About the Role

The Social Work Program and MRU Library are seeking an undergraduate Student Assistant to support the development of a new Open Educational Resource (OER) for Social Work students. The OER will provide foundational learning resources to support students transitioning into first-year undergraduate education focusing on academic research, writing, information literacy, research methods, and critical engagement with knowledge.

Working closely with the project leads, the Project Assistant will contribute to the development, organization, design, and production of the OER throughout the 2026–27 academic year. This is an excellent opportunity for a student interested in social work education, research, academic communication, digital learning, instructional design, or open education to gain practical experience contributing to a university-wide educational resource.

The Project Assistant will work up to 140 hours across the academic year, from Fall 2026 to Spring 2027. Hours worked per week will vary, and can be scheduled around the Assistant's class schedule. 

Responsibilities

The Student Assistant will contribute to the following areas:

1. Needs Assessment and Student Engagement

• Support engagement with student groups to identify student learning needs.
• Assist with organizing and documenting feedback.

2. Literature Review and Research Support

• Conduct targeted literature searches related to undergraduate research literacy, academic writing, information literacy, and learning resource development.
• Locate and summarize relevant scholarly literature to inform OER content.
• Assist with identifying evidence-informed teaching and learning practices.
• Maintain organized research notes, references, and resource lists.

3. OER and Textbook Resource Curation 

• Review existing OERs, academic skills textbooks, and related educational resources.
• Identify effective models, activities, examples, and approaches that may inform the new resource.
• Assist in evaluating resources for relevance, accessibility, disciplinary fit, and usefulness to Social Work students.
• Support the development of curated resource lists and references.

4. Information Design, Media Editing, and Content Organization

• Assist with organizing written and multimedia content into clear, accessible, student-friendly learning sequences.
• Assist with the development and editing of instructional media, including video and other digital learning materials.
• Assist with captioning, accessibility features, and basic media editing.
• Contribute to the visual and organizational design of learning materials.
• Work with project leads and media production support to prepare materials for publication.

5. OER Development and Content Design

• Assist with formatting and building OER content within the Pressbooks publishing platform.
• Support the organization of chapters, headings, activities, multimedia, references, and other learning components.
• Help identify and address formatting, navigation, and accessibility issues.

6. Conference Preparation and Knowledge Sharing

• Assist with preparing project materials for presentation and knowledge sharing.
• Support the development of posters, presentation materials, or other dissemination materials.
• Attend and participate in a conference or scholarly teaching and learning event, as appropriate.

Qualifications

• Currently enrolled as an undergraduate student at Mount Royal University.
• Demonstrate strong written communication skills, organization, and attention to detail.
• Have an interest in social work, education, research, academic learning, or student success.
• Demonstrate strong information and digital literacy skills.
• Be familiar with locating, evaluating, organizing, and synthesizing information from academic and educational sources.
• Have an ability to work independently while communicating effectively with faculty and project team members.
• Demonstrate reliability, initiative, and willingness to learn new digital tools and platforms.
• Be comfortable creating, organizing, and managing  documents, online resources, and digital media.

The following are considered assets but are not required:

• Experience with academic research and/or literature searching.
• Experience with OER or educational resource development.
• Experience with video editing, captioning, graphic design, or other media production.
• Experience with Pressbooks, WordPress, or other content management/publishing platforms.
• Experience with accessibility principles or accessible digital content.
• Experience developing presentations, posters, or other knowledge-sharing materials

Salary: $15.45 - $19.44 per hour 

Closing Date: Friday, October 9, 2026

A cover letter and resume should be submitted in one .pdf document. Please title your .pdf document as follows: [Last Name]_[Requisition Number]_[Document Title].pdf (ex. Smith_1234_CV.pdf).