Instructional Designer, College Liberal Arts

Instructional Designer, College of the Liberal Arts

The Learning Design team within the College of the Liberal Arts is seeking an Instructional Designer to oversee all aspects of designing, developing, and managing online course portfolios.

This position is not focused on technical support. Instead, the key responsibilities of the Instructional Designer are centered on collaborating closely with faculty authors to ensure course content and assessments enhance learning and support student success. This involves the evaluation of online lesson content and assessments using knowledge of online pedagogy, interdisciplinary research, and evidence-based best practices.

Specific responsibilities include (but are not limited to):

• Meeting with faculty authors to design and develop content for asynchronous online courses that enroll traditional and non-traditional students.
• Providing guidance to faculty authors based on established learning frameworks.
• Reviewing faculty-created course content and assessments and providing research-based recommendations to enhance student learning.
• Acting as the project manager for courses in development to monitor progress; determine, set, and ensure others on the team adhere to schedules and deadlines.
• Collaborating with multimedia specialists in the creation of course-related multimedia elements (animations, illustrations, videos, virtual environments) and managing the completion of these elements within an established timeframe.
• Overseeing the work of Instructional Design Assistants for the setup and maintenance of approximately 35 courses each semester.
• Ensuring that all course content follows copyright and accessibility standards.
• Researching and promoting innovative trends and technologies that impact online learning in higher education.

Benefits include
:

• Medical, dental, vision, and retirement plans
• 75% tuition discounts (including for a spouse and dependent children up to the age of 26)
• Generous vacation and sick time
• 15 paid holidays/campus closure days

Education and Experience: This position will be filled as an Instructional Designer - Advanced Professional, which requires a minimum of Master's degree and three years of relevant experience.

Other

Qualifications:

• Advanced knowledge of learning theories, best practices for online learning, and current research in the field.
• Ability to draw from the above knowledge in their course design, reviews, and recommendations.
• Outstanding project management skills.
• Excellent interpersonal and communication (written and verbal) skills.
• Ability to work collaboratively with team members and faculty partners, and be comfortable delegating work to others.
• Experience with Canvas or another learning management system.

In addition, successful candidates must either have demonstrated a commitment to building an inclusive, equitable, and diverse campus community, or describe one or more ways they would envision doing so, given the opportunity.

Penn State is committed to and accountable for advancing diversity, equity, and inclusion in all of its forms. We embrace individual uniqueness, foster a culture of inclusion that supports both broad and specific diversity initiatives, leverage the educational and institutional benefits of diversity, and engage all individuals to help them thrive. We value inclusion as a core strength and an essential element of our public service mission.

Penn State is an equal opportunity, affirmative action employer, and is committed to providing employment opportunities to all qualified applicants without regard to race, color, religion, age, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, disability or protected veteran status.