Postdoctoral Associate - Ithaca, United States - Cornell University

Description

Applications are invited for a fulltime Postdoctoral Associate in the Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology (EEB) at Cornell University. This Postdoctoral Associate position will advance undergraduate biology education by examining how Vision and Change (V&C) principles are being enacted in biology courses across a variety of undergraduate institutions. They will have the opportunity to explore the breadth of existing educational resources, to evaluate progress toward goals outlined in V&C, and to identify opportunities for future growth in undergraduate biology education. This project is part of a collaboration that includes Drs. Brian Couch (University of Nebraska-Lincoln) and MacKenzie Stetzer (University of Maine).

This project will focus on the use of open educational resources (OERs). The research will involve analyzing data from a scoping review of OER article content from a variety of journals (e.g., CourseSource), surveying authors and users to determine their engagement with OERs, developing student assessments, and observing instructors teaching with OERs in a variety of classrooms. The primary duties and responsibilities include quantitative and qualitative analysis of a large data set from a scoping review, developing and deploying surveys, designing protocols to observe instructors teaching with OERs, and analyzing student and instructor data. There will be opportunities to engage with instructors in professional development activities. The successful candidate will disseminate the results through publications and presentations at meetings.

Discipline-based education research is an important area of study at Cornell, with collaborators (faculty, postdocs, and graduate and undergraduate students) in physics, biology, engineering, and other STEM fields. The successful candidate will have an opportunity to mentor and work with many individuals and participate in weekly education journal clubs and research meetings with the larger EEB and Cornell community.

Anticipated Division of Time

The role of the Postdoctoral Associate is % research. The Postdoctoral Associate's time will be spent approximately as follows:

• 40% conducting experiments
• 40% analyzing data
• 20% dissemination through giving presentations and writing manuscripts

Requirements

• Ph.D. in biology, biology education research, or closely related field
• Experience with education research methods, including quantitative research methods and statistics (e.g., proficiency in multilevel statistical modeling using R), and/or experience with qualitative research approaches such as analyzing survey and interview data
• Knowledge of and interest in the potential OERs have to affect undergraduate education
• Ability and desire to work collaboratively, mentor graduate and undergraduate students, and function independently
• Demonstrated project leadership, time management, communication, and writing skills

The initial appointment is for one year with the possibility of extension,based on satisfactory performance.

This position has the ability to regularly be performed at least partially remotely, with 4 days on campus and one day remote per week.

Supervision Exercised: None

Salary range for this position is: NIH minimum = $61,