LMS Associate

Job Title: LMS Associate

Department: Office of Innovative Learning Solutions

Status: Full Time

Annual Salary Range: $70,000.00 - $80,000.00

General Description

As New York’s leader in online education since 2006, the CUNY School of Professional Studies (CUNY SPS) offers the most online bachelor’s and master’s degree options at the City University of New York, and serves as the University’s only undergraduate all-transfer college. With 24 degrees and numerous other non-degree and grant-funded workplace learning programs, CUNY SPS meets the needs of adults who wish to finish a bachelor’s degree, progress from an associate’s degree, earn a master’s degree or certificate in a specialized field, and advance in the workplace or change careers.

Consistently ranked highly by U.S. News & World Report for its quality online offerings, and noted for its soaring growth and enrollment, CUNY SPS has emerged as a nationwide leader in online education. The School’s renowned and affordable online programs—which offer in-state tuition to all students regardless of where they live—ensure that busy working adults may fulfill their educational goals on their own time and schedule.

Within and created at the same time as CUNY SPS, the Office of Innovative Learning Solutions (ILS) designs custom workplace learning programs to help organizations achieve their goals. We are experts in research-based learning practices, online as well as in-classroom curriculum development and implementation. We are uniquely positioned to respond to organizational learning needs and support change management initiatives swiftly and effectively.

CUNY SPS seeks an LMS Associate who will work on two programs sponsored by the Mayor’s Office for Economic Opportunity (NYC Opportunity):

• The Academy for Community Behavioral Health (the Academy). Academy services include virtual and hybrid learning programs for 2,500+ learners per year from New York City community-based organizations, City agencies, behavioral health providers, and others; and
• Unlocking Employment: How to Partner with Job Seekers Impacted by the Legal System, a free e-Learning course offered to workforce development staff across the City who work with job seekers with criminal legal system involvement.

This position, reporting directly to the Academy Program Manager and indirectly to the Unlocking Employment Program Director, is a tactical role responsible for ensuring that the LMS meets the programmatic needs of the Academy and Unlocking Employment and offers a high-quality user experience to the non-profit social service providers who take our learning programs. The LMS Associate oversees LMS operations and day-to-day management including, but not limited to: configuration, user access, content maintenance, helpdesk support and reporting.

This position requires strong management, troubleshooting and communication skills, and careful attention to detail. Work is both highly independent and highly collaborative. The LMS Associate is expected to demonstrate expertise in all functions of the LMS while working closely with the program teams to understand program goals and needs.

Other Duties

• Lead the ongoing operation, maintenance and administration of the LearnUpon LMS
• Proactively manage learning content to meet program needs and promote ease of use for instructors and learners
• Maintain up-to-date, expert knowledge of LMS features and functions. Serve as technical advisor to program teams
• Work with program teams to address changing needs, implement new features and troubleshoot program delivery issues
• Perform routine quality assurance and quality improvement checks
• Maintain and apply accurate, up-to-date knowledge of Academy and Unlocking Employment courses, goals, quality standards and stakeholder needs
• Participate in internal or external meetings; lead meetings related to LMS functioning, where appropriate
• Proactively recommend system improvements that can strengthen course delivery, user experience, instructor experience, or other program goals
• Ensure consistent design and visual appearance across the LMS
• Provide timely, accurate responses to LMS users or colleagues with LMS questions or challenges
• Document and maintain LMS workflows, user guides (for administrators, instructors, and/or learners), and training materials, as needed
• Train program staff and instructors to use LMS functions, as needed
• Manage the vendor relationship with LearnUpon, including:
• Act as primary point of contact and liaison between LearnUpon and the Academy/Unlocking Employment teams
• Manage the ongoing license of the LMS, including: monitor data usage against current plan; recommend plan changes, as needed; manage annual procurement process to renew license
• Assist in the integration of 3rd party tools and vendors, as needed. This may include coordinating with integration leads on setup and performing ongoing monitoring of 3rdparty applications.
• Other duties as assigned

Academy-Specific Responsibilities

Maintain or update existing Academy courses in LearnUpon, and add new courses as they are developed

Update the Academy website (WordPress), including by managing the integration between the website and LMS. Ensure the website contains timely, accurate, and complete course information; links function appropriately; and website and LMS style are consistent with Academy standards

Develop and manage a workplan for Academy LMS and website tasks

Monitor trends in program data (e.g. user registrations, course registrations, course progress and completion). Identify potential issues, and provide feedback and analysis to the program team

