus identity?
• Crucial to achieve in 2 years (2023)
11 What is the status of IT workforce
in the campuses (number, skill, and
training)? • Aspiration where we should be ideally in 5 years (2025)
224 225
The table below shows a sample set of three high level goals for each sub-strategy.
7 Network’s Country Geo ?? All Major Cities ??
Coverage
HR CAPACITY 9 Training of staff (hours) ?? 40 hours/year
• Briefly describe how each of the goals connects to the strategy.

OTHER? Other Big Goals? ??
(optional)
• The goals should be measurable. Thus, for each goal identify some indicators.
• For each indicator we should also provide the current baseline numbers, and what
we want to achieve under three levels of aspirations.
Table-2.2
Indicators & Goals
for CaNDiS
Relationship between the goals and targets:
Levels of
Ambitions
Indicator Table Baseline (2020-2025)
• The CANDIS goals are to match the needs of each group of institutions. Goals Indicator 2018-20 Critical (Min) Crucial 2023 Aspiration
2025
• The targets we will set for CANDIS will influence the targets for the NREN and vice CAPABLE 1 # of campuses fiber ?? 40% 80% 100%
CAMPUS upgraded.
versa. NETWORK
2 # of buildings with ?? 20% 40% 60%

Gbps/connectivity
Table-2.1 3 % of academic areas ?? 10% 90% 100%

Indicators & Goals wifi covered
for NREN
4 Bandwidth per pupil 0.2 mbps/p .5 mbps/p 1 mbps/p ?
Levels of (mbps/p)
Ambitions
Indicator Table Baseline LAUNCH DIGITAL 5 Courses on LMS ?? 100/year ??
(2020-2025)
SERVICES
Goals Indicator 2018-20 Critical (Min) Crucial 2023 Aspiration 6 Students with universal ?? 70% 90% 100%
2025 LMS access
INCREASE REACH 1 # of NREN connected ?? 60% 80% 7 Students with Campus ?? 80%
HEIs Identity
2 # of NREN connected ?? 80% 100% 8 Campuses on ERP ?? 25% 50% 75%

TVETs
3 # of NREN connected ?? 80% 90% ENHANCE 9 Training of NREN + IT ?? 40 hours/year

students CAPACITY staff (hours)
4 # of NREN connected ?? 90% 10 Campus IT Team (FTE ?? 1.2 ? 2?

faculty /1000 students)
STRENGHTEN 5 Total bandwidth sub- ?? 20 Gbps 40 Gbps OTHER? Other Big Goals?
THE NETWORK scription (Gbps) (optional)
6 Core Network Speed ?? 1-10 Gbps 40 Gbps 40 Gbps
226 227
Sub-Strategy #4.1 - Activities What new

For many Include the uni- resources par-
NRENs ser- versity IT planners ticularly staffing
Identify the new Try if these
vices are the and administra- burden will
G1:A3 and enhanced services can be
weakest link to tors, as well as be needed to
service those will operated and im-
What key activities need to carried out to reach the high-level goal? ensure return national educa- accommodate
be needed in next plemented inside
on investment tion planners. these services
5 years. the universities?
Here is a sample set of activities with some guiding questions, hints about the coor- on network. with impecca-
ble quality of
dination needs and cost guidance. Elaborate the description of the activities. Refine
service?
(and populate the empty fields) remaining parts of the table.
G1:A4 (optional)
With who Guidance for How to reduce What is the

we need to costing
Goals Sample Activities Rational Guiding question the long term cost cost of leasing
corodinate?
of connectivity for dark fiber?
Public and private
the universities? What is mainte-
How each can What will be (G2) STRENGHTEN G2:A1 Fiberize The sector partici-
THE NETWORK Nationally which nance charge?
benefit from digi- the need for network pants who owns
regions provide
tal collaboration? total band- dark fiber.
Consider expand- competitive fiber.
How these insti- width? What
ing the network to Include the finan- What will be the
tutions contribute will be the cost
include all public,
(G1) ENSURE cial and adminis- SLA for mainte-
to the goals of the of last-mile
COMPREHENSIVE private, interna- trative authorities nance?
G1:A1
NATIONAL tional HEI, and DSCAP? Focus on connectivity to
responsible for
COVERAGE remote institu- backbone? How much Cost of equip-
TVET, research the institutions in
tions. Specially bandwidth the in- ment, spare
organization, data discussions.
identify who are in stitutions will use and mainte-
center(s), libraries, Upgraded core
bad state of net- in next 5 years? nance, power.
museums, G2:A2 network equip-
work/bandwidth Does your current
ment
and need NREN equipment have
more than others. expandability
to support the
What critical core growth?
Network and services to be fully Can we optimize Civil engi-

