Jobs with Blackboard/WebCT
February 1, 2006 7:20 AM Subscribe
Jobs at universities/colleges working with Blackboard/WebCT/other academic suites in an admin or design capacity...how would I find one?
Let's say I wanted to find a job at a college or university working with implementation, set up, maintenance, training, etc of Blackboard or WebCT or any of the other higher ed learning suites out there on the market. Where would I go to find these jobs listed? What are the general job titles used in the field?
Let's say I wanted to find a job at a college or university working with implementation, set up, maintenance, training, etc of Blackboard or WebCT or any of the other higher ed learning suites out there on the market. Where would I go to find these jobs listed? What are the general job titles used in the field?
Try the Chronicle of Higher Ed's job listings. There's also Inside Higher Ed.
posted by Emperor SnooKloze at 7:51 AM on February 1, 2006
posted by Emperor SnooKloze at 7:51 AM on February 1, 2006
Your best bet is to find the Universities you are interested in and watch their listings (online job postings). I have found that they don't use Monster.com type services. Also, some will have a posting that they will email you. I guess, the thing is, most Universities do everything in-house, so you have to do the leg work to stay on top of what jobs are available and where.
Competition is craxty at Universities, I have found. So, expect to spend 6 months to a year searching, applying for, and interviewing for jobs until you find one you like and that they actually offer you. We typically get 50+ resumes for any job we post- and these jobs pay 70-75% of what industry pays and the people who apply can be Ph.Ds in some field. Colleges attract some really talented people. Anyway, this has been my expereince.
Again, my expereince... but you may find that colleges have a central IT department. And they will work with course management tools. However, you may find that large departments (say, arts and sciences, or math and physical sciences, or the medical center) will have their own servers/systems/admins... so look there too.
One last thing. Our WebCT people are not dedicated to that. I work in Math and Physical Sciences and the college office has someone who maintains WebCT (now we use Desire2Learn, I think, branded for our University), and the web guy in Physics does the programming. So, you may want to look for web/engineer positions and this will be a component of that work. This is all based on my expereince. Stuff will vary from place to place, I imagine. The job title for these positions are Systems Specialist (less expereinced) and System Developer/Engineer (more expereinced).
Now, I work in a public big-10 University. Here you are expected to do about 1000 things at a time. Smaller Univeristies differ- and I have worked at one. Sometimes, you can get into a smaller University that has homegrown course management software and steer them toward a packaged product. Then you get to be involved from the beginning. This very thing happened at the last small University I was at.
Ok, this is a book, but I hope it helps. Be advised that Universities of all sizes are EXTREMELY political places. It might be more interesting and fruitful to work for one of the companies who make the software- then you get to code it and possibly provided install, training and such as part of a service contract.
posted by pissfactory at 7:56 AM on February 1, 2006
Competition is craxty at Universities, I have found. So, expect to spend 6 months to a year searching, applying for, and interviewing for jobs until you find one you like and that they actually offer you. We typically get 50+ resumes for any job we post- and these jobs pay 70-75% of what industry pays and the people who apply can be Ph.Ds in some field. Colleges attract some really talented people. Anyway, this has been my expereince.
Again, my expereince... but you may find that colleges have a central IT department. And they will work with course management tools. However, you may find that large departments (say, arts and sciences, or math and physical sciences, or the medical center) will have their own servers/systems/admins... so look there too.
One last thing. Our WebCT people are not dedicated to that. I work in Math and Physical Sciences and the college office has someone who maintains WebCT (now we use Desire2Learn, I think, branded for our University), and the web guy in Physics does the programming. So, you may want to look for web/engineer positions and this will be a component of that work. This is all based on my expereince. Stuff will vary from place to place, I imagine. The job title for these positions are Systems Specialist (less expereinced) and System Developer/Engineer (more expereinced).
Now, I work in a public big-10 University. Here you are expected to do about 1000 things at a time. Smaller Univeristies differ- and I have worked at one. Sometimes, you can get into a smaller University that has homegrown course management software and steer them toward a packaged product. Then you get to be involved from the beginning. This very thing happened at the last small University I was at.
Ok, this is a book, but I hope it helps. Be advised that Universities of all sizes are EXTREMELY political places. It might be more interesting and fruitful to work for one of the companies who make the software- then you get to code it and possibly provided install, training and such as part of a service contract.
posted by pissfactory at 7:56 AM on February 1, 2006
You could also try HigherEdJobs.com.
