The Academic Technology Specialist will be a member of the design team in the Instructional Design and Development (IDD) unit at Excelsior University. Our team works closely with subject matter experts and other community and university stakeholders to develop transformative, engaging, high quality learning experiences for our students. As the Academic Technology Specialist, you will be responsible for using deep technical knowledge to assist with and provide guidance in the testing of educational technologies used in our academic programs. You will report to our Director of Academic Technology and work within the LMS Team to ensure all technologies integrated with our learning management system (LMS) meet quality, security, and accessibility standards and align with pedagogical and course design best practices.

As a member of our unit, you will partner with other colleagues and University staff to research, evaluate, and implement new technologies, with a focus on LMS usage and integration with third-party tools. Additionally, you will participate in research and innovation projects that aim to advance the field of course design, teaching, and learning.

This is a full-time hybrid role with a minimum of two required days at Excelsior's home office of 7 Columbia Circle, Albany, NY, with the remainder of the days worked from home.

Duties and Responsibilities:

• Perform routine monitoring and maintenance of the learning management system and associated technologies.
• Provide technical support to users and troubleshoot any issues that may arise relating to system operations, both front- and back-end; when necessary, collaborate with vendor to manage operations and respond to technical issues. This includes answering queries and resolve issues with applications, escalating and closing tickets as necessary.
• Maintain strong knowledge of LMS architecture and design to conduct regular system maintenance, upgrades, and testing; when necessary, research, test, LTI integrations, and tools.
• Provide routine preparation of learning management functions and services for each term start, including term to term steps for course section 3rd party integrations. This includes communicating to faculty and managing relationships/partnerships with external vendors.
• Participate in the assessment, planning, training, and other related activities associated with the integration and management of LMS as well as other educational technologies.
• Collaborate with other team members in the IDD unit and ITS to evaluate, test, select, and implement/integrate new technologies.
• Function as an active member of the Instructional Design and Development team, contributing to the design and development process. The Academic Technology Specialist is expected to attend development meetings and act as an advisor with integrated technology on a regular basis.
• Assist with the Production Team with course creation, cloning, and flipping processes for each development/academic term.
• Collaborate with other team members to maintain standardized processes, manage system deployments/updates and maintenance.

  Qualifications: To perform this job successfully, an individual must be able to perform each essential duty satisfactorily. The requirements listed below are representative of the knowledge, skill, and/or ability required. Reasonable accommodations may be made to enable individuals with disabilities to perform the essential functions.

• Associate’s degree in computer science, information technology, or related field.
• 1-2 years in LMS administration and/or configuring and administering complex IT systems or equivalent experience
• Strong working knowledge of the learning management system Canvas.
• Working knowledge of data security applications.
• Experience with administration and deployment of open-source applications.
• Experience managing vendor and client relationships.
• Ability to research, evaluate, and implement new technologies within an educational context.
• Ability to design and lead training sessions, both in person and remotely.
• Ability to work collaboratively and effectively manage projects that involve diverse individuals who may be local or at a distance.

Preferred Qualification :

Bachelor’s degree preferred

Experience working in higher education

Familiarity with instructional design

The hiring salary range for this position is $58,500.00 - $60,500.00. The hiring salary range above represents the University's good faith estimate at the time of posting.