Job Description

About King’s Online 

King’s Online is a truly collaborative team within the School of Professional and Continuing Education (PACE). We partner with academics and professional services staff across the university, and with our external partners to design, develop and deliver a wide range of educational programmes in line with King's Education Strategy.  

The current pipeline comprises of online master's degrees, short courses, bespoke executive education courses, and increasingly, stackable micro-credentials. You will be joining us at an exciting time as we seek to realise our strategic ambition of being a UK leader in online and blended education, specifically in the areas of learning design, development, consultancy, and partnerships. 

We are a dynamic team with ambitious growth targets in a priority area of development for King’s. We proudly foster a supportive culture and community which prioritises both individual and collective wellbeing. We actively work to protect and improve the wellbeing of all staff; be it physical, mental or social, and recognise this as central to our work and success.  

King’s offers a wide variety of support to employees, including flexible working arrangements, paid maternity/shared parental leave, menopausal support, an active wellbeing programme, training and development opportunities and much more. All of our staff benefit from a generous pension contribution as well. 

About the role

We are looking for a highly organised individual to join our team as a Build and Visual Design Manager. This role will support the content production process for our expanding portfolio.  

You will lead two high performing teams, the content development team, and the visual design team. The teams are focussed on the build of our online course designs, including building activities in our Virtual Learning Environment (Moodle), developing HTML-based e-learning content, creating graphics and diagrams, and designing animations and illustrations. This will include identifying and managing their performance, training, and development needs, as well as helping to scope and plan their work.  

You will work closely with colleagues of other King’s Online teams, such as the Creative Media Manager, the eLearning Assistants Manager, the Senior Project Manager, and the Learning Design Manager/Senior Learning Designers for the production process and sharing information between them and the teams you lead.  

You are also expected to work closely with the Web development and UX teams, to help ensure our platform development is informed by the realities of content build.  

You will play an active role in developing people, building ‘communities of practice’, running workshops and creating guides and documentation will be key to this role. In addition, you will also run workshops for our partners in the wider university, and represent King’s Online in university-wide committees, meetings and briefings where needed. 

You will have excellent organisation skills, enjoy working in and contributing to an environment of continuous improvement, and be a supportive and capable manager of others.  

You may undertake any other duties, commensurate with the post, as may be required. 

The role is primarily based at King’s Strand Campus, though you may be required to travel to other campuses on occasion. As part of King’s trial of hybrid working, all team members can work remotely for part of the week if they wish.

This post will be offered on an indefinite contract.

This is a full-time post.

Key responsibilities

• Line manage staff involved in the build process (content developers and visual designers). Identifying and managing their performance, training, and development needs, and helping scope and plan their work (work allocations and manage workloads).
• Provide expert support and guidance on the use of digital learning technologies, help administer our learning technologies, including identifying challenges, implementing effective solutions and providing appropriate educational and technical guidance
• Facilitate effective communication between your team and the rest of King’s Online teams
• Help to explore, test and evaluate digital learning tools and approaches in collaboration with other teams within King’s Online
• Represent King’s Online in the wider university through delivering workshops, attending meetings, and participating in working groups
• Actively participate in internal and external networks to promote King’s and share best practice
• Produce content and assets for our courses in support of your team, and provide sign off and a point of escalation for more complex build elements
• Review the build function to support increasing efficiency in the production process
• Collaborate in big picture projects with King’s Online/KPED teams, and faculties, in alignment with the King’s Online strategic priorities.

The above list of responsibilities may not be exhaustive, and the post holder will be required to undertake such tasks and responsibilities as may reasonably be expected within the scope and grading of the post.

Skills, knowledge, and experience

Essential criteria

1. Experience of line management or leading a large team and mentoring and supporting others in a professional context

2. Experience in working with Moodle (or similar Virtual Learning Environment) at both user and administrator level and other digital learning technologies

3. Expertise with HTML, CSS and other related tools

4. Understanding of teaching, learning and assessment processes and other aspects of the higher education context

5. Experience of creating digital learning content and understanding of the key principles and standards of content and visual design, including usability, accessibility and branding

6. Understanding of design principles and experience supporting a team on how best to represent a concept visually with diagrams, illustrations, photography, and animations

7. Experience finding innovative and elegant solutions to problems using a logical approach and independent investigation

8. Well-organised, with experience facilitating meetings, planning work (work allocations and manage workloads) and documenting processes.

9. Track record of effectively writing user guidance documentation and delivering training

10. Ability to work as an active member of King’s Online including ability to build relationships and interact with colleagues in a sensitive manner to achieve positive outcomes

11. Proven commitment to diversity and inclusion

Desirable criteria

1.  Web development expertise with JavaScript and/or other development languages

2.  Experience of developing content in line with Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG)

3.  Experience of working with project management methodology and Agile teams

Further information

About the School of Professional & Continuing Education (PACE)

The School of Professional & Continuing Education, often known as PACE, was established in 2021 to widen the educational reach of King’s. The School plays an integral role in the university’s lifelong learning offer and to enhance scholarship of teaching and learning across the King’s community. It acts as a focal point within the university for increasingly joined-up approaches to a range of education experiences different to the typical degree, for individual learners, public and private sector groups, and partners, both in the UK and internationally.

The School sits alongside the nine Faculties of the university and comprises six areas: King’s Academy, King’s Foundations, King’s Language Centre, King’s Online, King’s Professional & Executive Development (KPED) and Summer Programmes. Each of these areas are well established, respected and recognised within and beyond the King’s community.

PACE delivers teaching (through King’s Foundations, Summer Programmes, King’s Language Centre) and works collaboratively with our nine Faculties enabling them to deliver professional and online education (through KPED and King’s Online). The School also supports educational and learning development of King’s staff and students (through King’s Academy and King’s Foundations).

Should you have any queries about the role, please email Athina Chatzigavriil, athina.chatzigavriil@kcl.ac.uk