Clients of Seb Schmoller: online learning consultant and elearning consultancy

Previous clients

Most of my clients since September 2002, listed in alphabetical order, are shown below. Clients since January 2011 are highlighted. (Note that occasionally clients do not wish to be listed publicly; also - 23/2/2023 - that some of the links below are "elderly" and thus now broken: I am working on fixing this.)

AlphaPlus Consultancy. In May 2013 I ran a "Delphi" consultation process for AlphaPlus as part of a strand of its work for the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills on the Quantitative Programme of Research for Adult English and Mathematics. During 2014 and 2015 I provided occasional advice to AlphaPlus on aspects of the programme.

British Standards Institution (BSI)

In October 2002, with David Jennings, following a competitive tender, I was commissioned by BSI to prepare the Draft for Public Comment of BS8426 - A code of practice for e-support in e-learning systems. We completed the work during February 2003, and the Code of Practice was published by BSI in September 2003. 8-page handout about the practical application of BS8426 [150 kB PDF].
In June 2003, with David Jennings, Gill Osguthorpe, Neil Smith and Ian Ibbotson, following a competitive tender, I was commissioned by BSI to prepare the Draft for Public Comment of Parts 1 and 2 of BS8419 - Interoperability between Metadata Systems used for Learning, Education, and Training. We completed this work in December 2003, and the two parts of BS8419 - Part 1: Code of practice for the development of application profiles, and Part 2: Code of practice for the development of interoperability between application profiles - were published by BSI in February 2005.
In January 2004, following a competitive tender submitted with Simon Grant, Bill Olivier, Peter Rees-Jones and Scott Wilson of CETIS, and David Jennings, Gill Osguthorpe, Neil Smith and Rob Tice, I was commissioned by BSI to prepare the Draft for Public Comment of Parts 1 to 3 of BS 8788 - UK Lifelong Learner Profile, "UKLeaP". We completed this work in June 2004, and the drafts for public comment of the three Parts of the standard were issued by BSI towards the end of 2004. BSI finally published the standard as Draft for Development DD8788:2006 Parts 1 to 3 - UK lifelong learner information profile (UKLeaP). Representation and terminology in implementing the UK Lifelong Learner Information Profile.
During summer 2007 I worked as part of a team led by Schemeta on a Standards Scoping Study for BSI.

BDP Learning. During 2007 and early 2008 I was a member of an internal Quality Assurance panel supporting the production by BDP, Illumina Digital, and Software Logistics, of learning materials for Phases 3 and 4 of the National Teaching and Learning Change Programme. I also advised BDP variously about different aspects of e-learning and the use of ICT to support learning and teaching.

Becta. During 2002 I advised on the structure and aspects of the content of the Further Education Resources for Learning website. During Q1 2007 I was a member of a team led by Knowledge Integration Ltd that produced for Becta a "Comparative Review of Federated Resource Discovery Systems". During Q1 2008 the same team produced for Becta some good practice guidelines for repository owners.

Centre for Research Communications. During Q2/3 2011, with Nicky Ferguson and David Jennings I produced a report on the attitudes of chemists and economists to Open Access publishing.

Citizen Maths. From 2013, for Calderdale College, I led the development and running of Citizen Maths, an open online course for self-motivated adults who want to improve their grasp of maths at Level 2. Its development was originally funded by the Ufi Charitable Trust. By October 2019 over 30,000 people had signed up for Citizen Maths. I played no substantial part in Citizen Maths from January 2018, and the service was run as a Jisc service until late in 2019.

University of Glasgow on a DfES Scoping Study on the impact of e-learning on learner participation, retention, progression and attainment in Further Education. During Autumn 2004 DfES issued a summary of the scoping study [150 kB PDF].

DfES. Work between Q4 2003 and Q2 2004 as part of a team led by the University of Glasgow on a DfES Scoping Study on the impact of e-learning on learner participation, retention, progression and attainment in Further Education. During Autumn 2004 DfES issued a summary of the scoping study [150 kB PDF].

