Instructional Designer

Location - This role is hybrid with a mix of remote and in-person. Work primarily takes place at Enterprise Square, Edmonton.

This posting will be used to fill up to four positions.

Online Learning and Continuing Education (OCE) is a central University of Alberta (U of A) service unit that partners with colleges, faculties, and external partners to develop prioritized online programming. OCE primarily serves working professionals and mature learners by developing career-relevant online programs, including online graduate certificates, course-based master’s, and non-credit micro-credentials. By leveraging OCE’s deep expertise in online learning, the unit drives the development of quality, scalable programming to expand enrollment, reach new student populations, and provide accessible educational pathways.

Within OCE, the Online Learning team is responsible for:

• Strategic partnership & consultative support for new online programs
• Online program design and development
• Leadership in quality initiatives that elevate online learning across the university
• Guidance to launch new online programs in market

The Instructional Designer plays a key role in the design of quality, pedagogically sound online courses at the U of A. As part of the OCE team, the Instructional Designer will engage in course discovery, design, and quality assurance, making recommendations that provide a strong, supportive learning experience for students. The Instructional Designer may be assigned new online course development projects and/or may support maintenance of existing online courses. This work may span both graduate and undergraduate online courses at the U of A, and may also include non-credit courses as required.

The Instructional Designer is excited by the art of the possible in online learning. A creative yet pragmatic thinker, the Instructional Designer is eager to design experiences that are impactful, memorable, actionable, and align with pedagogies and best practices for online learning. The Instructional Designer is a skilled communicator who will work closely with academics, SMEs, and instructors to provide guidance, recommendations, and support throughout the course development process and to ensure that deliverables meet and exceed the expectations of all partners.

The Instructional Designer will lead the discovery and design of new course development projects. This includes project kickoff with the instructor, persona development, discovery documentation (course mapping, assessment matrix, and engagement strategy), content templates, and design recommendations. The Instructional Designer will also work closely with Learning Experience Developers - who build the courses in the Learning Management System, Canvas - performing quality reviews of developed modules.

The Instructional Designer also plays a role in course maintenance. This includes performing course reviews and evaluating course health, drawing on instructor feedback, course analytics, institutional data, and student feedback to guide recommendations. The Instructional Designer will lead the maintenance consultations, develop recommendations for maintenance work, monitor scope, work with the instructor and Learning Experience Developer through changes, and provide quality assurance reviews.

The Instructional Designer ensures quality across every experience, compliance with copyright and accessibility standards, and collaboration with internal partner groups to apply inclusive, accessible and culturally responsive approaches to online learning design, informed by the University's commitment to Indigenous Initiatives and Access, Community and Belonging.

The incumbent will work closely with Online Learning’s project management team to align resources and monitor projects, and reports directly to a Senior Instructional Designer, Online Learning & Continuing Education.

Guiding Principles and Practices

• Apply best practices for online learning, including online pedagogical/andragogical approaches to teaching and learning.
• Design with quality in mind, grounded in OCE's Quality Statement and informed by external frameworks such as the Online Learning Consortium or other international guidelines or standards, drawing on documentation such as the ID Quality Checklist, OCE Style Guide, Online Learning Design Philosophy, and accessibility standards, such as WCAG.
• Contribute to OCE’s overall approach to quality assurance through continuous process improvement, skill and knowledge enhancement, and design approach.
• Be familiar with copyright legislation and make recommendations to Academic Content Creators (ACC) on copyright and Fair Dealing compliance when considering third-party content; liaise with the Copyright Office as required.
• Apply inclusive, accessible, and culturally responsive practices throughout discovery, design, and development, in alignment with Indigenous Initiatives and Access, Community and Belonging commitments, and connect ACCs with relevant resources and supports as needed.
• Throughout the course development process, critically evaluate opportunities to incorporate emerging technology (e.g. Artificial Intelligence) and pedagogical approaches (e.g. Experiential Learning and Work-Integrated Learning) where they meaningfully support the course’s learning experience and outcomes.
• Make recommendations in alignment with relevant academic policies and regulations (e.g. grading, academic integrity, accommodations, etc.).
• Align course design practices with strategic university initiatives to ensure learning experiences reflect institutional values.
• Critically evaluate and judiciously apply AI in instructional design practice, considering both the pedagogical implications and its appropriateness within course design workflows.

Discovery

• Orient partners to the online course development process and showcase the art of the possible by sharing examples of exceptional digital learning experiences.
• Consult with the ACC to shape and refine course-level learning outcomes, ensuring alignment with relevant program-level outcomes.
• Coach the ACC in completing discovery documentation, such as an assessment matrix (an outcomes-alignment plan) and a course map (a scope-and-sequence blueprint) around those outcomes, using a critical lens and offering feedback on module structure and the course's engagement approach to strengthen the learning experience.
• Guide the ACC in developing course-level learner personas, informed by relevant program personas, to shape strategies that fit the course to the student experience.
• Coach ACCs on choosing delivery and engagement strategies (e.g., active learning techniques, peer-to-peer interaction, multimedia integration, etc.) or on translating in-person content into online equivalents that reflect the broader program vision while meeting course learning outcomes and student needs.
• In collaboration with the LXD, present the ACC with design direction options for the course, such as visual style, colour palette, or media approach.