If you got in touch with the developers of the suites, they might be able to give you the names of some client schools who use their products. Then you could look for openings at those schools, knowing in advance which product they use. There are some listservs for Blackboard users here that might give you some leads.
posted by srah at 8:03 AM on February 1, 2006
If you got in touch with the developers of the suites, they might be able to give you the names of some client schools who use their products. Then you could look for openings at those schools, knowing in advance which product they use. There are some listservs for Blackboard users here that might give you some leads.
posted by srah at 8:03 AM on February 1, 2006
Instructional design is often used, though many positions require a master's in instructional design, education, or similar. I've also seen educational technology _. Mailing lists often have job postings, such as eLearning Sig of AMC. There's several other professional org mailing lists worth checking out til you find the one that fits your particular niche. Online univerisites sometimes have production/admin/design positions available.
posted by ejaned8 at 8:05 AM on February 1, 2006
posted by ejaned8 at 8:05 AM on February 1, 2006
Let's say I wanted to find a job at a college or university working with implementation, set up, maintenance, training, etc of Blackboard or WebCT or any of the other higher ed learning suites out there on the market. Where would I go to find these jobs listed? What are the general job titles used in the field?
Spooky, after 6 years as a web developer I've applied for just such a job - Web development Officer at a College here in Belfast. Not sure If I'll be what they are looking for (never used Blackboard but plenty of experience with CMS design, implementation and training).
If you are familiar with Blackboard do you think I will have any problems adapting my skillset from a design environment to an educational one ?
posted by twistedonion at 8:14 AM on February 1, 2006
Spooky, after 6 years as a web developer I've applied for just such a job - Web development Officer at a College here in Belfast. Not sure If I'll be what they are looking for (never used Blackboard but plenty of experience with CMS design, implementation and training).
If you are familiar with Blackboard do you think I will have any problems adapting my skillset from a design environment to an educational one ?
posted by twistedonion at 8:14 AM on February 1, 2006
You might want to sign up for the N-TEN mailing list for your area. I'm on the one for the VA area and I see some mention of Blackboard and the like on a regular basis. I also see people who are not thrilled with it and looking for other solutions and people with knowledge of possible replacement technologies, so perhaps that bodes well for you, twisted.
posted by phearlez at 8:42 AM on February 1, 2006
posted by phearlez at 8:42 AM on February 1, 2006
ejaned8 is correct. You're looking for an instructional design(er) position. Sometimes you'll want to get your foot in the door at a college/university doing something not-exactly-what-you-want-to-do because most of the good jobs go to inside hires.
posted by BrandonAbell at 9:14 AM on February 1, 2006
posted by BrandonAbell at 9:14 AM on February 1, 2006
A lot of "more fortunate" high schools have these systems. My old school had Blackboard, then Prometheus. And this was back in 1997 and 1998.
posted by sachinag at 9:43 AM on February 1, 2006
posted by sachinag at 9:43 AM on February 1, 2006
My advice (after doing exactly this part-time in college): Don't. Its not worth the headaches and you'll get paid more for a similar skill set in the for-profit world.
posted by ChasFile at 11:34 AM on February 1, 2006
posted by ChasFile at 11:34 AM on February 1, 2006
I know at least one major university that manages their course management tool through their library-- you might want to keep an eye on those listings as well, especially if you have other relevant experience.
posted by Carol O at 1:21 PM on February 1, 2006
posted by Carol O at 1:21 PM on February 1, 2006
Well, I never imagined I'd get a question this specific to my job.
Here we are called either System Administrators or Training Specialists. In the group that supports Blackboard, there are two individuals who do straight-up Blackboard support. There are also some graphics and Web design people who maintain the Blackboard support Web site, in addition to their other duties. In addition, we have additional support from a University wide help desk, who fields some of the calls. The actual implementation and maintenance of the apllication is handled by another department altogether.
In the last round of hiring, they were looking for post graduate degrees in education, pedagogy, and specifically in instructional design.
It is a bit of a headache working support, but if it's what you want to do, it's not un-rewarding to help instructors incorporate technology into their classes.
Best of luck with your search.
posted by zueod at 2:11 PM on February 1, 2006
Here we are called either System Administrators or Training Specialists. In the group that supports Blackboard, there are two individuals who do straight-up Blackboard support. There are also some graphics and Web design people who maintain the Blackboard support Web site, in addition to their other duties. In addition, we have additional support from a University wide help desk, who fields some of the calls. The actual implementation and maintenance of the apllication is handled by another department altogether.
In the last round of hiring, they were looking for post graduate degrees in education, pedagogy, and specifically in instructional design.
It is a bit of a headache working support, but if it's what you want to do, it's not un-rewarding to help instructors incorporate technology into their classes.
Best of luck with your search.
posted by zueod at 2:11 PM on February 1, 2006
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posted by Roger Dodger at 7:32 AM on February 1, 2006