Assessment Developer

Western Governors University•Salt Lake City, UT

About The Position

If you’re passionate about building a better future for individuals, communities, and our country—and you’re committed to working hard to play your part in building that future—consider WGU as the next step in your career. Driven by a mission to expand access to higher education through online, competency-based degree programs, WGU is also committed to being a great place to work for a diverse workforce of student-focused professionals. The university has pioneered a new way to learn in the 21st century, one that has received praise from academic, industry, government, and media leaders. Whatever your role, working for WGU gives you a part to play in helping students graduate, creating a better tomorrow for themselves and their families. The assessment developer (AD) is responsible for the development and maintenance of Western Governors University’s (WGU) objective and performance-based assessments. An AD facilitates design and development workshops using industry best practices to ensure assessment validity and reliability. The individual combines strategic and creative thinking with efficient, time-sensitive execution to drive the creation of assessments and mitigate risks. The ideal candidate for this role will have strong interpersonal communication skills, possessing the ability to give and receive feedback and collaborate effectively with multiple stakeholders. Additionally, they will exhibit the ability to turn complex concepts into assessable questions. We are looking for individuals with strong attention to detail, who are comfortable working through ambiguous situations, catching biases and errors in items as well as demonstrating strong critical thinking skills and the ability to evaluate whether questions measure the intended competency. Experience with Competency Based Education is highly preferred for this role.

Requirements

Ability to facilitate groups and meetings in person and remotely.
Excellent written, oral, presentation, and interpersonal skills.
Strong organizational skills, time management skills, and attention to detail.
Ability to manage multiple projects effectively.
Ability to manage schedules and commitments.
Problem Solving Skills: Investigates appropriate resources and involves partners when appropriate; future-oriented; assesses what will help/hinder achieving goals; focuses on what is important.
Interpersonal Skills: Deals with others in a considerate, respectful, and unbiased manner; approaches conflict proactively; solicits and shares feedback openly; listens with empathy and maintains composure.
Accuracy: Draws on factual information garnered from careful cultivation of a broad knowledge of WGU’s goals and processes; investigates beyond assumptions.
Adaptability: Course corrects behaviors and communication style to meet the needs of a wide range of situations; tackles obstacles appropriately; is comfortable with ambiguity.
Reliability: Accountable to others; does what it takes to get the job done; actions are consistent with words; follows through on commitments; exhibits exceptional integrity.
Attitude: Displays commitment to the organization and to personal growth; self-motivated and able to motivate and inspire others; asserts self appropriately to champion ideas; tells the truth in a direct and constructive manner.
Initiative: Self-directs with a strong bias for action; leads the way in improvement of performance or processes; displays keen interest in students and organization.
Bachelors degree and all applicable licenses or certifications.
3+ years of relevant professional experience.
This role will serve as a demonstrated subject matter expert in job-relevant content or practice area.

Nice To Haves

Experience with Competency Based Education
Project management experience (PMP certification preferred).
Experience with both objective and performance assessment.
Experience in online assessment and education.
Experience managing vendor and external resources relationships.
Strong experience with distance education and distance learning students.
Terminal degree and all applicable licenses or certifications.

Responsibilities

Manages the design and development process for both objective and performance assessments, including milestones and timelines, and tracks progress.
Communicates project status updates to cross-functional teams and stakeholders.
Works with cross-functional teams to ensure projects have appropriate resources and realistic timelines and to solve any content-related issues regarding the assessments.
Organizes and facilitates workshops for internal assessment development and review.
Oversees subject matter expert involvement in the design, development, and review processes, as well as in the validation of an assessment’s congruency and accuracy.
Maintains assessment design and development standards to ensure assessment integrity.
Identifies and mitigates risks that may impact the quality or on-time delivery of assessments.
Collaborates with the assessment team to define and execute assessment policies, processes, and best practices.
Ensures alignment and consistency of assessments to WGU’s business objectives.
Develops and implements item- and exam-level scoring guidelines and validates the successful implementation of these guidelines.
Oversees assessment QA processes, identifying and resolving issues and trends, as required.
Maintains knowledge of exam performance and makes necessary quality improvement adjustments throughout the exam lifecycle.
Participates in cross-functional team to implement exam security measures.
Performs other related duties as assigned.