We are currently recruiting for Spring 2024. Interested doctoral students may arrange a candidacy consultation with SOLER by emailing [email protected].
Read about the position below. The bios of current SSAs can be found on the Team page.
SOLER – an initiative of the Office of Teaching, Learning, and Innovation – facilitates scientific efforts to better understand and improve teaching and learning in CU courses. SOLER serves to lower the barriers for faculty to conduct relevant research in their own classrooms by supporting project elements such as study design, tool development, logistics, data analysis, and dissemination of results. Additionally, SOLER collaborates with CUIT and other entities across the University to develop tools that streamline the acquisition of insights into teaching and learning processes at scale – for example, tools for efficiently mining data generated by students’ engagement with digital learning platforms – an enterprise termed learning analytics. Finally, SOLER helps researchers whose primary academic focus addresses teaching and learning apply and test their ideas in CU contexts.
SSAs operate with mentorship and guidance from the SOLER leadership team and support various elements of faculty-led projects and related internal efforts.
SSA responsibilities include but are not limited to the following: performing literature reviews to explore the theoretical basis, context, and implications of studies; framing research objectives and matching study designs to specific aims; preparing research materials for Institutional Review Board approval; developing or refining methods of assessment or measurement; managing technical elements such as audio or video recordings, coordinating study activities with research participants; implementing assessment methods (e.g., evaluating student work according to rubrics); applying qualitative research methods to analyze student-produced text; identifying and performing appropriate statistical methods for data analysis; writing code for data analysis and visualization or other software needs; formulating a plan to disseminate findings; composing research reports, presentations, and other documents and multimedia/online materials.
Highly qualified SSA candidates will have knowledge and skills in several of the following areas: scientific method (research questions and hypotheses, independent and dependent variables, correlation vs. causation); primary scientific literature and literature reviews; experimental design (within-subjects vs. between-subjects comparisons, blinding); operationalization of constructs; reliability and validity of measures; statistics (descriptive and inferential statistics, regression analysis); qualitative research methods (e.g., grounded theory); programming (e.g., Python, R) for data analysis or simple applications; electronic signal acquisition and/or mathematics of signal processing; written and oral communication; web design (e.g., Drupal, HTML, CSS, JavaScript); graphic design (e.g., Adobe Illustrator, Figma).
Minimum qualifications: good academic standing in a degree program; second-year doctoral or more advanced standing
Compensation: starting at $25/hour
Scope of commitment: SSAs are hired for a period of one semester with the possibility of extension if performance and progress is satisfactory. Workload varies from week to week with a typical weekly commitment of 5 hours.