2011 - Robert Sherratt - University of Hull

Biography

I have worked in higher education for seventeen years in three institutions and a wide range of jobs. I have been at the University of Hull for the last twelve years and my current role is Head of Student Experience working for Library and Learning Innovation. This is a departure from previous roles working in IT, moving away from responsibility for specifying and implementing the technology required to provide solutions to working with the users of the systems, particularly students and faculty, on what solutions should offer.

I graduated from university with a BA in Geography and a Masters in Information Systems. My career started at a small engineering company in Leicestershire where, as the only IT person, I did everything from fixing printers to writing new database systems.

I began to work in higher education in 1994. I spent four years working at the University of Leicester both as a software developer and a manager of development. This project created new software, working in collaboration with academic staff to produce learning and teaching materials used by universities in the UK. This was followed by a year at Loughborough University looking at online assessment systems, where I had my first professional experience of working with Web-based systems.

By June 1999 I had taken up the post of Intranet Development Officer at the University of Hull. I began work on the existing intranet gaining significant experience and understanding of how large-scale web systems worked, including a large amount of programming using Perl. In 2001 Hull became interested in portals and I visited my first Jasig conference at La Jolla. Over the next few years I focused on two projects: the first developing a web content management system in Java for the university; the second implementing a portal for Hull using uPortal, the first implementation in the UK in 2003. Hull continues to use uPortal (as well as CAS) today.

Following on from this work, I was the Project Manager for the implementation of Sakai at Hull. This was a significant, large-scale project over two years. The project delivered the transition from two existing systems (Blackboard and a home grown system) to a single institutional instance of Sakai. This required working with staff, faculty and students across the campus. Since late 2009 when the Sakai project was successfully completed I have worked in senior roles in IT and my current role in Library and Learning Innovation.

I have a professional interest in how consultancy and coaching can inform management and leadership and have studied courses for qualifications in both. In addition to my work responsibilities I am also a governor at my children’s high school and have taken on managing and training my son’s football team.

As a member of the Jasig Board for the last three years I have contributed to the ongoing work of the Board to review the future of our organization. This has included representation of Jasig on the two groups created to further the merger with the Sakai community. For the last year I have been Vice Chair of the Board. I have also been acting as the Board liaison for the uMobile project helping lead the project through its successful Phase 1 and onwards to the just started Phase 2.

Platform Statement

When nominated to stand for the Board three years ago I started my platform statement by stating that ‘Jasig has provided leadership to a wide and diverse community not just in terms of technology but also how to share and collaborate, and it is on these foundations that we must continue to build’. I still believe this to be true.

My previous statement also said that ‘forming of stronger relationships and alliances across a number of higher education specific communities is a critical requirement for the future.’ As we are now seeing with the intended merger between Jasig and Sakai, this is a vision shared by many others and is a significant part of a roadmap for the future of ours and other like-minded communities.

It is this continuation of leadership through collaboration within our existing community and across aligned communities that ensures that Jasig and our products and projects continue to be relevant and provide a platform for innovation in higher education. I seek re-election to continue to contribute to this work.

Since attending my first Jasig conference in 2001, my experience and abilities in leading teams both within and outside an institutional context, including extensive work with cross-institutional groups, has been enhanced by my time on the Board, most recently as Vice Chair. I have particularly enjoyed the experience of chairing the uMobile Working Group through Phase 1 of the project.