Heralded as a hub of undergraduate innovation, the Office of the Vice Provost for Undergraduate Education (VPUE) creates and sustains meaningful interactions between students and faculty both within and outside the classroom. As a collaborative team member of VPUE, you have a unique opportunity to advance and support programs that touch and enhance the lives of every undergraduate student at Stanford.
The Program in Writing and Rhetoric (PWR) is a unit in the Office of the Vice Provost for Undergraduate Education that manages required and elective academic programs as well as tutoring across the undergraduate community: The Writing and Rhetoric Requirement (PWR 1 and PWR 2), the Hume Center for Writing and Speaking, the Oral Communication Program, the Stanford Storytelling Project, Bing Honors College, Writing in the Major, and the Notations in Science Communication and Cultural Rhetorics.
The Academic Technology Specialist (ATS) will help lead the integration of technology into teaching, learning, and research activities in the Program in Writing and Rhetoric (PWR) and its constituent programs including the Hume Center for Writing and Speaking, the Oral Communication Program, and the Stanford Storytelling Project as well as initiatives including the Notations in Science Communication and Cultural Rhetorics. In addition, the ATS supports the technological infrastructure of the program, with responsibilities related to equipment, events, the program’s online presence, and, most importantly, effective and purposeful use of instructional technology in PWR classes. The ATS will remain current with and experiment with varied new pedagogical uses of technology in teaching and tutoring, pursuing the responsibility to share insights, strategies, and practices with the PWR instructional community, helping lecturers and leadership reflect on a range of issues related to how developments in technology influence and create both opportunities and challenges in teaching and tutoring. Given the continuing developments in artificial intelligence (AI), the ATS will explore the technology, focusing on practical issues related to implementing this technology (as well as earlier and emerging technologies) in teaching and tutoring across PWR’s programs.
Core Duties :
Assist with providing departmental leadership for using technology in teaching, learning, community building and/or research. Oversee or provide assistance in the direct integration of technology into course curricula, extra-curricular or co-curricular learning, and/or research projects.
Lead the development of resources, seminars, courses, or workshops to disseminate information about uses of technology.
Actively encourage and support the use of computer-based tools by developing and implementing new tools and resources for instructors or students, assisting them with the tools, disseminating knowledge of these tools throughout the program or university, and creating and supporting an infrastructure that allows use of the tools in research, teaching and/or learning.
Assist with coordination of academic learning technology policies, procedures, and support.
Lead projects to develop innovative uses of technology for research, student learning and/or community building. Consult on development of software applications, or work with on- or off-campus resources to develop or adapt software solutions.
Consult with and help instructors and/or departments to incorporate technologies into faculty research projects, course design and curricula and/or co-curricula in support of student learning goals.
Stay abreast of educational technology research and participate in academic conferences.
Provide expertise and support in applying instructional design methodologies to the development, implementation, and evaluation of face-to-face, hybrid, and online courses.
Provide outreach and advocacy within and across departments for effective uses of educational technology.
Minimum Education and Experience:
Bachelor's degree plus four years of relevant experience, or combination of education and relevant experience.
Knowledge, Skills and Abilities :
Expertise in utilizing technology to enhance teaching and research.
Ability to define and solve logical problems for technical applications.
Demonstrated ability to express course material and pedagogic goals through the imaginative application of technology to existing materials and structures.
Ability to plan, design, develop and evaluate engaging multimedia learning/training objects.
Experience with delivering applications in a networked environment.
Excellent teaching, communication and interpersonal skills.
Ability to interact effectively and tactfully with members of the academic community; demonstrated experience working in an environment with colleagues of diverse backgrounds and customs.
Demonstrated expertise with instructional design methodologies, pedagogical issues and best practices for classroom, online and hybrid learning.
Excellent time management and project management skills. Demonstrated ability to manage a complex workload, prioritize tasks and use good judgment in providing services based on goal.
Expert knowledge of Macintosh and Windows environments, and facility with Unix.
Demonstrated experience developing and delivering technical training to a non-technical audience.
Expert knowledge of learning management systems and various classroom and online learning technologies.
Excellent customer service skills, strong interpersonal skills and the ability to build strong working relationships with a diverse audience of faculty, staff and students.
