Associate Director, Learning & Development

Position Summary: Reporting to the Deputy Executive Director, Leadership and Professional Development Services, the Associate Director works as a collaborative member of a team of international education professionals partnered with member leaders to design professional development offerings to meet training and learning needs in the field. This role coordinates efforts of NAFSA learning and training professionals, volunteer design teams, presenters, consultants, and vendors to design, develop, and deliver high quality learning and educational content through a range of media.

Major Functions and Responsibilities:

Collaborate with subject matter experts (staff and volunteer contributors) on the development of new content and refresh of existing content. (30%)

• Create a strategy to identify relevant and timely topics, presenters, and align outcomes with international education competencies and other learning objectives.
• Oversees the development of new content as well as revision of current content for, based on feedback through evaluations and targeted to keep programs current with developments in the field.
• Review existing products to determine when updates are required to keep the content timely and strongly tied to NAFSA’s strategic goals and professional competencies.
• Ensure new products meet NAFSA quality standards and are relevant to members, and community at large.
• Guides staff in learning program design and volunteers, including application of program design standards and tools.

Maintain existing portfolio of eLearning products. (20%)

• Provide customer service to existing eLearning customers and ensure portfolio is well promoted to meet budget projections. Evaluate quality of existing products on a regular basis.
• Design, develop, and update training materials in a variety of formats to provide consistency and optimize learning support for learning and training portfolio across the organization. Develop final scripts and story boards as instructional designer for module development.
• Utilize instructional design best practices and ensure that the curriculum and content are designed to meet the needs of adult learners in a professional setting. Evaluate delivery modality and make recommendations for changes/improvements as needed.

Act as point person and subject matter expert for learning and content management systems (LMS, CMS) interface as well as maintenance of assigned Learning and Training portfolio on NAFSA’s website. (15%)

• Build, manage, and maintain learning and training offerings within appropriate systems
• Act as liaison for learning products; partner with web hosting service and Web/MIS staff to support the troubleshooting of issues related to participant access
• Help organize content and encourage audience participation within a multi-media, virtual learning environment.

Maintain stakeholder relationships and processes. (10%)

• Serve as staff partner to course deans and provide appropriate guidance and training to subject matter experts, contributors, and presenters, such as: a) facilitate discussions to integrate expectations, content, and design for target audiences; b) set reasonable deadlines for delivery and coordination of materials; c) support the and coach as needed.
• Ensure that agreements between NAFSA and contributors/presenters have been appropriately executed.

Coordinate with the Marketing unit on promotions for assigned portfolio. (10%)

• Work closely with Marketing department to design outreach, promotion campaign for all products and services in assigned portfolio.
• Ensure budget projections are met.
• Research and recommend adjacent and nontraditional markets and explore partnerships to increase overall sales.

Quality Control and Program Evaluation. (10%)

• Work collaboratively with LPDS team members to conduct quality assurance and ensure design consistency in products and training materials, across all learning and training product lines.
• Evaluate and continuously improve program development/design process for assigned portfolio of learning products.
• Review registration and evaluation data in an ongoing manner and make recommendations for new content, new markets, or improvements as appropriate.

Performs other duties as assigned to support NAFSA’s strategic goals and objectives. (5%)

Requirements:

Required Qualifications:

• Bachelor’s degree in instructional design, curriculum & instruction, or a related field, or an equivalent combination of education and experience
• Three (3) years of experience in learning and training product development, with a focus on e-learning design
• Excellent communication skills, both oral and written, including web-based applications and presentation delivery
• Experience with project management with cross-departmental teams and external stakeholders
• Experience with learning management systems (LMS)
• Working knowledge of e-learning authoring and development tools
• Demonstrated experience applying adult learning principles in training design
• Demonstrated ability to plan, take initiative, set priorities, and exercise sound judgment in a complex, fast-moving environment
• Ability to master various technology, web, and data management systems
• Exceptional organizational skills and attention to detail
• Proficiency with Microsoft Office suite

Desired Qualifications:

• Master’s degree in instructional design, curriculum & instruction, or a related field.
• Previous experience with NAFSA, international education, or other association membership organizations
• Experience with CMS management and video technologies
• Demonstrated experience with Articulate Storyline or comparable course authoring software
• BlueSky expertise
• Exposure to accessibility tools or accessible design
• Familiarity with mapping professional competencies to learning and training products

Scope of Supervision

The position does not have supervisory responsibilities.

Work Relationships

As representatives of a membership organization with a broad and diverse range of activities related to education and training, NAFSA staff possess more than simply specialized capabilities. Each individual is expected to take the initiative to become knowledgeable about the organization as a whole. Association members and other staff expect colleagues to be accessible and responsive, to convey a positive attitude, and to exhibit a high degree of professionalism.