Learning for Action Instructor (Remote)

PART-TIME INSTRUCTORS 14-15 HOURS / WEEK on average (can vary; see details below)

• COMPENSATION: Competitive and based on experience & geography (see details below)

• DATES: Cohort launch is on March 4th– and runs for 12 weeks. Contract also includes paid training week prior to course launch. Additional start dates also available every ~6 weeks after March 4th, and candidates may be considered for a full-time role) 

• APPLICATIONS DUE: Applications are considered on a rolling basis, and we will reach out to you if we see an opportunity. 

Instructor Job Description

Terra.do, an online climate change school and community, is hiring instructors to teach Climate Change: Learning for Action, a fully online, part-time, global 12-week climate “bootcamp”. All course elements, including content, assignments, structure of lab sessions, and guest lectures are fully developed/organized. Fellows (i.e. the learners) are highly skilled professionals looking to switch into climate careers or apply a climate lens to their current work. The course is designed to be highly practical, interactive, collaborative and challenging.

Instructors can expect to put in 12-15 hours a week teaching and supporting a group of no more than 30 fellows. For the first cohort, this time commitment could be closer to 15-18  hours a week on average, as you will be absorbing the material for the first time. The course is repeated every ~6 weeks, and instructors, if interested, can stay on long-term teaching the same material, and potentially take on more groups in parallel (for additional compensation) or move into full-time positions.   

You can see the curriculum and complete our sample energy class via the course webpage. 

Responsibilities and expectations

Instructors will support all aspects of student learning including: 

• Helping fellows understand the materials, assisting fellows with assignments, providing feedback on assignments. Note that you do not need to build or create new content—the course content is fully developed already  

• Responding to all questions and maintaining active presence on the fellows workspace (we use Slack to respond to all fellows questions and post content related to course material)

• Facilitating cross-cohort community-building

• Conducting discussion-based “lab groups” once a week on Zoom

• Coordinating and sharing learning with other instructors

• Keeping close track of fellows progress and individualizing support based on detailed analytics and on your knowledge about the fellows in your class

• Meeting 1:1 with fellows for 20-30 min “office hours”

• Facilitating one additional 1-hour event over the course of the course and possibly more (for additional compensation at an hourly rate) small group discussions or “deep dives” on areas of personal expertise 

• Suggesting improvements and updates to all aspects of the course, including content, lab sessions, guest lectures, assignments, cohort interactions, community organization, etc

• Attending a 90-minute weekly instructors meeting, which occurs on Thursdays at 8am PT.

Required skills

• Experience and skills with online facilitation. 

• A master’s level degree in an interdisciplinary climate/environment program; Ph.D. students and graduates strongly encouraged to apply (or be a graduate of Terra.do’s Learning for Action program). Equivalent knowledge/work experience is also accepted in place of degree qualifications. We are particularly interested in candidates with experience/knowledge of climate finance, corporate sustainability, and/or nature-based solutions.  

• We are open to applicants with all types of climate experience and expertise. We are especially interested in applicants with demonstrable deep interest, skills and/or passion for climate-related activism, technology and innovation, applied science, energy, finance, risk, adaptation, land management and corporate climate action..

• Some teaching experience (e.g. TA work in a university setting or high school teaching) desired though not required.

• High level of comfort with quantitative aspects of simple climate modeling, statistics and basic energy analysis (we will ask for evidence of this—prior coursework or research/work experience will do. We may also test your knowledge at the interview.) We recommend reviewing our free energy class available on the Learning for Action course page.

• Global outlook essential, including a keen awareness of how climate-related issues vary by context and country. 

• 1 or more years of work experience (ideally related to climate change and sustainability) is preferred though not required—internships can count towards this.

• A capacity to be truly accepting, caring and supportive toward all learners, irrespective of their skills or backgrounds.

• Flexibility in your availability (within reason) and a capacity to respond to fellows requests or posts within 24 hours (except on weekends). This also means consistent access to high-speed internet while the course is running. 

How to submit your application

What to submit

If you are interested in applying, please email us the following: 

1. a CV/resume 

2. a short video responding to the following prompt: 

A group of fellows are struggling to understand how to think about the relative importance and potency of carbon dioxide vs. methane as greenhouse gases. Your goal is to help these fellows understand this better—imagine you are presenting to the group in your video. Feel free to use 1-2 slides (or any other tools) in your presentation if you think that helps. Limit your presentation to 5 minutes at most—the shorter the better. Just focus on the big take-aways. The 2 readings we assign to fellows to make sense of this question are in this twitter thread and this article. You should feel free to use other resources if you need. 

3. Tell us—in writing or in a short video (less than 400 words writing; 2-3 minutes for the video at most)—how you might respond to this hypothetical situation: An American fellow in your group expresses dissatisfaction with how slowly developing countries are reducing their emissions. This upsets an Indian fellow in your group who angrily points out that the U.S. has put up the most cumulative greenhouse emissions and now wants to stop other countries from developing their own economies. How would you mediate this conversation and help to resolve it? 

4. Also include name, position and contact information for 1 reference.

5. Include a link to your LinkedIn profile and/or personal website if you have one. 

Please do not attach large files to your email—rather, upload your videos to a Google Drive folder, Youtube, Vimeo or other such platform, and share the link with us in your email. Attaching smaller docs (pdfs or Word docs) to your email is fine, but here too you can choose to share a link to a Google or Notion doc if you prefer. Please double-check your sharing settings so we can open and view links easily. 

If you are already employed and intend to continue in that job, please make sure your employer allows you to take on external part-time work before you apply.  

Where to submit

Please email your submission to learning@terra.do. APPLICATIONS NOT EMAILED OR INCOMPLETE APPLICATIONS WILL NOT BE CONSIDERED