access to in-housed? Which the network to neering cost,
Identify the en- Start with and
education of those services reduce the cost location and
hanced network open slate and
community is can outsourced- of last mile? How maintenance.
and network engage univer-
G1:A2 G2:A3 Add additional
the key service however, with can we improve
related services sity IT units and rings, spars, and
expected from full operational reliability and
portfolio. their network and POPs
NREN. control? What eliminate single
access needs.
services should be point of failures?
done jointly with Reduce depen-
the universities? dency?
What profession-
Enhance the secu- al software and
monitoring I can
G2:A4 rity and reliability
of the network use to increase
the security and
reliability of the
network?
228 229
Does NREN has Sub-Strategy # 4.2 - Activities

sufficient staff
to provide the
(G3) BUILDUP
INSTITUTIONAL services wth
G3:A1 Design new
CAPACITY impeccable
organogram
quality? Does
the organization What key activities need to carried out to reach the high-level goal?
structure reflects
efficiency?
The education How to keep Look for collab- Provision fre-

technology up with skill and oration. Check quency training Here is a sample set of activities with some guiding questions, hints about the coor-
is advancing knowledge from with regional both in-coun-
too fast. The independent and international try as well as
dination needs and cost guidance. Elaborate the description of the activities. Refine
Training and
NREN need to sources as it faces RENs as they overseas. (and populate the empty fields) remaining parts of the table.
professional
maintain top off continuous offer various
development
G3:A2 notch inhouse change? How to training. Ensure
plan for NREN
competency be on top of the on-the equip- Goal Sample Activities Rational Sample guiding With whom Guidance
management and questions it needs to for costing
to lead the latest worldwide ment/system
staff coordinate?
country and best practices as training needs
avoid being they emerge? are provisioned
A national design of What should be
dependent on in procurement
this scale will require minimum band-
vendors. contracts.
the minimum require- width needed to
ments and guidance. provide various
G3:A3 (optional) Set Campus IT Re- Consult internation-
The digital ecosys- services planned?
quirement Standard al best practices as
tem will involve many What level of uni-
for Each Category of these are emerging
For New REN- You must How can I seper- ISP licensing, (G1) entities, private and versal access need
MODERNIZE Campuses and issues and national agen-
Establish as a register as an ate myself with by and Office G1:A1 public, national and to be maintained?
CAMPUS including minimum cies now drafting
separate legal en- organization to current birthing Space and op- NETWORK
OTHER? G4:A1 international. A set Who ensures edu-
bandwidth, access similar policies such
tity, setup office, be party in any organization erational cost of guidelines at early cation data privacy
and privacy. as education or IT
register as ISP legal contract without losing the stage will ensure and ownership on
ministry.
Operator or document support? uniformity, and fair data? The guideline
access to digital should carefully
Identify the Why universities Funding organi- services to come. consider specific
G4:A2 Administrative will be alligned zation that has services.
Home with NREN? Who authority over the
provides the bud- universities and
Network
get for NREN? the NREN.
Which buildings to fiber lay,
connect? Overhead equip-
fiber vs. under- ment cost,
G1:A2 Campus Network
ground fiber? How power, civil
Designs (one for Each
much wifi-capacity engineer-
Category Campus)
to be provisioned ing, and
for each classroom? mainte-
nance of
equipment.
G1:A3 (define)
G1:A4 (define)
230 231
Campus ERP is the Evaluate systems for Software, G3:A2 Design nationally None.
starting point for all interoperability and licens- uniform Campus IT
digital learning sys- incremental growth. ing. Also service code
Campus Automa-
tems including LMS Avoid vendor consider
(G2) BUILDUP tion including ERP The education tech- How to keep up Look for collabo- Provision
DIGITAL in brock-and-mortar lock-in. The ERP cost of
procurement plan
G2:A1 nology is advancing with skill and knowl- ration. Check with frequency
SERVICES universities. How to system will require adaptation,
(one for each cate- too fast. The campus edge from indepen- RENs as they offer training.
implement/update many subsystems, campus
gory campuses) with IT teams need to dent sources as it various training.
the existing process consider the critical wide train- G3:A3 Arrange Training for
requirements. maintain top notch faces off continuous Ensure on-the
flow with ERP? components for ing. Campus IT Team.
inhouse competen- change? How to be equipment/systems
phased implemen-
cy to support the on top of the latest training needs are
tation.
change and avoid worldwide best provisioned in pro-
Plan for LMS hosting Evaluate systems for being dependent on practices as they curement contracts.
vendors. emerge?
G2:A2 (one for each cate- interoperability and
gory campuses) with incremental growth.
requirements Avoid vendor
lock-in.
Access to any digital