Design & Development

• Guide the ACC through content development as they draft core content using OCE’s pre-approved content templates.
• Support the ACC in structuring content, making recommendations for interactives, enrichments, activities, and multimedia.
• Evaluate and identify institutionally supported third-party tools, technology, software, or other integrations and make recommendations for use that will enhance the student learning experience.
• Collaborate with the OCE Learning Experience Developers on the development of interactives, activities, simulations, and other enrichments within the digital build and recommend required LMS settings (group, assessment, progression, etc.).
• Work with the ACC to recommend enhancements for summative assessments (discussions, group work, quizzing, assignments) or opportunities for formative assessments that are connected to the learning outcomes.
• Engage in scripting for multimedia assets, such as video interviews or animations.
• Perform minor copy edits to instructional materials by checking for grammatical errors, punctuation, spelling and overall flow of materials, providing suggestions for revisions with the ACC.
• Provide substantive editing for structure, readability, and flow; review subsequent drafts of core content, escalating certain drafts for copyediting to an approved OCE editor.
• Escalate areas for additional support in each project (such as copyediting, media, writing) that require additional resourcing to the project management team.
• Coordinate hand-offs of core content documentation to Learning Experience Developers or vendors for production.
• Conduct ID quality assurance checks on developed prototypes and modules in development, using an ID Checklist, to verify development accurately reflects design recommendations, functions as intended, and aligns with OCE accessibility and inclusivity values and standards.
• Develop instructor notes that translate the course design into practical guidance for delivering instructors.

Collaboration and Support

• Collaborate and coach with ACCs / faculties through all phases of online course development.
• Coordinate with the Centre for Teaching and Learning (CTL), leveraging the extensive web-based resources, knowledge, and expertise within this unit.
• Coordinate with the library for support on open educational resources, library resources and tools.
• Review existing courses through quality reviews (supportive audits), using OCE-approved checklists, quality scorecards, and accessibility guidelines to identify areas for improvement for instructors.
• Provide oversight and support for vendors, answering questions as required, providing guidance, or reviews.

Maintenance & Continuous Improvement

• Evaluate course health using the Online Learner Experience Survey, institutional data (enrollments, fill rates, grade distribution, withdrawals), course analytics, quality reviews, and instructor feedback to inform maintenance recommendations.
• Lead maintenance consultations with the ACC/instructor to review course health findings and identify priorities for improvement.
• Build maintenance proposals that outline maintenance work based on prioritized recommendations and monitor scope throughout the maintenance engagement.
• Work with the instructor/ACC and Learning Experience Developer through the implementation of approved maintenance changes, providing quality assurance reviews of the updated course material.
• Coach faculty on areas for improvement of existing online course material.

Project Coordination

• Collaborate with the project management team on all phases of the course project to ensure the project is delivered on time and on budget.
• Report weekly on development task status and time spent using asynchronous project management time-tracking and scheduling tools.
• Collaborate with the project team using asynchronous tools and status meeting updates.
• Collaborate and share with other ID team members to cross-reference work, synchronize and streamline projects and processes, and enhance practice.
• Estimate the scope and effort required for course development and maintenance work to guide time investment and prioritization for assigned projects.

Professional Development & Team Culture

• Engage in a culture of learning with an ongoing commitment to develop instructional design skills and knowledge.
• Contribute to the field of instructional design through participation in conferences, presentations, webinars, workshops, knowledge sharing, and research activities.
• Participate in the Community of Practice for Online Learning, and actively contribute to shared ideas and expertise.
• Inspire peers through creativity, enthusiasm, and idea-sharing related to instructional design and digital learning.

• An Undergraduate degree in educational technology, instructional design, adult education or a related field is required; a Master’s degree would be an asset. A diploma with extensive instructional design experience may be considered.
• A minimum of three years of online instructional design work experience in either credit, non-credit, or corporate; preference given to those with experience designing graduate and undergraduate online courses.
• Demonstrated experience creating and revising online courses within various learning management systems, such as Canvas, and course authoring tools, as well as supplementary tools for engagement (e.g. polling, group work, peer review).
• Must have experience guiding discovery, such as performing a needs analysis, learner personas, creating course maps, and assessment matrices.
• Exceptional communication and interpersonal skills with the ability to positively influence partners, build trust, and generate excitement.
• Exceptional creativity and ability to design enriched, innovative online learning that utilizes a variety of modalities, technologies, and multimedia.
• Strong coaching and facilitation skills to work with academics and SMEs on the design, development, and maintenance of digital learning experiences.
• Ability to produce confident instructional design recommendations is essential to this role.
• Experience consulting, supporting, and including Indigenous Initiatives and Access, Community and Belonging across the digital learning experience.
• Keen eye for detail for editing, quality assurance, and user acceptance testing.
• Familiarity with copyright legislation and compliance.
• AI literacy, including comfort using AI tools ethically and appropriately within instructional design workflows.
• Familiarity with project management phases in a course development lifecycle.

Application Instructions

Click "Apply Now" to submit your resume and cover letter.

This position is subject to all applicable terms and conditions of the collective agreement between the Governors of the University of Alberta and the Non-Academic Staff Association (NASA).

This position offers a comprehensive benefits package.