Graduate Research Assistant, Student Engagement Project
Vice President Student’s Office and the Centre for Teaching, Learning and Technology (CTLT)
Application Deadline: Monday June 09th 4:00pm
Terms of Position
Number of positions: 2 – one position will begin in June 2014 and one in September 2014;
Please indicate for which you are applying
Period of Position: 10 months from starting date at 10 hours/week
Rate of Pay: $25/hour
Background
The Vice-President, Students Office is working in partnership with the AMS and GSS on a project to understand the student experience of Flexible Learning at UBC. UBC’s commitment to Flexible Learning is “a way to enhance learning outcomes in a way that meets the needs of the learner, aligns with the nature and requirements of the discipline, and uses the expertise of the instructor all to best effect”. Over the past 12 months, there have been 45 Flexible Learning projects funded at the UBC Vancouver campus with over 4500 students taking part. To learn more about Flexible Learning at UBC, go to: http://flexible.learning.ubc.ca/
Since January 2014, a mixed-methods study exploring students’ experience of Flexible Learning has been underway. In the forthcoming phase of the study, we will engage a broad range of students using qualitative research tools for further input and engagement of the FL initiative.
To this end, we are seeking two GRAs, who will work with the Postdoctoral Researcher assigned to this study to assist with the planning, design, collection, transcription, and coding of the qualitative research protocol. The successful candidate(s) will also work closely with the Director of Portfolio Initiatives and Research Analysts within the VP Students Office, GRA colleague, and a small Advisory team comprised of members from the AMS, GSS, and CTLT.
The Position
The GRA will assist with the following:
– Design of two separate phases of the qualitative portion of the study: 1) the design of a focus group toolkit and 2) the design of a year-long undergraduate journaling project, both with the goal of researching themes pertaining to student experience, learning outcomes, and pedagogical approaches in an Flexible Learning course.
– Contributing to all phases of the research process, including applying for UBC ethics approval; Conducting a literature review; recruiting research participants; conducting interviews, focus group discussions, experiential learning activities, and action-research approaches to student engagement; transcription of interview material; coding of data; preliminary analysis.
– Providing assistance to faculty-led projects to support student engagement and further understanding of student experience within the faculty led projects. This support would include assistance in implementing focus groups and surveys based on the toolkits; the VPS office will also support this function.
– Liaising with a range of stakeholder’s involved different aspects of this project, specifically, representatives from the AMS and GSS.
– Based on the candidates interest and time (not part of the hours of the GRA) opportunities for academic presentations and collaborative publications will be made available.
The Candidate
In your cover letter, please speak to your skills and competencies with respect to the below:
– A demonstrated understanding of qualitative research (e.g. graduate level courses, academic and community-based experiences, methods you have worked with);
– Understanding of Teaching and Learning approaches at the post secondary level;
– Familiarity with UBC context;
– Understanding of student engagement initiatives;
– Ideal work environment (self-led, collaborator, etc.) and approach to managing tasks
Please submit CV and cover letter by 4:00pm on June 9th to:
Dr. Maryam Nabavi
Teaching and Learning Fellow, VPS
maryam.nabavi@ubc.ca