service and resource,
G2:A3 Setup Campus Identi- whether in campus or

worldwide, will need
ty Service
a campus ID service Changes to Policies, Regulations and/or Rules to achieve
for the students and Strategy
faculty.
Student will need

ubiquitous access
from campus as Do all students have • Describe precisely what changes or additions need to be made and the reasons
well as home and
Plan for providing device at home? Do
workplace. Without they have connec-
G2:A4 universal access to • If policies lie outside of Ministry’s authority, describe how this will be addressed
ensuring the univer-
each students. tivity, and sufficient
sal and ubiquitous bandwidth to access
access much of the the LMS?
advantage of digital
education will remain
Example#1: A critical roadblock is bandwidth cost in Africa. This issue could not be
unused.
address by the universities themselves. To effectively addressed at national policy
G2:A5 IT Help Desk for level action is imperative. A national broadband policy and a digital access equity
comprehensive digi-
tal support
policy for education can help assuaging the challenge.
G2:A6 (other?)
Staffing Plan and For digital transfor- Which and how Cost of Example#2: The introduction of digital education will open-up possibility of severe
(G3) ENHANCE Organogram for mation, all faculty demanding will be personnel,
data-abuse and compromise of data privacy for millions of young adults for com-
CAMPUS IT Campuses (organo- and students will the services? How cost of
G3:A1
CAPACITY gram) need a capable IT to ensure continu- training. mercial interest. The planned modernization will entail campuses to procure and
team support avail- ous supply of talent implement LMS and other services- which are deeply invasive. A definitive guidance,
able arms-away 24/7. in campus IT? produced by the country must be in place before the procurement and contracting
are done.
232 233
Based on the example, Please fill up the following table that identifies the drafting
Implementation timeline and arrangements plan:
Start Timeline Who is responsible to Draft this Deliverable

section
• Describe timeline for activities and who will be responsible 1 Data Collection
• Describe how these agencies/ organizations will be coordinated, if needed
• Overview of implementation process 2020-2025 Strategy 4.1 REN Timeline Who is responsible to Draft this Deliverable
section
• Key milestones up to 2025, year-by-year Consider expanding the

network to include all
public, private, interna-
G1:A1
tional HEI, and TVET,
research organization,
Milestones Timeline Who will be Responsible and how will Deliverables data center(s), libraries,
different agencies be coordinated?
museums,
G1:A2 Identify the enhanced net-

work and network related
services portfolio.
Identify the new and

G1:A3 enhanced service those
will be needed in next 5
years.
An Example of Timeline for Modernization of Campus Network G1:A4 (optional)
G2:A1 Fiberize The network

# Sample Timeline Who is Responsible? Deliverable
Activities
G2:A2 Upgraded core network
Set Campus IT A bulleted schedule of key equipment
G1:A1 Requirement 14 Days A Country Team member who will study the requirements about bandwidth G2:A3 Add additional rings,
Standard for international practice in similar documents. requirements, an academic user spars, and POPs
Each Category policy, user privacy and informa-
G2:A4 Enhance the security and
of Campuses tion sharing statement.
reliability of the network
Campus IT director of the selected category campus Campus, network design with G3:A1 Design new organogram
G1:A2 Network De- 30 days will be contacted and drafted in this team. The schedule of spars, and equipment.
sign- one from team will work jointly with the IT engineer of Training and professional
Each Category the campus.
G3:A2 development plan for
Campus NREN management and
staff
G1:A3 (define)
G3:A3 (optional)
G1:A4 (define)
234 235
For New REN- Establish G3:A2 Design nationally uniform

