Are you interested in finding out how online peer feedback tools can support students' argumentative essay writing and learning? And to what extent online methods might affect the quality of students' learning, peer feedback and their essays? Do you wonder if there are differences in students' and teachers' satisfaction with online peer feedback and writing performance according to content domain or educational programme? Then this vacancy might be something for you!

In this project, we aim to explore the effects of an online peer feedback support tool on various aspects of learning and writing where students with authentic essay writing tasks engage in thoughtful criticism of the work and/or performance of their peers using given criteria. The tool allows students to provide structured feedback to their peers' essays reciprocally based on the characteristics of a high-quality argumentative essay. The various feedback features in this tool will contain question prompts about the peers' actual work and/or performance (how am I going/doing?), or indicate a direction by delineating a goal to be achieved (where to go next?).

In this project, the relationships between argumentative essay writing, online peer feedback and students' learning and writing quality will be explored. Students will use feedback features designed in this project to interact with and provide structured feedback to their learning partners. The outcomes of this project will improve the overall quality of education by helping students writing high-quality argumentative essays, not only for courses at Wageningen University & Research (WUR) but potentially also for many courses in different disciplines at other universities that deal with controversial issues and complex problems.

Your role as postdoc
You will be responsible for designing, validating, implementing and evaluating the feedback tool in the online learning environment for different courses. You will also be responsible for writing professional and scientific publications and other dissemination activities related to this project.

To further strengthen our team you are / have:

• a PhD preferably in educational/learning sciences or a closely related discipline (e.g., educational technology/psychology), and future ambitions in science;
• additional expertise in learning analytic, this is preferable;
• experience with research on higher education, student-centered learning, e-learning, learning outside the classroom, etc;
• creative and innovative;
• a great networker who loves working with teachers and researchers;
• dedicated, open for receiving feedback and able to take the perspective of others.

This position requires an excellent English language proficiency (minimum CEFR C1 level). For more information about this proficiency level, please visit our special language page.

A challenging position with, depending on your experience, a competitive salary from a minimum of €2.709,- to a maximum of €3.389,- for a full working week of 38 hours in accordance with the Collective Labor Agreement Wageningen University (scale 10). This position is for 0.7 FTE, in case other tasks are also taken up, an additional contract may be opted for. You will receive a contract for 1 year, after positive evaluation, your contract will be extended for the remainder period of the project, which is in total 2 years.
In addition, we offer:

• 8% holiday allowance;
• a structural end-of year bonus of 8.3%;
• excellent training opportunities and secondary employment conditions;
• flexible working hours that we determine together in good consultation;
• excellent pension plan through ABP;
• 232 vacation hours, the option to purchase extra and good supplementary leave schemes, e.g. the possibility to work a maximum of 2 hours per week extra for extra leave;
• a flexible model to put together part of your employment conditions yourself, such as a bicycle plan;
• a lively workplace on the Wageningen Campus;
• make use of the sports facilities on campus for a small fee.

Wageningen University & Research stimulates internal career opportunities and mobility with our internal recruitment policy. There are ample opportunities for personal initiative in a learning environment. With us you get a versatile job in an international environment with a pleasant and open working atmosphere, with students and staff from over 100 countries around the world.

You are going to work at the greenest and most innovative campus in Holland, and at a university that has been chosen as the "Best University" in the Netherlands for the 15th consecutive time.

Wageningen University & Research

The mission of our University is to explore the potential of nature to improve the quality of life. Within Wageningen University & Research, nine specialised research institutes from the Wageningen Research Foundation and Wageningen University have joined forces to help answer the most important questions in the domain of healthy food and living environment.

With approximately 30 locations, 6.500 employees, and 12.000 students, it is one of the leading organisations in its domain worldwide. An integrated approach to problems and the cooperation between various disciplines are at the heart of the unique approach of Wageningen. We have been named Best Employer in Education category 2019-2020.

The Education and Learning Sciences (ELS) group aims to understand and facilitate the enhancement of human potential in response to global challenges, in particular, those in the domain of food and life sciences through research and education. Research focuses on learning trajectories, learning environments, learning processes and outcomes and relations between these elements.

Click here for more information about working at Wageningen University & Research. More information about Wageningen Campus you can find here.

We do the recruiting for this vacancy ourselves. Please do not contact us for sales purposes.