ORCA Learning Designer

University of British Columbia · Vancouver · CA$7,727–CA$11,112/month (stated in the posting)

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Note: Applications will be accepted until 11:59 PM on the Posting End Date.

To apply for this position, please include a cover letter that summarizes your fit for the position, including your qualifications and past experience, and how your work aligns with ORCA’s mission and mandate.

At UBC, we believe that attracting and sustaining a diverse workforce is key to the successful pursuit of excellence in research, innovation, and learning for all faculty, staff and students. Our commitment to employment equity helps achieve inclusion and fairness, brings rich diversity to UBC as a workplace, and creates the necessary conditions for a rewarding career. 

Job Summary
Working closely with subject matter experts (faculty members, instructional support, IT and other staff) and alongside other support units across UBC Vancouver campus, the Learning Designer (LD) leads and manages the planning, design, development, implementation, and evaluation of innovative assessment pedagogies in the Open Resource Centre for Assessment (ORCA). Consultation on other course materials including class activities, lecture content, practice material, and other aspects of course delivery as needed to support faculty members transitioning to ORCA. The LD is committed to implementing evidence-based, flexible approaches in the creation of accessible, equitable and inclusive digital assessments that support all learners.  This position aligns with various UBC strategic priorities which seek to improve student's educational experiences at UBC, with specific attention to supporting flexibility for learners. This role is an in-person position. To apply for this position, please include a cover letter that summarizes your fit for the position including qualifications, past experience, and how your work aligns with ORCA’s mission and mandate.

Organizational Status
The Learning Technology Innovation Centre (LTIC) is a central academic service unit mandated to catalyse and elevate learning technology application, innovation, and inquiry at UBC. ORCA is a centralized service provided by the Office of the Provost and Vice-President, Academic and sits under LTIC. ORCA operates rooms across campus as a distributed testing centre with network-filtered computer labs dedicated to assessment. ORCA supports instructors in implementing innovative digital assessments at scale, securely and equitably across the Vancouver campus.

Work Performed

• Provides leadership and technical expertise in learning and inclusive assessment design.
• Provides faculty members support within ORCA supported learning management systems including PrairieLearn, Canvas, Brightspace, MTA, Qualtrics, Webwork, Gradescope, and others.
• Works closely with subject matter experts and others to analyze assessment needs and recommends effective pedagogical approaches and strategies to better meet desired assessment outcomes.
• Develops and tests ORCA-supported learning technology and software, and identifies deficiencies to the ORCA Manager and ORCA Academic Director.
• Develops and maintains education technology-related workflows and guides for faculty members, ORCA invigilators, and other staff on use of instructional tools
• Provides leadership in advocating for software features that ORCA needs to sustain and grow its’ user base (including advocacy to vendors whose software tools ORCA relies on).
• Assess pedagogical needs of faculty members and collaborate with the ORCA Manager and ORCA Academic Director to establish priorities and areas of focus.
• Work with instructors (or their designates, including student and non-student staff) to design and prepare assessments for ORCA.
• Evaluates assessment effectiveness and educational outcomes of courses (in collaboration with faculty members).
• Assists the ORCA Manager in evaluating ORCA service performance, usage, and capacity by providing data, analysis, and expertise.
• Applies instructional design principles and frameworks to support a variety of assessment modalities supported by ORCA.
• With training, provides technical expertise to faculty members working on innovative assessments and developing sophisticated auto-graders using modern web technologies (HTML, CSS, Typescript, WASM) and programming languages (Python, R, Rust, Docker).
• Develops and maintains scripts, apps, and web-based automations to improve ORCA operations.
• Recommends, guides, and facilitates the design and development of assessments in alignment with learning outcomes. Reviews and provides advice on assessment materials.
• Advises on strategies that enhance justice, equity, diversity, Indigeneity, and inclusion (JEDII) work and the accessibility of assessment environments for all learners.
• Is attentive to the potential impact assessment design has on both student and faculty wellbeing and makes recommendations based on this knowledge.
• Collaborates with the ORCA Manager to triage and handle responses to assessment-design related incidents; the ORCA Manager coordinates overall assessment delivery, operational incidents, and escalation with the appropriate campus partners.
• Evaluates whether assessment design recommendations achieve intended teaching and learning outcomes.
• Provides advice on the integration of new and existing technologies to enhance assessments in ORCA by leveraging an excellent understanding of the Learning Technology ecosystem at UBC.
• Provides tours and holds weekly office hours for members of the UBC community to learn about ORCA.
• Onboards faculty and staff members to the ORCA service.
• Conducts research on innovative uses of emerging technologies and their potential impacts on assessment. Integrates this research into their practice and uses it to develop professional development activities (workshops, drop-in sessions, etc.) for faculty on assessment learning design related to the ORCA model.
• Works with the ORCA Academic Director to undertake original educational and pedagogical research in ORCA on new approaches to assessment design drawing on practical experience designing and conducting SoTL research projects.
• Consults with subject-matter experts and provides pedagogical expertise in the development of teaching and learning grant proposals using the ORCA model of assessment.
• Consults and builds relationships with staff members from various support units (Centre for Accessibility, UBC Studios, LT Hub, etc.) to ensure quality instructor support.
• Disseminate work at local, national and international conferences and collaborate with faculty and colleagues on publications. Represents ORCA interests by serving on UBC committees or provincial, national and international organizations.
• Assists with general coordination of ORCA in peak periods, or when staffing is inadequate.
• Performs other related duties as required.
  

