OCW Community,

I am VERY pleased to announce the opening of a new full time position within the OCWC — the OCWC Director of Marketing and Outreach (listed below). If any of you are interested in this position — or know of a strong candidate — please contact me immediately. We are looking to fill this position within the next 4 weeks.

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The OCWC Director of Marketing and Outreach, in close consultation with the OCWC Director and the OCWC Board of Directors, is generally responsible for the oversight and execution of marketing, public relations and outreach activities within the Consortium. The principal responsibilities of the OpenCourseWare Consortium Director of Marketing and Outreach are:

1. Direct the external marketing, communications and public relations efforts of the Consortium. The Consortium requires a coordinated and thoughtful approach to telling its story through its web site and collateral materials, in the context of strategic speaking engagements and media coverage, and by engagement in emerging Web 2.0 social communities. In addition, the OCWC has traditionally targeted its communications at select university professors and staff. Going forward, we will need to find ways to build grass-roots awareness of and participation in OpenCourseWare – expanding our target audience to include, among others, university students, professional organizations, and potential consumers of OCW content.

2. Manage internal OCWC membership development and communications. The OCWC is, first and foremost, a service organization to its members. It is imperative that clear, open and productive channels of support and communication be developed among the OCWC staff, the OCWC Board, and OCWC members. The OCWC Director of Marketing and Outreach will play a large role in managing outreach and communications with OCWC members – from initial inquiries about OCWC membership all the way through the implementation of individual OCW sites – and beyond.

3. Organize and facilitate Consortium meetings. Consortium meetings, currently held twice each year, are a crucial part of maintaining and expanding the OCW community. These meetings provide regular opportunities for members to keep up-to-date on project developments, reaffirm commitments to goals and priorities, and present work completed to-date on Consortium projects. They are also wonderful recruiting opportunities for new OCWC membership. Increasingly, the OCWC is also being called upon to organize additional, ad hoc meetings which could be strategic to the OCWC’s long term success.

The OpenCourseWare Consortium Director of Marketing and Outreach reports to the OCWC Executive Director.

Specific duties and responsibilities¹

• Direct the external marketing, communications and public relations efforts of the Consortium.
  
  

  • Develop and execute a marketing plan for the Consortium. This might include things like a monthly internal email blast, blogging, an advertising campaign, an annual OER/OCW event/competition, etc.

  • Develop and execute a public relations plan for the Consortium. At a minimum, official press releases should be constructed for each major milestone in the life of the OCWC. This should also include the creation and updating of a basic media kit for the OCWC on the web site, along w/ a standard set of presentation and collateral materials for OCWC members to use.

  • Serve as a primary coordinator for OCWC media opportunities, ensuring balance of said opportunities among other OCWC members, board and staff. Should also act as one of the primary spokespeople for the OCWC.

  • Coordinate the promotion of the Consortium’s mission and goals at relevant professional speaking engagements and Conferences. Since the travel budget will be extremely limited in at least the first year – an important part of this role will be to help resourcefully coordinate distributed coverage of strategic conferences between OCWC members, the OCWC board, and staff – and to know which events need support.

  • Report back to OCWC members on insights and results from such conferences.

  • Establish and maintain the content and business design of the OCWC web site.

• Manage internal OCWC membership development and communications.
  
  

  • Support OCWC members through the full lifecycle of membership – from initial email and phone inquiries, through the membership application approval process, all the way through the creation and development of members’ own OCW sites.

  • Make on-site support visits to OCW members as needed, with the understanding that, except under special circumstances, travel costs must be covered by OCWC members.

  • Develop and execute an internal OCWC communications plan, which will likely include some type of regular email blast, along w/ other indirect communications (such as blogging, etc.).
    
    

• Organize and facilitate Consortium meetings and events.
  
  

  • Oversee all aspects of planning and executing Consortium meetings.

  • Collaborate with host institutions to support their hosting efforts.

  • Manage communications in advance of and after meetings.
    
    

• General
  
  

  • Support all aspects of OCWC revenue generation – including grant writing, the development of strategic partnerships, and solicitation of donations.

  • Maintain awareness—including current status—of open knowledge efforts of all kinds, whether or not directly related to OCWC. This includes following institutions’ OpenCourseWare efforts (which may or may not have formal ties to the OCWC), and efforts in other realms of information sharing in higher education, in the library domain, and elsewhere.

  • Maintain a working knowledge of issues and concepts related to open knowledge sharing and publication, including intellectual property issues and requirements and open licensing concepts.

Qualifications

• Knowledge and experience: Background and experience in an academic/higher education setting and working with faculty is highly desirable. 1 year of experience on an OpenCourseWare team would be helpful, but is not required. Must have demonstrated accomplishment in developing web-based educational resources projects. HTML and basic web design skills a plus. Experience and knowledge of community-building through social software a plus.

• Relationship building/interpersonal skills: Ability to understand and develop productive work relationships with others at all levels; ability to persuade and influence senior decision makers; ability to resolve conflicts with a win/win attitude. The OCWC Director of Marketing and Outreach is the primary public representative of the Consortium, and will have frequent contact with global leaders in education, government and commerce; therefore, the Manager must have a highly professional personal presentation and the ability to earn respect of others quickly.

• Communication and facilitation skills: Excellent oral and written communications skills at all levels, including senior management, faculty, academic support staff, engineering and technical staff, collaborators of all kinds. Good consulting, facilitating, and leadership skills; ability to lead or follow with equal ease.

• Problem solving and decision-making: Ability to think strategically and to understand the complexity and nuance of strategic relationships. Respond promptly and effectively to issues; demonstrate good judgment. Ability to work with vague concepts and loosely defined ideas and mold them into structured plans and operational programs.

• Planning and organizing skills: Must organize and manage time to accomplish job requirements in a professional and timely manner. Establish and prioritize objectives; develop plans to meet deadlines; adapt to changes in work priorities. Ability to follow-up efficiently and to see tasks through to completion. Must be well-organized, committed, accurate, thorough, and punctual.

• Initiative and resourcefulness: Develop ideas and methods; effective use of available resources; self starter; ability to work in a fast-paced environment to meet critical deadlines; ability to work independently and as part of a team.

• Accountability: Must accept personal responsibility for on-schedule task fulfillment and job performance; must be self-motivating, professional, and comfortable with ambiguity in a diverse organization.

• Education: Bachelor’s degree or higher. Masters degree or higher preferred.

Job Location: Negotiable.