ONLINE MS IN DS LEARNING FACILITATOR Office of the Provost Computing and Data Sciences

Overview

The Online Master of Science in Data Science (OMDS) program at Boston University’s Faculty of Computing & Data Sciences is an innovative program (launching in the Fall semester 2024) to bring an integrated graduate data science curriculum to a global learning community at scale.

With a global population of learners, and continued student growth planned, the Learning Facilitator is a critical and valuable member of the teaching team.

The OMDS curriculum is delivered in 10 modules ( MODs ), each providing 3 graduate credits, plus a non-credit orientation module (Mod 0) and a non-credit bootcamp (Mod A).

Sequence

A - Data Science Bootcamp

B - AI for Leaders (completed over semesters 1 and 2)

C - AI in the Field Capstone (completed over semesters 3 and 4)

0 - Orientation

1 - Mathematical Foundations of Data Science

2 - Programming Toolkit for Data Science

3 - Machine Learning Fundamentals

4 - Data Management at Scale

5 - Responsible and Ethical Data Science & AI

6 - Advanced Machine Learning & AI

7 - Applied Data Science & AI in Diverse Sectors

8 - Experiment Design & Causality

We seek a candidate who is passionate about delivering a stellar online education experience and a student-centric approach to join our growing OMDS team.

Experience working with non-traditional students, who are accomplished mid-level and senior-level domestic or international professionals, is a plus.

The Learning Facilitator is a valued member of the teaching team and will work closely with the faculty to manage the delivery of the academic content in each module and serve as the main academic touchpoint for the students in the online module.

This is a minimum of one-year appointment with an opportunity for extension beyond the initial year based upon successful performance in the role.

Responsibilities

Reporting to OMDS Program Leadership, the Learning Facilitator (LF) role involves a variety of activities carried out during the delivery of a given module.

The goals are to ensure that students receive timely, detailed, and ongoing feedback, consistent with rubrics designed by the Faculty MOD Lead, that student questions and concerns are addressed timely, and that the student learning experience is the best in class within online learning.

This position is 100% remote. Specific responsibilities include but are not limited to :

Course Delivery (40%)

• Provide timely support on course content to 50+ students.
• Respond to student questions and concerns in a timely and efficient manner in alignment with CDS’ student-centric culture.
• Hold regular online office hours to meet with individual students and teams.
• Participate / lead mod / pod wide open office hours as needed.
• Monitor and engage in student discussion forums on a weekly basis. Monitor and manage student participation in discussion forums.
• Propose and implement delivery initiatives geared toward student engagement.
• Conduct QA activities as part of module pre-launch.
• Manage team issues in coordination with Lead Mod Faculty and CDS leadership.

Learner feedback and grading (40%)

• Grade assignments.
• Provide detailed feedback to students on their assignments and overall MOD performance.
• Contribute to end of Mod grading computations as planned by the LF Mod Lead.
• Contribute to daily operations including late submissions checks, publishing grades, etc.

Mod Improvement (10%)

• Report post-launch issues (defects and enhancements as related to Mod design or Blackboard issues) as per the established process.
• Share feedback for continuous improvement of the course content.

Administrative (10%)

• Perform weekend on-call duties as necessary, representing your Learning Facilitator MOD team to the broader OMDS delivery team (weekend on-call is not every or all weekends).
• Identify opportunities and define processes to improve operations.
• Provide regular status updates in the team project management dashboard.
• Other relevant duties that support student learning.

Required Skills

Minimum Competencies

• Must possess a conferred bachelors degree. A STEM-related degree is preferred.
• Must be familiar with Data Science concepts including at least one of :
• Experience with Python
• Experience with data science programming in Python including numpy, pandas, scikit-learn, pytorch, matplotlib
• Experience with databases and SQL
• Ideally, experience with big data tech stacks such as map-reduce, spark, etc.
• Experience with machine learning and statistical models such as lasso, ridge, random forests, boosting, neural nets.

The subject-matter requirement may vary depending on the Mod.)

• 3-5 years of experience
• Must be self-motivated with a start-up mindset towards continuous improvement.
• Ability to effectively collaborate in a remote environment and quickly learn new tools and technologies. Solution-oriented team player with a demonstrated track record of transparency and proactivity in meeting organizational goals.
• Demonstrated interpersonal and customer support skills.
• An effective communicator who is open to giving and receiving constructive feedback.
• Experience managing competing priorities and working with multiple constituencies (I.e. faculty, students, colleagues, and third-party vendors).
• Adaptable and comfortable working in a fluid environment.
• Ability and desire to mentor or coach peers and even other teams if required.
• Must be able to work a flexible schedule including days, evenings, and weekends

Desired Competencies

• Experience as a Learning Facilitator or a similar role.
• Hands-on experience delivering online learning, preferably in a scaled environment.
• Experience working with adult learners.
• Experience using a learning management system (LMS), specifically GitHub Classroom or any autograder for Jupyter Notebooks.
• Experience creating process documentation and best practices.

The following information provides an overview of the skills, qualities, and qualifications needed for this role.

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Remote working / work at home options are available for this role.