Instructional Designer--VCU LEDstudio

All full-time university staff are eligible for VCU’s robust benefits package that includes: comprehensive health benefits, paid annual and holiday leave granted up front, generous tuition benefit, retirement planning and savings options, tax-deferred annuity and cash match programs, employee discounts, well-being resources, abundant opportunities for career development and advancement, and more. Learn more about VCU’s benefits here.

Summary:

About VCU Continuing and Professional Education and LEDstudio–

VCU Continuing and Professional Education (VCU CPE), in partnership with the colleges and schools at Virginia Commonwealth University, provides and supports quality continuing and professional education and skills training for individual, local, regional and national impact. VCU Continuing and Professional Education harnesses the power of VCU — including more than 3,300 instructional faculty and adjunct instructors, an academic medical center and long-standing community relationships — to create the best learning opportunities available to nontraditional adult learners.

VCU LEDstudio is a leader in providing quality higher education and lifelong learning opportunities using a number of delivery methods, including fully online and hybrid. The unit broadly supports faculty, academic units, and community partners in their efforts to leverage technology to optimize student learning.  Additionally, LEDstudio provides strategic leadership in developing, expanding, and enhancing VCU’s learning opportunities, programs, and supporting the assessment and continuous quality improvement of current and new technology-mediated courses, programs, and projects. LEDstudio operates in a fast-paced environment requiring flexibility, innovation, and an openness to change. Instructional designers within LEDstudio must be comfortable navigating new directives, emerging technologies, and evolving institutional needs.

The position is an Instructional Designer (Instructional Design Specialist AA 1-3) for LEDstudio. Instructional Designers collaborate with faculty and colleagues to develop high-quality credit and noncredit courses based on pedagogical best practices. In addition, Instructional Designers collaborate with various University and community stakeholders to complete special projects that support campus and departmental initiatives and academic priorities. Instructional Designers at LEDstudio must be agile problem-solvers, capable of shifting between multiple projects with competing deadlines while maintaining a high standard of quality. These collaborations may be individual consultations relating to instructional design, larger programmatic efforts working with groups, and/or faculty development opportunities to enhance course design, facilitation, evaluation, and administration.

These engagements support the design or redesign of course components and projects such as:

• Developing the online course environment
• Creating learning objects, activities, and course content
• Designing of formative and summative assessment
• Integrating appropriate learning technologies
• Strategizing for content delivery and engagement
• Supporting guidance in Universal Design for Learning (UDL) principles and Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) compliance

Instructional Designers exercise professional judgment in:

• Maintaining confidentiality in consultation work with faculty members, departments, and schools
• Supporting the Instructional Design team in order to meet course design goals, faculty needs, and project deadlines in a timely manner
• Building quality course materials and components to align with VCU Quality standards
• Other duties as assigned in response to the unit’s needs

The telework nature of this position is subject to change based on university need and strategic direction.

AI should not be used for any part of the application submission or process.

Minimum Hiring Standards

• Bachelor’s degree in instructional design or other education-related field
• Minimum two (2) years of experience designing and building courses for online or hybrid delivery
• Demonstrated knowledge of instructional design principles and best practices for adult learners
• Demonstrated experience with learning management systems (LMS) and a range of learning technologies
• Demonstrated experience designing and creating online resources of varying length and complexity for instructors
• Demonstrated experience prioritizing and completing multiple projects at a time
• Ability to adapt and solve problems proactively and independently
• Excellent interpersonal, verbal, and written skills
• Proven ability to work as a contributing and collegial member of a team, and to communicate proactively within the team environment, with supervisors, and with the leadership team
• Demonstrated experience working in and fostering an environment of respect, professionalism and civility with a population of faculty, staff, and students from various backgrounds and experiences, or a  commitment to do so as a member of the VCU community
• Proven time management skills

Preferred Hiring Standards

• Advanced degree in a discipline such as Instructional Design, Learning Technologies, Curriculum and Instruction, Adult Learning, or a related field
• Experience designing and building credit and/or noncredit courses for community stakeholders
• Experience applying Universal Design for Learning (UDL) and accessibility standards in instructional design materials
• Experience using Adobe products in a higher education environment
• Experience using Canvas in a higher education environment
• Experience using AI tools in a higher education environment

Job Specific Physical and Cognitive Requirements

Essential physical functions: Walking, Sitting, Repetitive motion, Average to fast paced, Ability to respond to multiple stimuli

Essential cognitive functions: Memory, Reasoning, Analyzing, Hearing, Logic, Reading, Written communication, Verbal communication

ledstudio@vcu.edu