Research assistant preparing for a fully funded PhD fellowship

We seek a research assistant for a one-year position, primarily focused on preparing for and, if possible, progressing into a fully funded 3-year PhD fellowship with a topic concerning applied research in learning technologies, specifically the use of Generative Artificial Intelligence (GenAI) in higher education.
 

What is the job? About the position as research assistant

Centre of Educational Development (CED) intends to contribute to the research-based development of learning technologies and research-based insights in the digitalization of higher education. Our field of research is still under construction, and it can be difficult to start as a PhD fellow and succeed without a longer start-up phase. In consequence, we offer a one-year position as research assistant to allow time to work your way into the field and fine-tune a PhD-project description, before potential enrolment at a relevant PhD School at Aarhus University.

Your research project must concern learning technologies at university level, be grounded in a relevant well-established theoretical framework, and use quantitative or mixed methods. It can concern students, teachers, or programmes and curricula. You would be working alongside an associate professor and a second PhD-student focusing on the educational application of GenAI. Therefore, your research project should either fully focus on GenAI or be closely related to it. Your research should regard a thorough analysis of the cognitive, meta-cognitive, and motivational processes underlying learning and teaching, as well as the combination of different research methodologies key components.

Main supervisor is associate professor Christopher Neil Prilop.
 

What are the tasks? About your responsibilities as a research assistant at CED

Your primary tasks during the 1-year position as a research assistant are

Research (50%)
- contribute to your main supervisor’s current research
- design, collect data, and contribute to analyses of a smaller pilot study pre-PhD
- participate as a co-author on a research paper with colleagues from CED
- prepare a potential enrolment at a relevant PhD School with your main supervisor, including writing a project proposal and connected qualifying activities, like quite a lot of paperwork

Development, teaching, and operation (40%)
- contribute to the project called Digitally Competent Candidates (DKK) with colleagues from CED (20%)
- join the editorial team behind AU Educate (https://educate.au.dk), especially regarding quality assurance and further development of the content related to GAI (20%)

Administration and meetings and such (10%)
In addition, to a lesser extent, you can participate in other tasks in the centre by specific agreement if your time schedule permits.
 

Who are you? About your qualifications and competence

You have

• completed an academic degree on candidate or master level, for example, Education Studies, Cognitive Science, Educational Psychology, or other relevant programmes that include educational perspectives
• a solid foundation in understanding learning processes from a psychological perspective

It is an advantage if you have

• published an academic text in the form of a paper, report, or book chapter
• experience in teaching
• experience with innovative methodologies (e.g., eye-tracking, think-aloud interviews)

You can

• write academically in English, and use Danish and English as a working languages
• contribute to complex development projects that include technologies and digitalisation at university level.
   

About the Centre for Educational Development (CED) at Aarhus University

The mission of CED is to inspire engaging teaching and excellent educations at Aarhus University. We offer teachers, academic staff, coordinators, directors, and executives at Aarhus University practical partnership, collaboration, and help concerning their ongoing teaching tasks and competencies. Furthermore, we ambitiously strive for the highest international level through applied research in university teaching and learning. We contribute to development projects and experiments in the fields of digitalization and learning technologies in higher education, university teaching, and program development.

CED employs almost 60 colleagues organized into three departments specialized in digital development, teaching development, and program development, respectively, plus a small administration. We have a good collegial atmosphere characterized by a high degree of collaboration and continuous professional development. We value inquiry, co-creation, empowerment, and expertise.

The research group at CED works within and across the three departments. The group comprises five associate professors, one assistant professor, three postdocs, three PhD-students, and two research assistants. The group focus on high quality applied research. The current topics of interest in the group include student learning, transitions and career, teacher development and educational leadership, health sciences education research, digitalization and learning technology in higher education. We come from a wide range of research methods and theoretical frameworks.

You can read more about CED here.
 

Terms and place of employment

The position is full-time (37 hours per week) and limited to 1 year after employment. By
mutual agreement, the one-year position can result in a 3-year PhD scholarship from
CED, subject to enrolment.

The candidate should expect to start 1 October or as soon as possible thereafter.

Further information on the appointment procedure can be found in the Ministerial Order
on the Appointment of Academic Staff at Universities

The appointment is in accordance with the Danish Confederation of Professional
Associations (Akademikerne).

Further information on qualification requirements and job description can be found in
the Ministerial Order on Job Structure for Academic Staff at Universities.

The successful applicant will refer to the department manager of the Department of
Digital Development at CED.

Place of employment is Trøjborgvej 88, 8000 Aarhus C, Denmark.

The hiring process

In connection with your motivated written application, you must attach the following:

• CV
• Documentation for the candidate or master’s degree
• Example of a published academic text with you as (co-)author, or your candidate/master thesis in Danish or English
• Description of your experiences with teaching, editorial work, and development projects

Applications must be submitted in English.

We use shortlisting in the hiring process. In this shortlisting process, the department lead and the scientific assessor exclude applicants that do not match the position. Only shortlisted applicants receive a full assessment. After the shortlisting process, a scientific assessor gives a written summary concerning each of the shortlisted applicants. Based on these summaries of qualifications, an employment committee of future colleagues and the department lead invites the best applicants for an interview.

Interviews are expected to be held in week 33 (medio August).

Aarhus University’s ambition is to be an attractive and inspiring workplace for all and to foster a culture in which each individual has opportunities to thrive, achieve and develop. We view equality and diversity as assets, and we welcome all applicants.

The application must be submitted via Aarhus University’s recruitment system, which can be accessed under the job advertisement on Aarhus University's website.
 


Aarhus University

Aarhus University is an academically diverse and research-intensive university with a strong commitment to high-quality research and education and the development of society nationally and globally. The university offers an inspiring research and teaching environment to its 38,000 students (FTEs) and 8,300 employees, and has an annual revenues of EUR 935 million. Learn more at www.international.au.dk/