Senior Instructional Designer

St. Catherine University - Saint Paul, MN

Full-time - Mid Level

Saint Paul, MN

1,001-5,000 employees

Educational Services

About the position

The IT Academic Technology Department at St. Catherine University is seeking a full-time Senior Instructional Designer to enhance instructional quality and student experiences through effective use of technology and instructional design principles. This role is pivotal in managing instructional design technology systems and processes that support excellent academic instruction across various delivery formats, including face-to-face, hybrid, and fully online courses. The Senior Instructional Designer will leverage their expertise in learning science, adult learning, instructional design, Universal Design, and accessibility standards to guide faculty in creating learner-centered instruction and assessment. This position is crucial for the success of both students and faculty in the online learning environment, as it involves creating and delivering professional development offerings tailored to the pedagogical and technical needs of faculty teaching in St. Kate's online environment. In this role, the Senior Instructional Designer will lead faculty through processes to enhance instructional quality, analyze learning needs, and suggest appropriate activities and technologies. They will also review course designs against quality criteria and train faculty/staff peer review teams in course quality review processes. The position requires a deep understanding of academic technology tools, providing instruction and support to faculty, staff, and students, and leading efforts to create documentation and resources to support the use of these tools. Additionally, the Senior Instructional Designer will facilitate faculty development offerings, create workshops, and integrate training from third-party vendors into the academic technology experiences. As a secondary administrator for Kaltura and other learning tools, the Senior Instructional Designer will troubleshoot issues, prepare help guides, and monitor system updates. Continuous professional development is essential, and the individual will be expected to stay updated on learning technology trends and share knowledge with the Academic Technology team and the broader university community. This position is integral to fostering a culture of excellence and opportunity at St. Catherine University, which is committed to diversity, social justice, and the empowerment of women in higher education.

Responsibilities

• Lead faculty through processes to enhance instructional quality and student experiences.
• Analyze learning needs in conjunction with learning outcomes and suggest activities, including pedagogically appropriate technologies.
• Facilitate projects to redesign face-to-face courses into effective hybrid or fully online courses, including designing and developing instructional materials and media elements.
• Review individual course designs and teaching efforts against quality criteria.
• Train faculty/staff peer review teams in how to participate in a course quality review.
• Apply a broad and deep knowledge of available academic technology to effective instructional use.
• Provide instruction and support to faculty, staff, and students in how to use academic technology tools, including troubleshooting issues as necessary.
• Lead efforts to provide documentation, help guides, recorded tutorials and other resources to support the use of academic technology tools at St. Kate's.
• Facilitate existing asynchronous faculty development offerings.
• Create and present synchronous and asynchronous faculty development workshops and events.
• Integrate the training offerings of third-party vendors and other trainers into the experiences Academic Technology provides.
• Understand the basics of the organizational information, structure, permissions, and asset management within the Kaltura system to troubleshoot in the absence of the Primary Administrator.
• Prepare and update help guides, tutorials, and Knowledge Base (KB) articles for end user awareness and training.
• Monitor periodic system updates and upgrades.
• Continually update personal knowledge and skills about learning technology equipment and software systems through reading, in-house and external trainings, and professional conferences.

Requirements

• Bachelor's in Instructional Design or related field.
• At least three (3) years professional experience designing instructional materials and online instruction, preferably in a higher education environment.
• Strong background in curriculum development, instructional design concepts and principles, adult learning theory, needs assessment, and online learning best practices.
• Demonstrated creativity, skill, and experience in designing instruction that engages students in active learning experiences.
• Awareness of accessibility standards in online instructional design.
• Excellent verbal, written, and oral presentation communication skills.
• Strong interpersonal skills and ability to work in a self-directed manner.
• Strong Microsoft® Office Suite and/or Google Suite skills.

Nice-to-haves

• A combination of either bachelor's degree with 6+ years of experience or master's degree with 3-5 years of experience.
• Demonstrated experience using emerging technology to support instructional objectives.
• Ability to coordinate technology troubleshooting and problem-solving in a highly technical and fast-paced environment that is focused on providing service to the University community.
• Experience assessing faculty or subject matter expert development needs, creating a variety of digital and print instructional materials, planning development events, and evaluating learning outcomes using measurable data collection methods.
• Strong project management skills to guide projects and course development in a collaborative, team environment.
• Well-developed understanding of the coordination required between computers, servers, databases, networks, software, graphic design, and web programming to successfully provide high quality digital learning experiences and troubleshoot systems issues.
• Dynamic training skills.
• Experience with image and audio-editing software.
• Experience with Articulate or other instructional design software.