Coordinate with the program team to ensure learner data in the LMS is accurate and up to date

Provide the program analyst and other team members with timely program data from the LMS, as needed

Unlocking Employment-Specific Responsibilities

• Create and run scheduled and ad-hoc reports, including weekly enrollment reports, monthly training survey data and monthly data reports from LearnUpon for stakeholders
• Identify additional reporting needs as necessary and develop tools to address these needs
• Update the Unlocking Employment Resource Library, within Learn Upon, quarterly
• Add, delete or update resources, as directed by stakeholders
• Update Learn Upon user and admin guides, as needed

Helpdesk

• Support team members, learners and instructors with finding solutions to LMS questions
• Identify issues which cause the highest volume of helpdesk tickets, or the most challenging, and work with the program teams to identify solutions. Escalate issues to LearnUpon, as needed and follow through to resolution
• For Unlocking Employment, serve as level I helpdesk by monitoring the Unlocking Employment email address daily and responding to and resolving issues
• For the Academy, serve as level II helpdesk, assisting to resolve issues that relate to LMS functioning or that the program team cannot resolve

Qualifications

• Bachelor’s Degree in Information Technology, Systems and Network Administration, or a related field; Master’s Degree a plus
• Applicants who do not have the required education may substitute experience on a year for year basis
• At least 3 years relevant previous Learning Management System experience
• Experience working with LearnUpon LMS a plus
• Prior experience partnering with team members and others to understand business/stakeholder needs related to the delivery of adult learning programs and managing an LMS to meet those needs
• Experience documenting business processes used in implementation of learning programs within and outside of the LMS environment.
• Experience developing LMS-Compliant content such as SCORM-based content. Experience with Articulate 360 a plus
• Experience identifying and troubleshooting content delivery issues (ex: incorrectly published SCORM package not reporting results to an LMS correctly)
• Experience maintaining learning functional specifications for virtual instructor-led training (e.g., Zoom) and content development (ex: Standards, Quiz/Tests, Tracking, Branding, and Taxonomy, etc.)
• Experience providing guidelines and recommendations for the use of LMS technology with industry and organizational standards
• Experience creating and running scheduled and ad-hoc reports as well as collaborating with a range of stakeholders to design and implement customized reports
• Experience developing or managing LMS monitoring procedures to ensure employee and training data is accurate
• Ability to manage priorities to meet assignment deadlines in a fast-paced environment
• Strong attention to detail and organizational skills
• Excellent team work and collaboration skills

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience with website maintenance and updates via WordPress
• Demonstrated efforts to assess and improve the user experience (e.g. improving the design and functionality of an LMS platform; specific learning programs within an LMS; or a website to increase accessibility and quality of the user experience)
• Interest in, and commitment to, ILS’ mission, as well as the mission and values of the Academy and Unlocking Employment

Other details related to this position

• Applicants should submit a cover letter and resume for consideration
• This is a full-time hybrid position, requiring in office (on-campus) attendance 7 out of 10 days, or 70% in-office/30% remote
• Closing Date: open until filled
• Applications will be reviewed on an ongoing basis

RFCUNY Benefits

RFCUNY Employee Benefits and Accruals

About the Research Foundation

The Research Foundation of The City University of New York (RFCUNY) was established as a not-for-profit educational corporation chartered by the State of New York in 1963. RFCUNY supports CUNY faculty and staff in identifying and obtaining external support (pre-award) from government and private sponsors and is responsible for the administration of all such funded programs (post-award).

RFCUNY stands between CUNY’s principal investigators (PIs) and the sponsors who support them and strives to fulfill its essential responsibilities to both groups. Working closely with individual PIs and Grants Officers on the campuses, RFCUNY oversees employment, accounting, audit, reporting, purchasing, and special responsibilities that include management of a planned giving program; liaison with governmental agencies and foundations; negotiation of agreements; facility construction and renovation; protection and commercialization of intellectual property; and compliance with applicable standards in research involving human subjects, animal care, environmental and radiological safety, and conflicts of interest.

Equal Employment Opportunity Statement

The Research Foundation of the City University of New York is an Equal Opportunity/Affirmative Action/Americans with Disabilities Act/E-Verify Employer. It is the policy of the Research Foundation of CUNY to provide equal employment opportunities free of discrimination based on race, color, age, religion, sex, pregnancy, childbirth, national origin, disability, marital status, veteran status, sexual orientation, gender identity, genetic information, marital status, domestic violence victim status, arrest record, criminal conviction history, or any other protected characteristic under applicable law.