Lead Program Development Owner - School of Education

The salary range for this role takes into account the wide range of factors that are considered in making compensation decisions including but not limited to skill sets; experience and training; licensure and certifications; and other business and organizational needs.

At WGU, it is not typical for an individual to be hired at or near the top of the range for their role, and compensation decisions are dependent on the facts and circumstances of each case. A reasonable estimate of the current range is:

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Reporting to the Manager, Academic Product Management, the program owner proactively leads the curriculum design, development, and support of an assigned program portfolio at Western Governors University (WGU). The individual oversees the design, curation, development, and continuous improvement of effective curriculum, assessments, instructional models and content, and diagnostics. This individual participates in evaluating programs and learning experience quality and assesses program, course, assessment, and learning resource performance against student achievement. The program owner works with colleagues in academics, operations, evaluation, and others to provide input about potential changes to the curriculum, assessment, instructional models, academic support services, and field/clinical experiences. Program owners are responsible for implementing the requirements defined by the program charter regarding curriculum and assessment design, on time and budget.

Essential Functions and Responsibilities:

• Assume broad responsibility for curriculum and assessment within assigned programs, including relevance, quality, technical accuracy, functionality, and assessment validity.
• Accountable for success metrics as well as time, budget, and quality measures.
• Advocate for the program with college design & development leadership.
• Ensure alignment between curriculum and assessment.
• Contribute to cross-university coordination with key stakeholders in the launch and maintenance of programs and courses.
• Create and deliver instructor, mentor, and enrolment counselor training in collaboration with the program chair.
• Champion curation, design, development, and continuous improvement for effective curriculum and assessments.
• Evaluate programs and learning experience quality.
• Assess program, course, assessment, and learning resource performance against student achievement.
• Prioritize and approve incremental changes to the curriculum, assessment, and instructional model.
• Prioritize and recommend incremental changes to the field and clinical experience.
• Recommend and advise on major changes to curricula to program and cluster leadership.
• Plan and develop a new program/offering business model and charter (requirements for all curricular and service elements).
• Collaborate with program architects, program chair, and Program Management directors, and Accreditation Office to assure programs meet all accreditation and regulatory requirements.
• Collaborate with the project manager to ensure timely delivery of quality programs, including the deployment of efficient processes and resourcing.
• Prepare reports about program and course performance as required for operation and quality improvement.
• Implement and ensure adherence to best practices in the design, development, delivery, and maintenance of the assigned assessment and curriculum portfolio.
• Provide thought leadership and consultation for the most effective curriculum and assessment delivery methodologies for domain content.
• Performs other related duties as assigned.

Knowledge, Skill and Abilities:

• Program-level curriculum and assessment design and development experience.
• Strong online learning design and development skills.
• A clear understanding of user experience best practices, including accessibility requirements.
• Ability to use performance data to make informed curricular and assessment decisions; analyze root causes, design experiments/interventions with clear success measures, and conduct retrospective analysis.
• Program and course evaluation skills.
• Strong program-level needs analysis skills.
• Ability to build relationships and influence at all levels of an organization.
• Ability to facilitate groups and meetings in person and remotely.
• Strong organizational, project management, and time management skills.
• Detail-oriented approach.
• Ability to manage multiple projects efficiently.
• Basic understanding of statistics and the ability to analyze and interpret statistics effectively.
• Excellent written, oral, presentation, and interpersonal skills.
• This individual has proficiency in technology-driven document and collaboration tools, including Microsoft Office Suite, web conferencing, and cloud-based tools.

Competencies:

Organizational or Student Impact:

• Accountable for decisions that impact the program or course.
• Leads program/course initiatives to improve Key Results.
• This individual is a go-to person at the program/course level.
• May actively contribute to initiatives at the university, college, or cluster level.

Problem Solving & Decision Making:

• Resolves problems that require broad-based consideration of variables at the program/course level.
• Work is situational and highly complex, and difficulties faced require detailed information gathering and analysis at the program/course.
• Acts as a technical advisor and may assist in completing tasks to achieve team deliverables.

Communication & Influence:

• Communicates with students if/as appropriate to the teaching practice area.
• Communicates and collaborates with fellow faculty members within and across disciplines and practice.
• Drives feedback and continuous improvement recommendations to discipline/practice leadership.
• Attends professional conferences and association meetings focused on the faculty member's discipline or practice area and engaged in discourse with fellow attendees.
• May contribute to WGU and college brand development.

Leadership & Talent Management

• Considered program, course, or practice leader.
• A source of advice, mentoring, and counsel within the applicable discipline or practice.
• Leads program, course, or practice learning and quality initiatives within area of specialty.
• Model's best practices within specialty areas use insights to guide other discipline or practice members and produce measurable results.
• Establish coverage within and between teams to meet service level agreements.
• Implements workflows and optimizes team resources.
• Model sound change management practices.

Job Qualifications:

Minimum Qualifications:

• Master's degree or Ph.D. in a relevant field
• 3+ years of program or curriculum and/or assessment development and evaluation experience.
• Background in online learning.
• Proven record of developing and producing quality assessment and learning experiences using established development and production processes and methodologies.
• Effective project management, course development, and evaluation skills.
• Experience interacting effectively on cross-organizational teams.

Preferred Qualifications:

• Experience creating cross-contextual learning experience that are born mobile, social-by-design, gamified, or non-linear with student-driven pathways
• Demonstrated understanding of the higher education environment.
• Demonstrated success with change management and bringing order & structure to complex situations.
• Experience in higher education, standardized testing, or educational publishing.

Working Conditions

• Potential travel up to 15% for college specific business.

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