**Position Title: Course Developer – Title III – REL-XXXe
** # of Positions to Fill: 1
Department/Program: Academic Affairs 41000
Work Location Authorization: 100% Remote
Campus Location: Arapahoe Campus
Reports to: Mary McHenry – Coordinator, Undergraduate Educational
Technology & Online Learning
FLSA Classification: Exempt/Salaried
FTE: 25% (10 hrs/week)
Compensation: $5,000 stipend for FA25 Development Cycle
Application deadline: 12/18 or until filled
Job Summary
Through Naropa University’s Title III Grant project: Leveraging Educational Technology for Student Success, the Online BA Program seeks an experienced curriculum/content developer to design an online version of the undergraduate-level, three-credit online course REL-XXXe Religion and Psychedelics during the Fall 2025 course development cycle. This cycle begins on January 20, 2025, with weekly onboarding workshops (these will be recorded) and active course development. The cycle ends in May 2025 before the course will be published in Canvas, Naropa’s Learning Management System, and made available for Fall 2026 instruction. The Title III team and a designated Ellucian Learning Experience Designer will support the course developer through the development process via ongoing training, strategic and technical assistance, and more. The Course Developer will meet incremental deadlines to ensure timely completion of this course. Total compensation for this work will be $5,000, paid in monthly installments until the course is fully developed, January – May 2025 This position will report to the Title III Coordinator of Educational Technology and Online Learning with a dotted line to the Chair of Wisdom Traditions.
**REL-XXXe: Religion and Psychedelics:
** This course looks to the complex of relationships that has historically emerged between religious traditions and psychoactive substances classified as “psychedelic.” We will survey numerous ways in which religious traditions interpreted, ritually assimilated, and envisioned the nature and use of these substances. A key element of this course will be the study of premodern religious communities that worked with psychedelic sacraments, including Indigenous traditions, the Greek mysteries, early Christianity, and Western Esotericism. In each case we will consider how these communities embraced—ethically, metaphysically, and in practice—psychedelic forms of worship and communion, and contrast this with colonial and post-colonial engagements with these substances, particularly the experimental explorations of European romantics, modern perennialists, and various counter- cultural movements. Throughout, attention will be paid to the myriad values attributed to these substances and the mental states they produce, and how that value is inextricably bound up with ritual structures, lineages of authority, and conceptual presuppositions about mind, human life, and human flourishing.
**Intellectual property rights in academic work are as follows:
** • For online course development that is part of Naropa’s curriculum, copyright in the content is granted to the faculty member(s) with a non-exclusive license for future use of the material granted to Naropa. This means that both the faculty and Naropa will have rights to use, amend, and/or modify the content in perpetuity. Compensation in the form of a stipend payable for this course development is outlined below.
**Job Duties & Responsibilities
**• Create an asynchronous online course development plan with a maximum of eight-modules;
• Generate (in conjunction with Ellucian Learning Experience Designers and the Title III Coordinator of Undergraduate Educational Technology and Online Learning) online content, including recorded lectures, practice sessions, and experiential learning activities; textual material; assignments; and assessment rubrics; and
• Create the online course with support of Ellucian Learning Experience Designers and the Title III Coordinator of Undergraduate Educational Technology and Online Learning, including the implementation of ADA-compliant readings, study guides, threaded discussions, quizzes, links to web resources, as appropriate with the course.
• Work with the Ellucian and Naropa College instructional design team and develop an asynchronous
online course to be taught in Canvas, Naropa’s Learning Management System.
• Incorporate established best practices and follow essential procedures to design a quality online course.
• Create and maintain a positive team environment and behave professionally with everyone encountered in the course and scope of the job duties.
**What Naropa Requirea:
** • This course requires MA or PhD (preferred) in Religious Studies, Anthropology, or other related fields relevant to the History of Religions and Postcolonial Theory.
• 2 years of teaching experience.
• Experience developing online learning experiences and/or teaching online
• An understanding of or experience with contemplative pedagogy
• All job candidates must hold a commitment to co-create a diverse and inclusive community and actively participate in related JEDI (Justice, Equity, Diversity & Inclusion) professional development regarding the dynamics of privilege and oppression and the impact these have in the workplace.
• All job candidates must demonstrate their level of understanding of the dynamics of privilege and oppression, and the impact these have on equity, access, and opportunity.
• All job candidates must demonstrate an appropriate level of understanding of and appreciation for the values of Naropa University and the capacity to demonstrate an integration and embodiment of these values as evidenced in work, communication, collaboration styles, and other general workplace behaviors.
**What We’d Like You to Have:
** • Familiarity with various healing modalities
**Physical Requirements & Environmental Conditions:
**Faculty members spend most of their time in their classrooms or in virtual meetings with some time in offices. In the classrooms and on campus may experience: interruptions, distractions, heat, cold, dust and/or dampness. As a faculty member, you may spend extended periods in front of students and speaking as well as:
• Reading academic texts and materials, student papers, etc.
• Operating personal computer and audio-visual equipment.
• Standing or sitting for hours at a time.
• Moving around campus for classes and meetings.
Naropa recognizes the following holidays throughout the year:
-Martin Luther King, Jr. Day
-Memorial Day
-Juneteenth
-Independence Day
-Labor Day
-Fall Break, 4th Thursday and Friday in November
-Winter Break, the last two weeks in December encompassing the Christmas holiday as well as New Year’s
Naropa’s health and welfare benefits include the following: medical, dental, vision, FSA, HSA, employer-paid short-term and long-term disability, employer-paid life insurance and accidental death and dismemberment, an employer-sponsored pre-tax retirement savings plan, which includes up to 2.5% employer matching, and a variety of voluntary, employee-paid supplemental insurance plans.
A comprehensive benefits package is available to full-time employees who work a minimum of 30 hours each week. Employees who work 20 – 29 hours each week are eligible for only the employer-paid short-term & long-term disability, employer-paid life insurance & accidental death and dismemberment, and the retirement plan, which includes up to 2.5% employer matching.
Employees who work fewer than 20 hours per week are eligible to participate in Naropa’s retirement plan only, which includes up to 2.5% employer matching.
All regular full-time and part-time faculty and staff, including student workers, accrue sick leave benefits. Full-time and part-time staff positions accrue vacation and personal time. All leave accrual rates vary based on the position, hours worked, and years of service.
The University recognizes the importance of including its employees in its organizational mission and values and welcomes employees into the classroom to “touch the magic.” Specifically, regular employees are provided generous tuition remission opportunities for themselves and their family members.
Naropa University participates in the Council of Independent Colleges Tuition Exchange Program (CIC-TEP). CIC-TEP is a network of CIC colleges and universities willing to accept, tuition-free, students from families of full-time employees of other CIC participating institutions (full-time as designated by the employer/institution). Additional information can be found here: https://www.cic.edu/member-services/tuition-exchange-program. Naropa University’s commitment to diversity aligns with its highest aspirations to apply contemplative inquiry and education to explore and embody the human qualities that facilitate collaboration to create a common humanity and a just society. Individuals who have experience with and a commitment to inclusive communities are encouraged to apply. EOE
Title IX is a federal civil rights law that prohibits gender discrimination, sexual harassment, sexual and relationship violence. This law applies to all students, faculty, and staff.