Graduate Research Assistant

Improving Statistics Literacy In Graduate Students And Postdoctoral Fellows In The Life Sciences

Job Description

Graduate Research Assistant (8-10 hours/week) needed to help us develop a multimedia teaching module that explains an important concept in statistics. The module will be designed for self-study and available online. This is part of a research project that aims to identify and address misconceptions about statistics among life scientists. Your will help design the teaching module, be in charge of the technical implementation, help recruiting testers, evaluate test restuls and improve the module based on evaluation results. This project is funded by a SPARK grant from the Harvard Initiative for Learning and Teaching (HILT) awarded to Drs. Abha Ahuja and Melanie Stefan, Lecturers and Curriculum Fellows at Harvard Medical School. You will work with both of them, as well as another graduate research assistant whose project involves identifying and diagnosing misconceptions.

Skills Desired

The successful candidate will have some programming skills and experience using html. Additional IT and multimedia skills (e.g. video editing, podcasting, animation) are a plus. They will also have a good understanding of introductory statistics. Experience in teaching and/or developing instruction materials is a plus. The candidate must have excellent organizational and written and oral communication skills and work well in a team

This Position begins in summer or fall 2014 and will run until December 31 2014, with pay of 25 per hour (approx. $6k for the duration of the project) . Anticipated average workload is 8-10 hours/week, with some periods of greater or lesser intensity. If interested, please submit a cover letter and resume or CV including names and contact information for two references to melanie_stefan _at_ hms.harvard.edu

Applications are accepted until the position is filled; we will begin reviewing applications and interviewing candidates August 10, 2014.