Deployment Guide 2011/OLPC Support Strategy
OLPC Deployment Guide 2011: OLPC Support Strategy
One Laptop Per Child provides assistance throughout the different stages of a deployment, focusing on three major types of support: Operational, Educational, and Technical.
OLPC believes building local capacity in both educational and technical fields is the key to self-sustained deployments and to the fostering of local project ownership. OLPC strategy entails pre-deployment training of core team and ongoing remote post-deployment support (via email, phone, or chats) dependent on the needs of the project.
OLPC provides free support to projects of any size. For projects with orders larger than 25,000 units, OLPC sends Educational and Technical Support staff to the country of deployment for one week of comprehensive technical and educational training. This also applies to smaller orders (5,000+ units) that have the potential for significant growth in a short period of time. For projects exceeding 50,000 units, the initial training can be extended to two weeks with 2 additional week-long training sessions within a 12 month period.
Follow-up visits to a country are on per request basis; additional educational training can be provided 2- 3 times per year after the initial training. In-country training costs (excluding facilities and supplies) are covered by OLPC, although sponsors typically provide suitable lodging for OLPC staff. In certain particularly challenging environments can OLPC provide full-time in-country staff, including project managers, technical directors and learning directors. The costs of this level of OLPC service are negotiated at the time of the request.
OLPC Operations Support
OLPC offers direct support to funders and project managers during the planning phase of deployment when strategic decisions related to financing, legal agreements, and ordering processes need to be taken. OLPC offers ongoing support to the logistics department of core team in regards to supply-chain management.
OLPC Educational Development Support
Once a project is officially established, OLPC facilitates workshops for core teams to develop an understanding of the XO as a learning tool. OLPC provides guidance in the process of defining a support structure for schools or learning centers. OLPC provides ongoing support throughout the different teacher training phases of a deployment and for educational content development.
OLPC Technical Development Support
OLPC also focuses on building local capacity in technical aspects such as: setting local infrastructure and connectivity; and all other responsibilities regarding software, hardware, maintenance and repairs of machines.
Volunteers and Internship Programs
Another support strategy from OLPC entails Volunteer and Internship programs. During the months of June, July and August, OLPC launches internship programs for students of recognized universities in different countries. The objective of the programs is for interns to work closely with the core team and to provide support in different areas of the projects depending on their backgrounds and areas of study.