Instructional Designer

Position Title:

Distance Education Instructional Designer

Reports To:

Director of Distance Education Instructional Design

FLSA Status:

Exempt

Functional Area:

Academics

Position Identifier:

DE

Unit:

Instructional

Location Identifier:

On-Premises

Geographic Location:

NG New Gloucester

At Unity College, we dont just accept difference we celebrate it, we support it,
and we thrive on it for the benefit of our employees, our students, and our community.
Unity College is proud to be an equal opportunity workplace and is an affirmative action employer.

About Unity College:

For more than fifty years, Unity College has been preparing the next generation of environmental professionals and leaders to successfully face real-world challenges. With environmentally focused degrees, Unity College offers affordable and accessible bachelors degrees, masters degrees, certificates, and non-degree courses through a variety of modalities including hybrid, in-person, hyflex, and online.

Our Mission:

Through the framework of sustainability science, Unity College provides a liberal arts education that emphasizes the environment and natural resources. Through experiential and collaborative learning, our graduates emerge as responsible citizens, environmental stewards, and visionary leaders.

Position Overview:

The Instructional Designers primary responsibility is to manage projects involving online course and micro-credential development and maintenance for Unity College Distance Education. To accomplish this, they will: Synthesize technical and pedagogical literacy and apply that expertise, in collaboration with subject matter experts (SMEs) and college administrators, to design engaging, experiential learning activities; Iteratively improve upon student-learning experiences through the collection and analysis of student data, as well as feedback from course instructors and SMEs, to follow the evolving needs of the professional spheres for which the students are being prepared; Continuously evaluate the performance of the courses and micro-credentials they design, and the efficacy of established instructional design practices, using student performance data; And, ensure the accessibility of the content and activities they build using universal design principles and Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) compliance standards.

Full job description provided at time of interview.

Key Responsibilities:

• Work collaboratively with Distance Education (DE) faculty and staff to design and develop high quality, innovative, experiential online courses, and micro-credentials.
• Act as an expert resource for our Canvas learning management system (LMS) and related tools.
• Apply the appropriate learning and instructional theories for excellent online course and micro-credential designs and implementations.
• Design online content for the Canvas LMS.
• Integrate current educational technologies to promote effective teaching strategies and to improve student-learning experiences.
• Develop and lead trainings on online instructor and student support materials, including tutorials, orientations, help sessions, and workshops, as needed.
• Facilitate and coordinate administrative aspects of course and micro-credential development, delivery, and support.
• Act as a consultant to Distance Education faculty and leadership on the process of instructional design in teaching, research, and creative works.
• Provide instructional design services, consultation and assistance to help plan, coordinate, support, evaluate and improve course, micro-credential and program designs.
• Identify and provide corrective action when needed in alignment with the Quality Matters program and rubric.
• Develop and manage course and micro-credential development and implementation schedules.
• Assist faculty and other subject matter experts in navigating the Canvas LMS, in coordination with Instructional Technology staff.
• Oversee all phases of the design process, aligning instructional content to learning outcomes, while creating instructionally sound and engaging learning opportunities, and developing quality assessment tools.
• Oversee design revisions and outcomes-based improvements of existing products.
• Remain current and maintain a thorough understanding of the latest industry technology tools and trends in online education.
• Other duties as assigned.

Required:

• Bachelor's Degree.
• Strong research, content analysis, and content preparation skills.
• Experience in leading and managing multiple, complex projects, and the ability to schedule, prioritize and meet varied deadlines across these projects.
• Ability to work both independently and within a team.
• Demonstrated excellent oral and written communication skills with strong interpersonal and presentation skills, while working with diverse content and populations.
• Proven ability to stay current with rapidly changing technologies.
• Ability and willingness to work with students from diverse political/socioeconomic backgrounds and a wide range of physical and academic abilities.
• Personal commitment to the environmental focus and mission of the college.
• Ability to function effectively within a matrix organizational structure, maintaining open lines of communication while being discreet, courteous, and well poised.

Preferred:

• Masters degree in Instructional Design, Education, or equivalent field.
• One year of experience working in a full-time instructional design capacity, collaborating directly with faculty in online curriculum building and course development.
• Experience developing non-traditional learning experiences, micro-credentials, and/or badging.
• Proven knowledge of instructional design strategies, along with the current techniques, tools, and procedures used in the design, development, and evaluation of technology-enhanced and online courses and programs.
• Experience with graphic design and AV elements appropriate for online instruction, especially using the Adobe Creative Cloud suite.
• Experience in online classroom teaching or workshop facilitation.
• Knowledge and understanding of Quality Matters, Online Learning Consortium, and similar online learning rubrics.
• Familiarity with Universal Design and other accessibility principles to ensure course content is accessible to all learners.
• Demonstrated competence in working with learning management systems, such as Canvas.
• Familiarity with HTML and CSS.

Work Schedule / Availability Requirements

Work hours are specific to the requirements of this position and can include days, evenings, and weekends. Working extended hours required as needed. Must be flexible and cooperative in fulfilling responsibilities and meeting the Colleges needs. Although Unity College employees are generally scheduled to work at their specifically assigned locations, there are times when travel is necessary and employees are required from time to time to attend events, meetings or work temporary assignment at any Unity College location.

Physical Demands

While performing the duties of this job, it is regularly required to sit and talk or hear. The employee is occasionally required to stand or walk. The employee must occasionally lift and/or move up to 25 lbs. Specific vision abilities required by this job include close vision, distance vision, peripheral vision, depth perception, and the ability to adjust focus. The use of either hand for repetitive movements such as grasping, grasping and turning, and fine manipulation is required as is the ability to use the telephone for internal and external communications.

Location: Pineland Farms, New Gloucester, Maine

Just a half hour from Portland, Unity College Headquarters, Unity College Distance Education, The Technical School for Environmental Professions (opening in 2022), and the School of Environmental Business & Sustainable Ventures are based at the Pineland Farms campus. The facilities are within easy access to one of the fastest-growing cities for startups in the country.

Benefits:

Unity College offers a comprehensive and competitive compensation and benefits package for its faculty and staff. Benefits for eligible employees include:

• Paid holidays
• Paid time off
• Medical
• Dental
• Short- and Long-term disability
• Life Insurance
• Flexible work benefit eligible
• Vision
• 403B