G4:A1 as a separate legal entity, Campus IT service code
setup office, register as G3:A3 Arrange Training for Cam-
ISP Operator pus IT Team.
G4:A2 Identify the Administrative Draft-1 Ready

Home
CANDIS Plan Customiza-

tion for Each Campus
Strategy 4.2 Campus Who is responsible to Draft this National Compendium

Network & Digital section
# Timeline Deliverable
Services
Additional Sections
Set Campus IT Require-
ment Standard for Each Budget
Category of Campuses
G1:A1
and issues including min-
Others
imum bandwidth, access
and privacy.
G1:A2 Campus Network Designs

(one for Each Category
Campus)
G1:A3 (define) Budget

G1:A4 (define)
• Describe main cost drivers for the strategy

Campus Automation
G2:A1 including ERP procure- • Estimate and show recurrent and capital expenditures, by main heads
ment plan (one for each
category campuses) with
requirements.
G2:A2 Plan for LMS hosting (one

for each category campus- Capital Cost (Year 1)
es) with requirements
G2:A3 Setup Campus Identity

Service Cost Driver Unit Quantity Sub-Total
G2:A4 Plan for providing
universal access to each 1.
students.
G2:A5 IT Help Desk for compre- 2.

hensive digital support
G2:A6 (other?) 3.
G3:A1 Staffing Plan and Organ- Total:

ogram for Campuses
(organogram)
236 237
Recurrent Cost (Year 1 to Year 10) Operating Expenditure/year*
Annual Bandwidth Expenditure 10 Gbps

Salary & Benefits 20 Persons
1.
Office Expenditure 0
2.
Personnel Training 30 Events
3.
Software & Licenses 3
Total:
Other Items 0
Grand Total Over 10 Years: Sub-Total
Total
A sample Budget: For Strategy 4.2 after estimating the template cost for 4 template institutions. Sample pro-
vided below. Once the templates are ready we will obtain the specific cost for all target
institutions by updating the template. Finally the total cost over 10 years will be estimated
4.1 NREN Cost Driver Unit Unit Cost Cost ($)
based on the one time capital expenditure and 10 years recurring costs.
Capital Expenditure*
Network Fiber 1000 km 4.2 CANDIS Cost Driver Units Unit Cost Cost ($)
Core Network Xmission/Switch/Etc. 20 Capital Expenditure*
Servers & Computing, NOC 20 Network Fiber 3 km
Power, UPS Generators 22 Network Equipment Switch/APs 3
Civil Engineering & Others 22 Last Mile fiber 20 km
Universal Access Coverage 20 Power, UPS Generators 2
Other Items Civil Engineering & Others 2
Other Items ERP Procurement & Customization 1
Sub-Total
238 239
LMS Procurement & Commissioning 1 Risks

Home device for Students/Faculty 1000
• Describe the main risks

Data package grant 1000
• What is the likelihood of these risks

Others 0
• How will risks be mitigated

Sub-Total
Operating Expenditure/year*
Bandwidth Charges 1 Gbps
Salary & Benefits 3
Office Expenditure 1
An Example of Risk for LMS Adoption

Personnel Training 10
LMS, DL, Communication, Software & 1 Risk Mitigation Strategy Likelihood

Licenses
Others 0 The scale of LMS adoption will be Appropriate experience will be sought medium
overwhelming to operationalize in some from peer institutions I preplanning who
institutions. have experience with handling 10,000+
Sub-Total
courses. A phase approach will be used.
Total
240 241
Contents
Description 264
Goals / Objectives 265
Sub-Strategy # - Activities 266
Changes to Policies, Regulations

and/or Rules 270
Implementation timeline and

arrangements 270
achieve the goals agreed during the Digi- Budget 271
Strategy 5: Capacity
the Head of each Working Group with input Risks 272
Building and Business

Partnerships 273
as support.
Process Re-engineering It has to be completed by the Head of the

Steps for the coming month 274
following sections:
Country Name:

(name, position)
242 243
Description of the Strategy Baseline Status
Capacity Requirement is about the human capability and resources involved in the design,
implementation, monitoring, and review of the higher education strategic plan on digital What is the Current Baseline?
skills.
• What is the current state and the desired state by 2025, and 2030?
Business Process Re-engineering involves a review and refinement of existing work process-
es so as to be more efficient and effective in delivering the business output and outcomes. • Highlight the difference/progress that will be made with the plan
• Explain why and how the goal is realistic to the level of ambition
In support of the higher education strategic plan on digital skills, we need to ensure that our Goals / Objectives of the Strategy
Ministry and Regulatory Staff have the requiste capacity (skills and knowledge) to support
the initiatives. We also need our organisations to be both efficient and effective in support-
ing the plan. High-Level Goals of the Strategy to be achieved (2025 and 2030)
You should include the following:
What is the High-Level Goal by 2025 and 2030?

