Instructional Technology Fellow, Harvard SEAS, Cambridge, MA
Posted April 27, 2016
Duties & Responsibilities
The Harvard John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences (SEAS) seeks a talented, creative, and enthusiastic individual to develop web-based educational tools for use in engineering design classes. A successful candidate will have in-depth knowledge of conventional data systems, software development, programming APIs, and information security. A prototype version of the proposed system has been built using the MEAN stack, so familiarity with MongoDB, Express.js, Angular.js, and Node.js is desirable. However, the research team is open to future versions being implemented with different platforms, based on the recommendations of the Instructional Technology Fellow.
Working with a team of faculty across SEAS, the Instructional Technology Fellow will develop functional and technical requirements with an engineering education research team and interpret these into system specifications, prototypes, and professional-quality products. The candidate will be required to spend considerable time interacting with researchers, educators, and students in order to design and develop systems that allow users to easily enter and interact with data and to integrate those systems with a larger data store for use in analytics and reporting. More specifically, the successful candidate will:
- Collaborate with faculty and research students to develop design specifications for user interfaces and database systems, based on an understanding of the needs of engineering students and educators.
- Take responsibility for conceptual and detailed design as well as implementation of systems intended to address these needs.
- Develop applications to run on mobile targets (smartphones, tablets). Develop software at the application, graphical interface and networking levels. Develop scalable systems that can be used by large numbers of students at multiple universities.
- Ensure data security and user privacy in line with institutional regulations regarding student data.
- Perform user training and usability testing of the systems during pilot tests in classrooms at Harvard and other schools, and iterate the design based on feedback.
- Collect and document feedback, and identify necessary metrics to measure and optimize various system parameters against functional requirements.
- Contribute in the preparation of demonstration prototypes, user documentation, internal and external reports, patent applications, and presentations.
- In addition to working with SEAS faculty and courses, the Instructional Technology Fellow will share resources and methods with the broader Harvard community.
Basic Qualifications
Bachelor’s degree in computer science or a closely related field.