Job Description

The National Institute of Education invites suitable applications for the position of Research Fellow on a 20-month contract at the Psychology, Child and Human Development Department

Project Title: Evaluating the impact of AI-XR Role Play Simulations on Developing Parent-Teacher Communicative Competence in Preservice teachers: A mixed-method study.

Project Introduction:

We are seeking a Research Fellow to support the development, implementation, and research evaluation of an AI-powered roleplay system for education. The system will be used for simulated conversations and training in areas such as communication skills, conversation crafting and practice, classroom interactions, and professional roleplay scenarios, with deployment across web and VR platforms. The Research Fellow will contribute to AI interaction design, technical development, and research. The role involves coordinating system implementation with developers, designing and refining AI-driven roleplay workflows, conducting classroom-based research, analysing user and learning data, and producing academic and grant-related outputs.

Requirements:

Essential

• PhD in Education, Learning Sciences, Educational Technology, Human-Computer Interaction, Computer Science, or a related field.
• Experience in AI in education, educational technology, immersive learning, simulation-based learning, or interactive learning systems.
• Strong research skills, including study design, data collection, quantitative and/or qualitative analysis, and academic writing.
• Experience working on technology-based education projects, preferably involving AI, VR, AR, web-based learning, or interactive systems.
• Ability to work across multidisciplinary teams involving researchers, developers, educators, and project stakeholders.
• Strong communication, coordination, and project management skills.
• Ability to work independently, manage multiple workstreams, and deliver research and project outputs within timelines.

Preferred

• Familiarity with LLM-based systems, conversational AI, prompt design, or AI-driven feedback systems.
• Experience with human-AI interaction, roleplay environments, virtual simulations, or communication training.
• Exposure to VR, AR, or web-based application development workflows, not necessarily as a software developer.
• Experience developing learning scenarios, rubrics, feedback frameworks, or evaluation instruments.
• Experience with classroom-based research, user studies, interviews, surveys, system log analysis, or mixed-methods research.
• Experience contributing to grant reports, academic publications, and dissemination activities.

Responsibilities:

• Support the implementation, testing, and deployment of the AI roleplay system across web and VR platforms, in collaboration with developers and technical team members.
• Design and refine AI-driven roleplay workflows, including scenario structure, conversational flow, feedback mechanisms, user experience, and pedagogical alignment.
• Translate educational and research requirements into clear specifications for system development.
• Develop roleplay scenarios, prompts, rubrics, feedback criteria, and user-facing learning materials.
• Plan and conduct research studies, including survey design, interview protocols, classroom-based data collection, and analysis of system logs.
• Conduct quantitative and qualitative data analysis to evaluate learning outcomes, user experience, engagement, and system effectiveness.
• Prepare ethics/IRB materials, research protocols, consent forms, and study documentation where required.
• Write and contribute to academic publications, conference papers, reports, presentations, and grant deliverables.
• Coordinate with faculty, project officers, developers, students, and collaborators to ensure alignment between pedagogy, system design, research goals, and implementation timelines.
• Support project management activities, including meeting coordination, documentation, progress tracking, and reporting.
• Any other administrative duties as assigned by Principal Investigator.

Application

Applicants (external and internal) will apply via Workday. We regret that only shortlisted candidates will be notified.

Closing Date

Closing date for advertisements will be set to 14 calendar days from date of posting.

Hiring Institution: NIE