Dean of Instruction, Online Learning

Who We Are

We are the largest community college in Colorado, enrolling close to 28,000 credit students annually. We were one of 30 colleges in the initial American Association of Community Colleges Pathways Project, recently selected as a “Most Promising Place to Work” in Diverse Magazine, and profiled as one of six top community colleges for transfer student success in a recent Aspen Institute publication. We have developed a strong strategic plan focused on improving student graduation and transfer rates and have made significant investments in advising and other student support programs.

We also have a strong commitment to inclusion, equity, and diversity. We are actively seeking to hire a workforce that matches our student community and will support our Philosophy of Inclusion.

We are guided by the philosophy “One College, Many Communities.” Campuses share many common values, goals, and practices, but are also given the opportunity and flexibility to develop unique cultures and programs that serve individual communities. In addition, we have a clear vision outlined in its strategic plan. For more information, visit the following: www.frontrange.edu and VISION 2020.

Who You Are

As the Dean of Instruction for Online Learning, you will engage in energetic, visionary, and inclusive leadership to advance the College’s mission and strategic goals and ensure academic excellence. You will demonstrate a strong commitment to student success and completion.

For your assigned online departments, you will facilitate academic planning and course scheduling, assessment of student learning, recruitment of faculty and staff, budgeting and management of funds, and allocation and use of facilities. As the Instructional Dean, you support the Department Chairs in mentoring and evaluation of faculty and guide development of new programs. As a key member of the Vice President for Academic Affairs and Online Learning (VPAAOL) leadership team, you help set direction for online programs and initiatives to ensure instructional quality and student success. As all Instructional Deans do, you will provide leadership on both campus and college-wide initiatives, serve on a college-wide Deans Council and will interact frequently with local school, business, and community partners.

SELECTION PROCESS: Position will remain open until filled with a priority deadline of September 30, 2021.

In your application, please include a resume and cover letter that specifically addresses how your background and experience align with requirements, qualification and responsibilities of the Dean of Instruction for Online Learning.

SALARY: Mid $90’s/annually

BENEFITS: 2021 – 2022 APT & Faculty Benefits

PRIMARY DUTIES:

• Work collaboratively as a member of the VPAAOL’s Leadership Team to develop and implement a shared online and college-wide vision and plans to ensure that the educational needs of students and the community are met and that all students have a chance to succeed. Collectively, the team ensures that all programs and services offered provide outstanding service to students, support teaching excellence, student success, and equity in student outcomes, are fiscally sound and meet college, system, and governmental policies and guidelines.

• Collaborate with all deans across the college to develop college-wide instructional policies and practices, coordinate academic programs to ensure efficiency and effectiveness, address key college-wide workforce needs, and support teaching excellence and student success. Serve as a member of the Instructional Deans’ Council and other working groups and teams designed to address key college-wide issues. All deans can expect to regularly take leadership roles on specific college work teams.

• Provide forward-thinking and inclusive leadership for faculty and staff to help them achieve excellence and innovation in teaching and learning, student success, faculty and staff development, and community engagement.

• Provide instructional leadership for all online academic departments. Support department chairs in curriculum and program development and program reviews in areas of responsibility. Oversee the recruitment and evaluation of faculty and staff in those departments and ensure appropriate professional development for full-time and part-time faculty and staff. Develop and administer assigned budget by collaborating with department chairs, faculty and staff to determine funding needs and priorities to support projects to accomplish learning goals.

• Guide enrollment management and retention efforts and assess the effectiveness of the schedule in contributing to student success through guided academic pathways.

• Represent Online Learning and the college to individuals and groups from the community to promote programs within the college. Build and maintain partnerships with universities, business, industry, and community partners to ensure that academic programs are current and responsive and that the college is meeting emerging workforce needs. Foster and promote dual enrollment with high schools and career centers.

• Collaborate with colleagues from across campuses and from multiple areas of the college to develop, support, and promote opportunities for student engagement, including experiential learning, service learning, co-curricular activities, internships and apprenticeships. Work with faculty and deans to incorporate a variety of delivery methods into the curriculum, including online, hybrid, videoconference, compressed and competency-based modalities.

• Actively contribute to a work environment that embraces inclusiveness and diverse perspectives, one that builds constructive working relationships characterized by a high level of acceptance, cooperation, and mutual respect. Facilitate a cooperative and committed culture that supports efforts to establish and accomplish individual, department, campus, and college goals.

Required Skills

REQUIRED COMPETENCIES:

• Community College Mission: Articulate a thorough understanding, appreciation, and commitment to the comprehensive community college.

• People Leadership and Team Building: Demonstrate the dedication to recruitment, retention, and success of faculty, staff and students. Hire appropriate faculty and staff, support and mentor department chairs, build an online chair team that innovates and collaborates, directly address conflicts and poor performance. Enhance a culture that promotes student success through actively seeking feedback, recognizing employee successes, and communicating frequently.

• Workforce, Community Relations and Partnership Development: Have an on-campus presence and be visible in the community through participation on committees and/or associations. Create partnerships with school districts, universities, businesses, cities, economic development agencies, and non-profits to develop and maintain non-credit and credit academic programs that meet key workforce needs and support students.

• Communication: Demonstrate clear and persuasive written and oral communication skills; commit to transparency and dialog with campus constituents. Provide regular written updates to areas supervised; present at in-service meetings and community events, make presentations to college-wide project teams and to Cabinet. Ensure timely sharing of key information to campus constituents.

• Collaboration: FRCC functions as one college. Deans work collaboratively with other academic and student affairs colleagues on campus and college-wide to support students across the college. Collectively, deans develop college wide plans, policies and practices that support academic excellence and student success.

• Equity, inclusion, and Diversity: Champion equity through programming; support department chairs in engaging faculty in developing inclusive pedagogy; work with Human Resources to develop increased diversity in staff and faculty.

• Innovation and Initiative: Promote the viability of programs within areas of responsibility. Develop new programs and partnerships with a strong focus on curriculum design and instructional pedagogy; support program-specific accreditation processes as applicable to areas of responsibility. Help the college create new ways of approaching workforce development (e.g. competency-based learning, micro-credentials, apprenticeships, condensed programs) and incorporate a variety of delivery methods including mobile labs, online and video conferencing.

• Planning and Budgeting: Collaborate to develop college annual and strategic plan and campus implementation plans, including program development plans; create and monitor yearly campus budget.

• Project Management: Lead campus and college-wide project teams for program development and other strategic initiatives.

• Integrity: Demonstrate academic and personal integrity in advocating for students, faculty and staff.

Required Experience

REQUIRED EDUCATION/TRAINING & WORK EXPERIENCE:

• Master’s degree from an accredited institution.
• Minimum of four years’ college teaching experience (community college teaching preferred)
• Minimum of three years leadership experience in higher education, preferably community colleges.
• Experience with transfer and/or career and technical education.
• Basic knowledge of computer applications (e.g., Microsoft Office) to accomplish managerial tasks.

PREFERRED EDUCATION/TRAINING & WORK EXPERIENCE:

• Experience teaching in online or hybrid delivery modalities.
• Experience leading online departments or divisions.
• Knowledge of Learning Management Systems (LMS) and Educational Technology Tools.

Welcoming. Respectful. Inclusive. Together, we are FRCC.