My criteria for highlighting searches in Featured Gigs are that the role sits somewhere near the intersection of learning, technology and organizational change. Today’s Featured Gig installment for the associate director of learning innovation research at the University of Michigan’s Center for Academic Innovation perfectly fits the goals of the series. I’m particularly happy that the person leading the search is Ashim Shanker, CAI’s director of content and product strategy, with whom I’ve worked closely with in the past.
Q: What is the university’s mandate behind this role? How does it help align with and advance the university’s strategic priorities?
A: The Center for Academic Innovation is building the future of education, with a vision of connecting and empowering learners everywhere to reach their full potential throughout their lives and a mission to collaborate across campus and around the world to create lifelong educational opportunities. The associate director of learning innovation research advances this mission by leading the strategic direction, coordination and execution of learning innovation and user experience research across the Michigan Online learning portfolio.
The mandate is to ensure that decisions about what Michigan Online offers, how those experiences are designed and how they reach learners are grounded in evidence rather than assumption. The role brings a data-informed, future-forward outlook to the question of how online education can meet learner needs effectively, with particular attention to the changing needs of the workforce and of lifelong learners. Working in partnership with data and business intelligence and with marketing and market strategy, the role integrates qualitative and quantitative insight to connect learner motivations, outcomes and workforce signals to online learning portfolio strategy. This keeps Michigan Online responsive to a global learner population and aligned with the university’s broader commitment to access, lifelong learning and demonstrable learner impact.
Q: Where does the role sit within the university structure? How will the person in this role engage with other units and leaders across campus? Is the role in-person, hybrid, or remote eligible?
A: The associate director of learning innovation research sits within the Online Learning domain at the Center for Academic Innovation and reports to the director of content and product strategy. The role leads the learning innovation and user experience research function and supervises a team of researchers, setting research priorities, workflows and standards and serving as a key decision-maker for research prioritization, approach and execution.
The role is highly cross-functional. The person will partner closely with Data and Business Intelligence to align qualitative insight with quantitative analytics and with Marketing and Market Strategy to connect learner insight to market trends and emerging opportunity spaces. They will engage regularly with learning platform strategy, learning experience design, user experience design, media design and production, extended reality teams, course operations, and program management to scope research, translate findings into recommendations and inform decisions across platform, content, design and operations. The role also serves as the institutional liaison for research conducted with internal and external partners and provides guidance on research governance, including IRB requirements, FERPA compliance and ethical research standards.
The mode of work is hybrid, with a minimum of four days per week in the office, Monday through Thursday, and an option to work remotely on Fridays.
Q: What would success look like in one year? Three years? Beyond?
A: Within one year, a definitive online learning product and user experience research agenda and road map is in place, aligned with organizational priorities and understood across partner teams. Research operations are functioning, including research intake and prioritization processes, standards for instrumentation and survey design, research design approaches (quantitative, qualitative and mixed methods), and governance practices covering IRB, FERPA and ethical research. An initial reporting cadence, such as quarterly insight reports, is established and actively informing decisions.
Within three years, research is consistently shaping decisions across the portfolio and the impacts of those decisions are being subsequently assessed. Findings inform the direction of new and emerging content areas, platform efficiencies and operational best practices. Qualitative and quantitative work is integrated with data and business intelligence through shared road maps and feedback loops, and the function is producing longitudinal and workforce-outcome evidence that informs product and program strategy. The research team is developed, with capacity and skills aligned to priorities.
Beyond that, the research function operates as a strategic driver of the Michigan Online learning portfolio. It generates evidence of impact, pedagogical differentiation and potential for scale, and it consistently anticipates where learner and workforce needs are heading so that Michigan Online can respond ahead of demand rather than after it.
Q: What kinds of future roles would someone who took this position be prepared for?
A: In this role, the person defines the research direction for online learning at the Center for Academic Innovation, in close collaboration with data and business intelligence and with marketing and market strategy. It is a leadership opportunity to merge strengths and insights in education, online learning innovation and user experience research with a strategic lens and to consult on future directions and opportunities for growth and improvement across the portfolio.
That combination of responsibilities prepares someone for senior leadership roles that involve research and insights, product and platform strategy, and content or portfolio strategy, whether within higher education and ed tech or in comparable learning innovation–driven organizations. Directing a cross-functional research function, owning governance, developing a team and translating evidence into portfolio decisions builds the profile expected of director-level roles in academic innovation, learning research and product strategy.
