The Educational Technologist joins a team dedicated to helping Boston University faculty navigate a rapidly changing technology landscape in order to help their students learn more effectively. The Educational Technologist’s key goal is to help a wide array of faculty effectively adopt and use the tools most appropriate for student learning outcomes as defined within the contexts of their disciplines. Within these parameters, the Educational Technologist's responsibilities may shift over time with the availability of tools and associated needs.
PRIMARY RESPONSIBILITIES
- Consulting and advising faculty on matching technology tools to learning objectives, in person as well as by email, phone and video conference.
- Promoting awareness of educational technologies among faculty via presentations, conferences, faculty meeting and related events.
- Delivering technology trainings in person and virtually to audiences sized 1 to 30. Coordinating meetings on technology development with an internal development team.
- Meeting and communicating regularly with technology vendors to ensure reliable and satisfactory service to faculty and other university clients.
- Creating documentation on the BU-specific context of technology tools in multiple formats including text with screen caps and video.
- Answering and following up on relevant request tickets for technical help in the BU ServiceNow system.
- Working with Information Services & Technology and other BU organizational units to approve the adoption of new tools. Each Educational Technologist on the Educational Technology team specializes in supporting a particular set of technology tools.
This technologist's initial responsibilities will include supporting faculty on:
- The BULB (Boston University Learning Blocks) WordPress plugin for interactive open educational resources
- Turnitin Feedback Studio
- Google tools for education
- The MediaKron tool (in partnership with Boston College) for interactive maps, timelines and rich media
- Lucidchart
- Newly emerging technologies such as Gradescope
ADDITIONAL RESPONSIBILITIES
- Provides expert support to instructors and staff for educational technologies deployed at Boston University. These technologies include any of the assigned technologies in the educational technology portfolio at Boston University.
- Coaches and partners with faculty in the process of building supplemental online course materials, including designing and developing instructional material for traditional and innovative instructional environments, including guides for courses and/or program components. Develops project timelines for new and revised courses.
- Promotes the value of using educational technologies, teaching and learning tools through one-on-one and group tutorials and general presentations. Creates a list of best teaching practices with the supported educational technologies, based on internal and external experiences and disseminates this information via a user group and training efforts to faculty and staff.
- Identifies innovative and effective traditional/hybrid learning techniques, explores emerging technologies, and provides faculty with information regarding professional development opportunities regarding technology-mediated instruction.
- Work as a team member and provide back-up support for all educational technologies centrally supported by Educational Technology. These technologies include but are not limited to audience response systems, lecture capture, e-Portfolio, plagiarism detection tools, video production space, and so on.
Required Skills
- Master’s degree. Doctoral degree preferred.
- Degree in education, instructional technology or directly related field, or two years full-time teaching experience in a higher-education setting.
- At least two years work experience in a large university or other higher-education setting, preferably in a faculty-facing role.
- Demonstrated ability to interpret learning and research requirements and work collaboratively with faculty, instructional designers, project managers, and engineers at various levels of technical ability.
- Advanced-level experience with G Suite (Google Apps), especially in an education context, and/or general experience with any or all of the following platforms: WordPress (especially the new Gutenberg interface), Turnitin Feedback Studio, MediaKron, Gradescope, GoReact, Lucidchart, emerging Google for Education tools (such as Assignments, Jamboard, Tour Creator).
- Strong organizational skills and ability to support multiple projects under potentially conflicting deadlines.
ADDITIONAL PREFERRED QUALIFICATIONS
- Experience with open educational resources.
- Experience developing training resources and/or documentation.
- Experience or training in instructional design.
- Ability to learn new technologies quickly and adapt rapidly to new situations.
- Capacity for flexibility, imagination, and creative problem-solving skills.
- Ability to approach problems with empathy, patience and a sense of humor.
We are an equal opportunity employer and all qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, disability status, protected veteran status, or any other characteristic protected by law. We are a VEVRAA Federal Contractor.
Required Experience