Seb Schmoller: online learning consultant and e-learning consultancy

Curriculum Vitae

I divide my time between independent consulting, and part-time employment as the Chief Executive of ALT - the Association for Learning Technology, a UK professional and scholarly association. Past clients include BSI, ESRC, JISC, Local Authorities, PA Consulting, the Trades Union Congress, and the National College for School Leadership.

What I am good at

I am effective at:

getting online learning projects to happen;
finding innovative, pragmatic, and cost-effective solutions;
articulating educational and functional requirements to technical staff, and technical constraints to non-technical people;
facilitating complex discussions, and causing teams to gel and to make progress; negotiating;
using the Internet to support and enable collaborative projects;
project management, using both formal and informal methodologies;
researching and writing reports, submissions, bids, tenders, expressions of interest etc;
judging the real capabilities of suppliers, especially in relation to usability and accessibility;
writing policy consultation responses.

Qualifications [back to top]

I have a degree in Economics from Cambridge University, a Post-Graduate Certificate in Education from Leeds University, a Post-Graduate Certificate in Chemical Pollution Monitoring from Sheffield City Polytechnic, and an MBA (Education) from Keele University. I am a Fellow of the Institute for Learning. I am a certified Microsoft Office Specialist (Microsoft Excel 2000 Expert), and to keep my eye in I completed the JEB Certificate of Competence in the Educational Use of IT. Since 2007 I have been a Certified Member of ALT.

Things I have done [back to top]

Consultancy

Clients since September 2002 include the British Standards Institution, Becta, BDP Learning, CIPD, Doncaster Metropolitan Borough Council, ESRC, JISC, NATFHE, National Centre for Excellence in the Teaching of Mathematics, National College for School Leadership, North West RDA, PA Consulting, RM plc, Sheffield City Council, the Trades Union Congress, Ufi Ltd, University of Glasgow, Yorkshire Forward. Typically I deliver such projects in collaboration with others, most frequently with David Jennings. Others partners have included Sero Consulting, Knowledge Integration, Gooii, Nicky Ferguson, Education Impact. Sometimes I sub-contract, sometimes I am sub-contracted: in practice this makes little difference because roles are defined independently of contractual formalities.

Management

During 6 years as The Sheffield College's Learning Technology Development Manager, I worked with colleagues and partners to get a number of successful initiatives off the ground, including LeTTOL, GCSE English Online, and online content development projects for Ufi Ltd.

Committees

Until leaving the Sheffield College in 2002 I was a member of the:

JISC Committee for Content Services;
Standards Review Panel which drew up the Institute of IT Training's Competencies for Developers of e-Learning Materials.

During 2003 and 2004 I was a member of the Working Group set up by the Quality Assurance Agency for Higher Education to revise QAA's Code of practice for the assurance of academic quality and standards in higher education, Section 2: Collaborative provision, flexible and distributed learning (including e-learning). Until the committee's disbandment in early 2011 I represented ALT on the JISC Committee for Learning and Teaching.

I am currently a member of the:

ESRC Peer Review College, as a Non-Academic Reviewer;
Governing Body of The Sheffield College (from September 2008 for a four-year initial term - I was elected as one of two vice-chairs in 2011);
Editorial Board of the Journal for Further and Higher Education;
Advisory Group for TEL-TLRP, a £12m research initiative about technology enhanced learning funded by the Economic and Social Research Council and the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (UK);
National Consultative Board for VITAL, a national staff development initiative about technology in teaching and learning in the (English) schools sector.

TUC Education

In a previous Sheffield College role I played a major part in the development of the TUC's courses for health and safety representatives. Stemming from this I was for several years a TUC-nominated member of the Standing Committee on Hazard Information and Packaging, a subcommittee of the Advisory Committee on Toxic Substances.

Representation

During most of my employment with The Sheffield College, I was a senior and influential officer within NATFHE, the trade union and professional association which represents academic staff in colleges, and which merged with the Association of University Teachers to form UCU in 2006.

How I see the world [back to top]

Some of my views about e-learning are summarised:

in this July 2007 piece by Tom Robinson in the US Greentree Gazette [112 kB PDF file];
in this November 2007 interview with Lisa Neal, Editor-in-Chief, of eLearn Magazine;
in this November 2011 article in ALT News Online Stanford's mass free online computer science courses.

I publish Fortnightly Mailing, an opt-in web-based newsletter and web log with over 530 subscribers. Fortnightly Mailing summarises resources and news I come across in the course of my work which I think will be of value to others with an interest in online learning and the internet.

I am keen Nordic skier. Pictures from Jotunheimen, 2003, Rondane, 2004, Jotunheimen, 2005, Tafjordfella, 2006, Jotunheimen/Breheimen, 2007, Vang and Hardangervidda, 2008, Vang/Jotunheimen/Breheimen, 2009, Jotunheimen, 2011.

Since 2007 I have very slowly been learning to play (some of) the Goldberg Variations.