Consequence of Error/Judgement
Errors in judgment may have negative effects on the quality of education and both faculty and student experience; could negatively impact future ORCA partnerships; and may consequently damage the image and reputation of the University, LTIC and ORCA.

Supervision Received
Formal supervision by the ORCA Academic Director and establishing operational priorities in collaboration with the ORCA Manager.

Supervision Given
Provides leadership, education and mentoring on demonstrated areas of expertise to faculty and others. May occasionally oversee the work of invigilators as they work with learning technology (software and hardware), students, or others on project teams.

Minimum Qualifications
Master’s degree in Education. Minimum of six years of related experience, or the equivalent combination of education and experience.

- Willingness to respect diverse perspectives, including perspectives in conflict with one’s own

- Demonstrates a commitment to enhancing one’s own awareness, knowledge, and skills related to equity, diversity, and inclusion

Preferred Qualifications

• A PhD in Education, Pedagogy, discipline-based education research (DBER) or a related discipline is strongly preferred.
• Demonstrated competency in modern programming languages like Python, R, Rust (or similar) and their utility in randomizing assessments.
• Demonstrated competency in digital learning design theories and practices, assessment design theory and pedagogical approaches utilized in higher education across various modalities (in-person, online, hybrid, and multi-access) and within diverse academic disciplines.
• Demonstrated proficiency and knowledge of educational technologies with the ability to assess and integrate emerging technologies to support assessment priorities (i.e. learning management platforms, learning technologies, multimedia and web-based tools, technology-assisted instructional design, accessibility tools, learning analytics, and artificial intelligence).
• Knowledge of relevant programming languages and generative AI tools, and the ability to inform assessment design through learning analytics.
• Strong oral and written communication/presentation skills. Ability to communicate technical issues to non-technical audiences is essential.
• Strong interpersonal skills, using tact, diplomacy, and sound judgment to work effectively with faculty, staff, students, senior leadership, and external partners.
• Willingness to respect diverse perspectives, including perspectives in conflict with one’s own.
• Demonstrates a commitment to enhancing one’s own awareness, knowledge, and skills related to equity, diversity, and inclusion.
• Demonstrates a commitment to enhancing one’s own technical expertise and development, a strong curiosity for learning and commitment to ongoing professional development.
• Foundational knowledge of intersections between alternative grading, decolonization, Indigenization, and Higher Education and/or willingness to pursue on-going learning in these areas.
• Min 2 years of experience teaching in a post-secondary institution, designing courses, assessments, and curriculum, in a variety of modalities (online, in person etc.)
• Experience designing and undertaking original educational research, drawing on contemporary practices within the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (SoTL) as well as an applied knowledge of statistical analysis 
• Familiarity engaging with, or working on open source software projects (including familiarity with GitHub/GitLab, issues, discussions, merge and pull requests)
• Thorough knowledge of current educational technologies, specifically the UBC learning ecosystem, and the ability to learn new and emerging tools with ease.
• Knowledge of relevant contemporary programming languages and generative AI tools, and the ability to inform assessment design through learning analytics
• Comfort working with modern AI tools to work efficiently including auditing output from GenAI tools.
• Proven project management skills with ability to prioritize and coordinate a number of projects concurrently. Ability to take initiative and work with limited direction, both independently and in a team environment.
• Highly effective problem solving, troubleshooting, planning, and organizational skills. High degree of accuracy and attention to detail.
• Demonstrated ability to apply universal design for learning (UDL) and accessibility strategies to develop equitable and accessible learning experiences.
• Foundational knowledge of justice, equity, decolonization, indigenization and inclusion (JEDII) in Higher Education and willingness to pursue on-going learning in this area.
• Understanding of intellectual property and copyright. Knowledge of UBC’s strategic plans, policies, and procedures will be considered an asset.

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