Research assistant at the Centre for Educational Development preparing for a fully funded PhD fellowship at Aarhus University

We seek a research assistant for a 9-month position, primarily focused on preparing for and, if possible, progressing into a fully funded 3-year PhD fellowship as part of the Novo Nordisk Fonden project titled Transforming University Science Education in the New Media Era: Practices, Technologies, and Disciplinary Thinking.

About the position as research assistant

Centre for Educational Development **(**CED) intends to contribute to the research-based development of university science education. We acknowledge that it can be difficult to start as a PhD fellow and succeed in this field without a longer start-up phase. In consequence, we offer a 9-month position as research assistant to allow time to work your way into the topic and fine-tune a PhD-project description, before potential enrolment at the PhD School of Natural Sciences at Aarhus University.

The expected PhD-project will be embedded in a work package that focuses on the design, implementation, and evaluation of AI and immersive virtual/augmented/extended (VR/AR/XR) environments to support learning of scientific concepts and practices at the university-level. The main aim of this work package is to investigate how such cutting-edge educational technology spaces can foster embodied and epistemic engagement with scientific practices – helping students not only understand complex concepts and procedures in the short term, but also develop deeper, longer-term epistemic capacities through hands-on, situated experiences. Central to the project is the integration of these technologies into real classroom and laboratory settings, ensuring contextual relevance and pedagogical effectiveness. As a PhD student, you will play a leading role in shaping and conducting this research, from co-designing GenAI or XR environments with instructors and students to analysing multimodal learning data (e.g., individual as well as collaborative verbal interactions, student gestures, task and activity sequences) and evaluating long-term learning outcomes. As part of the interdisciplinary Novo Nordisk Fonden national project housed at CED, you will work in collaboration with other PhD students and a postdoc, and will have ample opportunities to interact with a large network of researchers at Danish and international universities.

Main supervisor is Associate Professor Prajakt Pande.

About your responsibilities as a research assistant at CED

Your primary tasks during the 9-month-position as a research assistant are:

Research (60%)

• Prepare for a potential enrolment at the PhD School of Natural Sciences (NAT) at Aarhus University in collaboration with your main supervisor, including writing a project proposal and qualifying activities
• Contribute to your main supervisor’s current research
• Design, collect data, and contribute to analyses of a smaller pilot study pre-PhD.

Development, teaching, and operation (40%)

• Contribute to our extensive portfolio of tasks linked to the ongoing digital transformation of the degree programs at Aarhus University, especially but not exclusively related to AI, https://digitalcurriculum.au.dk in collaboration with colleagues from CED and NAT
• Join as a co-teacher in a few of the departments’ workshops and teaching activities
• Administration and meetings.

In addition, to a lesser extent, you can participate in other tasks in the centre by specific agreement if your time schedule permits.

About your qualifications and competence

You have

• Completed an academic degree at the candidate or master level in a STEM discipline (e. g., Chemistry, Biology, Physics, Computer Science, Human-Computer Interaction, IT Product Development) or alternatively a master level in Educational Sciences, Learning Sciences, Psychology or Cognitive Science with a clear natural science perspective/interest
• A strong interest in STEM education, disciplinary practices, and technology-enhanced learning.

It is an advantage if you have one or more of the below

• A solid foundation in understanding learning processes from a cognitive, embodied, and/or epistemic perspective
• Familiarity with design-based, quantitative, qualitative, or mixed-methods educational research
• A solid foundation in digital research and/or learning technologies, experience working with or researching AI and VR tools in educational or scientific contexts
• Published an academic text in the form of a paper, report, or book chapter
• Experience in teaching (preferably in science, science communication, or higher education)
• Experience with developing immersive technologies (e.g., XR/VR/AR) and/or doing multimodal data analysis (e.g., eye-tracking, gesture tracking, interaction analysis).

You can

• Write academically in English
• Contribute to complex development projects that include technologies and digitalisation at university level.
• Communicate research ideas clearly to interdisciplinary and non-specialist audiences
• Collaborate across disciplinary boundaries with students, instructors, developers, and fellow researchers

About the Centre for Educational Development (CED) at Aarhus University (AU)

CED is the educational development and teaching-learning centre at AU.

The mission of CED is to inspire engaging teaching and excellent educations at Aarhus University.

We offer all faculties, staff, and educational leaders at AU courses and workshops, practical partnership, and collaboration about their students, their teaching, their curricula and programs, to foster and assist the implementation of research-based educational development. We also run, support, develop, and inspire the use of learning technologies at AU.

CED employs about 60 colleagues organized into three departments specialized in digital development, teaching development, and program development, respectively, plus a small administration. We have a good collegial atmosphere characterized by a high degree of collaboration and continuous professional development. We value inquiry, co-creation, empowerment, and expertise.

The research group at CED works within and across the three departments. The group comprises five associate professors, four assistant professors, two postdocs, and five PhD-students. The group focus on high-quality applied research. The current topics of interest in the group include student learning, transitions and career, teacher development and educational leadership, health sciences and natural sciences education research, digitalization and learning technology in higher education. We come from a wide range of research methods and theoretical frameworks.

For a more detailed description of CED, please, visit our website.

Conditions and place of employment

The position is full-time (37 hours per week) and limited to 9 months after employment.

By mutual agreement, the position can result in a 3-year fully funded PhD scholarship from CED, subject to enrolment.

Expected start date is 1 January 2027 or as soon as possible thereafter.

Further information on the appointment procedure can be found in the Ministerial Order on the Appointment of Academic Staff at Universities.

The appointment is in accordance with the Danish Confederation of Professional Associations (Akademikerne).

Further information on qualification requirements and job description can be found in the Ministerial Order on Job Structure for Academic Staff at Universities.

The successful applicant will refer to the department manager of Program Development at CED. The Centre director lead the research group across the three departments.

Place of employment is Trøjborgvej 82-84, 8000 Aarhus C, Denmark.

The hiring process

In connection with your motivated written application, you must attach the following:

• CV
• Documentation for your candidate or master’s degree
• Example of a published academic text with you as (co-)author, or your candidate/master thesis in Danish or English
• Description of your experiences with teaching, innovation, or development projects.

Applications must be made in English.

We use shortlisting in the hiring process. In the shortlisting process, the centre lead, the department lead and the scientific assessor exclude applicants that are far from matching the described position.

After the shortlisting process, the scientific assessor gives a written summary concerning each of the shortlisted applicants. Based on these summaries of qualifications, an employment committee of future colleagues and the department lead invite the best applicants for an interview.

Interviews are expected to take place in November 2026.

Aarhus University’s ambition is to be an attractive and inspiring workplace for all and to foster a culture in which each individual has opportunities to thrive, achieve and develop. We view equality and diversity as assets, and we welcome all applicants.

The application must be submitted via Aarhus University’s recruitment system, which can be accessed under the job advertisement on Aarhus University's website.