The Department of Industrial and Management Systems Engineering in the Benjamin M. Statler College of Engineering and Mineral Resources at West Virginia University is currently accepting applications for a (Remote) Part-time Instructional Designer.

About the Opportunity

This is a part-time role that works remotely and reports to the Director of Online Programs and works with the Lead Instructional Designer for the WVU Statler College of Engineering online programs.

Work Hours: 20 Hours Per Week

We strongly believe in work-life balance and keeping time for things we love outside our work. WVU offers generous benefits, including:

• Paid holidays (staff holiday calendar)
  
• Annual leave (vacation) days per year
  
• Sick days per year (for when you’re ill, for when you need time to care for sick family, for your own, or your family’s, regularly scheduled medical appointments. Who is family for the purpose of this leave? A lot of people in your life including immediate relatives and in-laws as well as others considered to be members of your household living under the same roof)
  
• WVU offers a range of health insurance and other benefits
  
• 401(a) retirement savings with 6% employee contribution match, eligibility to continue health insurance, and other retiree perks. Looking for more retirement benefits information? Check out retirement health insurance benefits, retirement income, and FAQ’s.
  
• Wellness programs

What You'll Do

Scheduling Aspects

• Assist in establishing a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with subject matter expert (SME) and lead instructional designer to accomplish course builds in the time allocated.
• Update MoU spreadsheet to reflect when items are received from SME and tasks are completed. Insert comments into cells as needed. Shared space will be provided for this.
• Maintain laser focus on completing all aspects on time or early. It is understood that this requires the SME to provide materials on schedule to do so.

Communication

• Maintain communication with subject matter expert (SME) assigned to the course on a regular basis. Provide reminders for upcoming deadlines if they wish. Notify SME when content has been created and is ready for review. Obtain feedback for needed revisions and request final review and signoff on modules when completed.
• Keep lead instructional designer apprised of completion of modules and any challenges that might arise. If an SME is running behind, find out the exact date they plan to provide anything that is late and share this information with the lead instructional designer.
• Maintain documentation of project progress and interaction with SME as needed.
• Communicate with lead instructional designer with any questions or concerns.

Content Creation

• Build course modules in WVU eCampus following the schedule established by the MoU. Lead instructional designer will request needed shells and enrollment in Ultra.
• Ensure courses have a “Start Here” section with any needed content such as Welcome message, Instructor Bio, Syllabus, University resources, and a Next Steps page guiding students to the first module.
• Receive Preliminary Design Documents (PDD) from subject matter expert (SME) and create Learning Modules containing objects such as: Document content pages, Assignments, Discussions, Tests/Quizzes, Videos, Interaction knowledge checks, and reading assignments as requested by the SME.
• Follow design recommendations provided by the lead instructional designer for standardizing things such as “Outcomes & Activities” pages at the start of each module containing a table showing module learning outcomes (MLOs), their alignment with Course Learning Outcomes (CLOs), and a table showing all activities within the module and alignment with MLOs. All content pages should also include a graphic banner at the top that will be provided and a copyright notice at the bottom. Examples will be provided.
• Ensure images have proper attribution displayed above them. Any references for things such as “Table #” or “Figure #” should also be displayed above those items.
• For instructor-created videos, request they be created so that the length of each is five to 10 minutes as much as possible. Video editing to chunk videos into being these sizes may be needed.
• At the end of each module, a “Next Steps” document page should contain wording indicating being the end of the module and what module comes next as appropriate. An example will be provided.
• Subject matter experts (SME) indicate they are responsible to clearing IP law concerns with content in the MoU document. If things are noticed that might be questionable, ask the SME about them.
• Follow known best practices for instructional design (Examples: QM/OSCQR).

Accessibility

• Follow best practices for making content accessible.
• Ensure that all images have ALT tags or are marked as being decorative as appropriate. For more complex images that are referenced in the content, request the subject matter expert (SME) provide descriptions. For PowerPoint presentations shared as class notes, ask the SME to run the Accessibility Checker in PowerPoint and fill in appropriate text or select the image is decorative as appropriate.
• For instructor created videos, work with the lead instructional designer for these to be sent as .MP4 files to The Office of Student Accommodations for storing on their YouTube presence. URLs / HTML embed code will be provided quickly for the course build, and they will later do professional closed captioning as their time allows.
• Use the ALLY tool in eCampus to determine that content appears to be optimally accessible. Seek 100% on this check for all pages and content. Communicate with lead instructional designer if there are questions or concerns.

• Master’s degree in Instructional Design or related field.
• A minimum of three (3) years of experience involving:
  • Designing online courses for higher education.
  • Developing content on and working with learning management systems (LMS).
• Any equivalent combination of related education and/or experience will be considered.
• All qualifications must be met by the time of employment.

Knowledge, Skills, and Abilities

• Ability to write measurable learning outcomes and align content with them.
• Ability to create content pages, grading rubrics, assignments, assessments, and discussion forums.
• Ability to employ best practices for making content accessible.
• Familiarity with Universal Design for Learning (UDL) and the ADDIE model.
• Knowledge of best practices for creating online courses.
• Ability to work collaboratively with subject matter experts and other team members.
• Excellent oral and written communications skills and organizational skills.
• Ability to maintain laser focus on meeting aggressive project deadlines and communicating with stakeholders on a regular and timely basis.
• Familiarity with Blackboard Ultra and Coursera platforms preferred.
• Familiarity with tools such as Articulate, Adobe Suite, and Microsoft Office Suite preferred.
• Familiarity with HTML preferred.

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience in creating courses in the fields of engineering and computer science.
• Experience with video and audio editing.
• Experience in teaching online courses.