Sub-strategies
• State the Goal clearly with numbers, context, and timeline
Aspects of Capacity Requirements include:
• Building Capacity Needs for Digital Plan An Example Goal for Capacity Building (Sub-Strategy 5.1) is:
• Identifying Modalities for Capacity Building 5.1 - # of staff to receive Digital Skills training to have at least inter-
mediate-level digital skills
Business Processes are typically organised in the following categories:
• Operational Processes
An Example An Example of the Goal for Business Process Re-engineering (Sub-
• Management Processes Strategy 5.2) is:
• Support Processes 5,.2 List (and #) of business processes to be re-engineered.
244 245
Sub-Strategy # - Activities Identifying Modalities for Capacity Building
Focus Area:
• List the key activities for reaching the high-level goals by completing the table below
How does it contribute to the Goal?
• Explain the priority over the activities (if relevant)
Activity Responsible Indicators Timeline
1.
2.
Strategy 5.1
An Example for Capacity Building

Capacity Building Include A Review of
• Capacity Needs for Digital Plan

Focus Area: ICT Upskilling Courses
• Modalities for Capacity Building
For further explanation, please refer to the Detailed Slides
The roll-out of ICT upskilling courses will build the competencies and
confidence of the staff from ministries and agencies to support the
development of the digital plan
Building Staff Capacity
Focus Area: Activity Responsible Indicators Timeline
How does it contribute to the Goal? Identification of Skills Gap Chief Executive of Workforce Devel- Skills Gap Report 2 Weeks
opment Agency (WDA)
Design of Course (Objectives and Lead Specialist at Course Develop- Course Proposal 1 Month
Duration) ment Department of WDA
Activity Responsible Indicators Timeline Selection of Candidates Human Resource Director of WDA List of candidates 1 Month
1. Selection of Training Providers Chairman of Procurement Commit- Award of contract to 1 Month

tee vendor
2.
246 247
Re-Engineering Corporate Processes

Examples of Key Activities to be Listed for Business Process Re-Engineering
Could Include A Review of Focus Area:
• Operational Processes How does it contribute to the Goal?
• Management Processes
• Support Processes Activity Responsible Indicators Timeline
For further explanation, please refer to the Detailed Slides 1.
2.
Re-Engineering Operational Processes An Example for Business Process Re-Engineering
Focus Area: Focus Area: Corporate Processes – Shortening Course

Approval Process
Currently, course approval processes take up to 1 year from

Activity Responsible Indicators Timeline submission to implementation. Shortening the process to 3
months will allow for the launch of new courses in a timely
1. manner to support a responsive curriculum towards digital
skills development.
2.
Activity Responsible Indicators Timeline
Re-Engineering Management Processes

Director of Course Accred- Report on Bottle- 2 Weeks
Focus Area: Identification of Bottlenecks itation Department of the necks on Course

University Registrar Office Approval Process
Activity Responsible Indicators Timeline Director of Course Accred- Report on Recom- 1 Month
Re-designing the Approval itation Department of the mendations for
Process University Registrar Office Re-designed Approv-
1.
al Process
2.
Endorsement of Approval Provost of the University Implementation of 1 Month
Process Re-designed Approv-
al Process
248 249
Changes to Policies, Regulations and/or Rules to achieve Budget

Strategy

Policies/Regulations Rationale Responsible Indicators Timeline
See Above for Example on Shortening Course Approval Process as a Policy to be

Improved Cost Driver Unit Quantity Sub-Total
1.
2.
Implementation timeline and arrangements

3.
• Timeline for implementation Total:
• Overview of implementation process 2020-2025

Recurrent Cost (Year 1 to Year 10)
• Key milestones up to 2025, year-by-year

1.
2.
3.
An Example of Timeline for Capacity Building Total:

