Curriculum Developer

JOB DESCRIPTION

We're a small but mighty educational technology company located in Boulder, Colorado, and we're seeking a full-time curriculum writer who will be initially working on courses in technical math and water/wastewater operations.

You will be on a team with people with extensive experience in both curriculum development and relevant technical areas. While we would be delighted to find a person who already has extensive experience in technical curriculum development, we are open to helping you grow into this position. The baseline requirements are:

Interest and/or background in math, science, and/or engineering, with an enthusiasm for learning about new technical concepts and creative thinking (STEM degree preferred but not required) Excellent writing skills (professional curriculum developer or technical writing experience preferred but not required) Relevant past titles include: curriculum developer; technical writer; technical instructor; career and technical educator; engineer/scientist; math teacher

We practice "skills-based hiring", which means that our intent is to find the person with the best combination of skills, rather than the person with the most relevant formal education and/or experience (though we do consider education and experience of value).

ROLE AND TASKS

We are looking for a curriculum writer to help us develop two new courses:

• CSM Technical Math (TechMath). This course focuses on the most critical math and data skills for technical jobs across many industries (public utilities, health care, construction, etc). The audience for the course is primarily adults in workforce development, and it may also be used in high school career and technical programs.
• CSM-WATER. This course focuses on developing water and wastewater operators, including math for passing certification exams, as well as building confident, self-sufficient operators who can problem-solve in challenging situations. The majority of operators of water and wastewater facilities in the US function in small or rural communities, and much of the care of the health and environment of these communities is often in the hands of people with limited education - typically with just a high school diploma. Courses in this field typically are narrowly certification-prep oriented, while this course will touch on a broad range of skills and mindsets.

The development of these courses is funded by federal grants from the US Department of Health and Human Services and the US Department of Agriculture, in conjunction with our partners the United Southern and Eastern Tribes (USET). USET represents most tribal nations east of the Mississipppi (and in Louisiana and Texas) to train and engage tribal high schoolers and trainee operators to take on challenging technical roles in water and wastewater operations. These courses will initially be piloted with tribal nations, but will eventually be used extensively across the country.

You will be working in a team environment with the key architects and developers of the existing CSM courseware. Your role will include many of the following activities, though there will be some flexibility depending on your experience and strengths:

• Defining the skills to be taught, including example problems. In the water/wastewater curriculum, you will be assisted by technical experts in the field.
• Writing/editing lessons - in each skill in CSM, there are multiple lessons, including Concepts, Solving the Problem, Step-by-Step
• Building scenarios - Much of the instruction will be in the scenario-based CSM+ format, with problem-solving and learning by example and extension
• Proofing executable versions of the problems
• Brainstorming common errors that students could make on each skill, and writing targeted feedback
• Working with software developers to ensure good implementation of your content (no coding skills necessary), and then proofing of the executable versions of your curriculum
• Collaborative project management

Starting winter of 2022, the position will extend to other projects, which may span a range of different activities outside of those listed above.

WORK ENVIRONMENT

This is a full-time position, with flexible scheduling. A majority of your time is expected to be in our East Boulder offices, but some of your work can be remote and on your own schedule.

Many of us at CSMlearn have families and all of us have lives outside of work, and we believe in work-life balance and allowing flexibility for people with complicated lives.

All CSMlearn employees are required to be fully vaccinated against COVID-19.

REQUIREMENTS

The primary requirements for this job are:

• be a really excellent writer
• like numbers and data
• are interested in how technical equipment/processes work

Other requirements include:

• be self-directed / like to jump in and learn
• have the ability to take and give constructive feedback (we carry out intentional continuous improvement).
• like working in teams and be a good team member
• be passionate about helping the world

PREFERRED SKILLS:

The following skills or background are not requirements of the job, but the hiring team may take into account whether you have experience in:

• instructional design / educational technology
• math/technical education
• education/training of teens or adults (secondary, college, adult ed, workforce development, corporate training, etc.)
• any technical field that uses math in practical ways
• working on or managing complex writing/development projects
• any type of coding/programming (you won't be doing programming, but will be working with many people who do)
• A STEM degree

If you meet the requirements but have few of the preferred background/skills above, don't let that keep you from applying for this job.

ABOUT US

CSMlearn has developed CSM, an online course that builds the essentials of high performance that lead to success in school, college, work and life - including math and literacy, problem solving, active learning, persistence, confidence, high personal expectations and self-efficacy. CSM is a next-generation advanced adaptive learning system, and is the first (and to our knowledge still only) learning system to personalize instruction simultaneously in academic and how-you-learn, -act and -feel domains. This personalization allows for an unprecedented range of users, from high school dropouts to corporate managers with advanced degrees, all taking the same CSM course - CSM has one of the broadest use cases of any course.

CSM gains college credit - often satisfying general education math requirements for a bachelor's degrees (even though it does not teach algebra) - at colleges with around 800,000 students and growing. In a study by Stanford Research Institute against gold-standard courses from Pearson and McGraw-Hill, CSM had the largest math and literacy gains and the highest student engagement. Furthermore, CSM is uniquely aligned with the Common Employability Skills, the most widely-adopted employability framework, and is gaining recognition as a training program in the energy and water industries. Finally, CSM includes an embedded mini-course with a new type of career guidance course that instead of focusing on choosing a career, teaches the skill of making career decisions throughout your life.

While we have clients who are individuals or single organizations (school, colleges, adult education, workforce development, or employers), our future is in large community-wide programs centered on regions like Greater Philadelphia (in conjunction with Drexel University School of Education), West Viriginia, Minnesota, and Colorado, uniting each community in shared purpose, commitment, accomplishment and pride (e.g. see the following website on our work in Philadelphia - www.ExcelTogether.org). These represent some of the largest education+workforce programs ever attempted in the US, with the potential for unprecedented equity outcomes benefiting communities and underserved populations.

CSMlearn's mission is to help all people reach their potential in education, work and life, with an emphasis on the underserved. CSMlearn is a Public Benefit Corporation and a Certified B Corp, and will be filing shortly for non-profit status.

CSMlearn is an equal opportunity employer. We celebrate diversity and are committed to creating an inclusive environment for all employees.

Visit our website at www.csmlearn.com to learn more about CSM.

COMPENSATION

Pay: $60,000 - $80,000 per year

BENEFITS

• Health
• Retirement
• Flexible schedule
• Parental leave
• Professional development assistance

HOW TO APPLY

Send your resume to careers@csmlearn.com. When applying: we'd love to hear more about you and your interest in this job through a cover letter. .

If this job is not for you, please think whether there are any people you know who might be interested, and please forward this job description to them. We appreciate your help!