Development of Course 6th Month Course designed
Launch of Course 7th Month Course launched
Trained 1000 Participant (20% of Goal) 1 Year 1000 participants trained
250 251
An Example for Capacity Building Partnerships
Capital Description of partnerships needing to be established (other DSCAP strategies, Min-

istries, Private Sector organizations or others). Include partner and description of
Cost Driver Unit Quantity Sub-Total partnership outcomes expected.
1.Capital cost of equipment, USD per trainee X X X
Recurrent Partners Rationale Outcomes Expected
1. Unit cost of training (intermediate skills programs), X X X

USD per year
2. Unit cost of training (specialized skills programs), USD X X X

per year
Risks
An Example of Partnership for Capacity Building
Learn from international Build Capability of Staff to implement

An Example of Risks for Business Process Re-engineering International Technology Company. (Samsung) organisations and facilitate digital systems to support the digital
technology and knowledge plan
transfer
Lack of Fair and Transparent Process for Regular audits Medium

the Selection of Training Providers Quality assurance measures to be
undertaken by relevant regulatory
agencies
252 253
Steps for the coming month
Tasks to be completed in the

coming 1 month
An Example of Next Steps
Tasks to be completed in the coming 1 month
Form a team to develop the Week 1 and 2 Team Leader Team formed
proposal
Refine the budget Week 3 and 4 Team Budget refined
Start the concept paper Week 3 and 4 Team Draft proposal

proposal
Identify the funding source Week 2 Team List of funding sources
Present preliminary report Week 4 Team Leader Report presented
254 255
WITH SUPPORT FROM:
https://www.worldbank.org/en/programs/all-africa-digital-transformation
https://www.worldbank.org/en/programs/paset

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March 2021 Part 2

Methodological Guidebook V 2.0 for Preparing Digital Skills Country Action

contents Strategy 3Enhance use of

Strategy 4Implementation Plans To

Strategy 5Capacity building and

Consistency Matrix  170

Action Plan Strategy 1: Establishing

Action Plan Strategy 2: Reform of

Action Plan Strategy 3: Enhance

Action Plan Strategy 4: Connect higher

Action Plan Strategy 5: Capacity

WITH SUPPORT FROM:

AI Artificial Intelligence NREN National Research and Education Networks

Summary of this section 4

Digital Skills Frameworks 6

Country context / baseline 14

Goal of this Strategy 14

Activities and Interventions 15

Summary of this section Enabling Policies

• Develop ongoing skills assessments for the country

Examples of Enabling Policies

• Intellectual Property Rights policy

Reference frameworks for digital competence create an agreed vision of what is

UNESCO’s Digital Literacy Global Framework2 defines Digital Liter-

Digital literacy is the ability to access, manage, understand, integrate,

ately through digital technologies for employment, decent jobs, and

3.1 Developing digital content

Deep theoretical knowledge, Integrate to contribute to the Resolve complex problems

4.4 Protecting the environment

The detailed description of the proficiency levels defined by EU DigComp 2.1 is

5. Problem solving 5.3 Creatively using digital technologies

5.4 Identifying digital competence gaps

5.5 Computational thinking

The full document is available at http://uis.unesco.org/sites/default/files/documents/

UNESCO Institute of Statistics 4. Safety

Competence area Competences 4.4 Protecting the environment

European e-Competence Framework (e-CF)

The European e-Competence Framework is structured along four dimensions.

Country context / baseline Activities and Interventions

Developing an enabling environment for digital skills typically in-

Goal of this Strategy

Strategy 1.2: Developing a Digital Skills Framework

• Knowledge-based tests https://www.itu.int/en/ITU-D/Digital-Inclusion/Documents/ITU%20

Website: (http://publications.jrc.ec.europa.eu/repository/bitstream/ • Performance-based evaluation

5 ITU: Digital Skills Toolkit, 2018.

The International Computer and Information Literacy Study

3. Will it develop a “common” tool which could be adapted by universities/TVET

5. What kind of reports will be produced? For who?

6. How often will the reporting and the assessment be done?

Australia’s National Assessment Program (NAP) Indicators

Indicator Suggested Reporting Unit(s)

Enrolment in these by gender

Table 5. Examples of indicators to measure the conditions under which digital

Internet access in private secondary schools

Number (or %) of government/public schools with computers for

Number (or %) of private schools with computers for student use

Percentage of teachers in public secondary teachers who have Timelines

Percentage of teachers in private secondary teachers who have

Consistency Matrix 170