Doncaster Metropolitan Borough Council. In January 2007, in partnership with Sero Consulting Ltd, I won a contract to produce formative and summative evaluations of the Doncaster Family e-Learning Programme. The first of these evaluations was delivered in Q3 2007. The second was delivered in Q2 2008.

Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC). In August 2005, with Nicky Ferguson I won a competitive tender to produce a Review of the information environment for the social sciences. We completed this work in January 2006. The report [PDF] was made public in January 2013.

Education Impact. Between December 2010 and March 2011, with Richard Moore, I worked as an Education Impact Associate for MITA (the Government of Malta's information technology agency) on a best practice study about incentive schemes for the improvement of ICT skills in the population.

Epigeum. Between Q2 2013 and Q1 2014, I am worked for Epigeum as a reviewer for Teaching Online, a course that Epigeum published in early 2014.

House of Commons. In February 2014, with Dick Moore and David Jennings, I won a competitive tender with Parliament's Public Information and Outreach Service (PIO) to do a feasibility study on online learning options for PIO. We completed the work at the end of April 2014.

Futurate Ltd. Advising Futurate on the usability and design of a client's intranet site.

Jisc

In February 2004, with Neil Smith of Knowledge Integration Ltd, and Nicky Ferguson, I won a competitive tender to do a preliminary investigation and foundation study of personalisation technologies for use in the JISC Information Environment. We completed this work in July 2004. Review the HTML version of the study. In May 2006, JISC commissioned us to design and facilitate an invitation workshop to consider how to take forward relevant recommendations from the original study, generate ideas for new projects, and inform JISC's 2006 "User Environments" Programme call. We delivered Personalisation in presentation services - a follow-up report for JISC at the beginning of October.
In April 2006, in a small consortium led by Nicky Ferguson we won a competitive tender to do a strategic review of JISC's core resource discovery services (Archives Hub, COPAC, SUNCAT, and Zetoc). The final report from this work was delivered on 20 September 2006.
During Q2 and Q3 2007, in a small consortium led by Nicky Ferguson we won a competitive tender to produce Sharing eLearning Content.
During 2008, in a small consortium led by Nicky Ferguson we won a competitive tender to produce a Feasibility study for JISC into approaches to improve the consistency with which repositories share material - [1.2 MB PDF].
During Q1 2012, I was involved in a small consortium led by Knowledge Integration developing a Course data aggregator for JISC.
During Q2/Q3 2012, I was involved in a project led by Clax Ltd to undertake a sector validation of the recommendations of the JISC Researcher Identifier Task and Finish Group for JISC. We finished the report in July 2012 and it was made public in January 2013 [PDF].

Loughborough University. During 2013, with David Kay and Dick Moore I was commissioned by Loughborough University to carry out a market analysis report for the university's Centre for Engineering and Design Education assessing the commercial potential of Loughborough's Co-Tutor software system, and outlining possible routes to market.

North West Node. With David Jennings of DJ Alchemi Ltd, and David Kay (then) of FD Learning Ltd, I produced, during Q2 and Q3 2003, a North West E-learning Strategy and Action Plan, under a contract with the North West Regional Assembly.

National College of School Leadership. In Q4 2007, with David Jennings I was commissioned by NCSL to produce a report for the college on how the College could make use of social software technologies in its range of support for professional development. We delivered the report in March 2008.

PA Consulting Group. In July 2005, with David Kay of Sero Consulting and David Jennings, I won a competitive tender with PA to write two reports about corporate e-learning for Learning Light, a not-for-profit Sheffield start-up company with a remit to help grow the UK e-learning market. We completed these reports in October 2005. One of them, E-learning and The 21st Century Citizen, is available from my web site [0.4 MB PDF].

RM plc. Contributing to RM's successful bid to do the ~£38m main roll-out of the South Yorkshire e-Learning Programme, and, from May 2003, working for RM on aspects of the main roll-out.

Sero Consulting Ltd. Work, during Q1 and Q2 2007, using a version of Stephen Marshall's eMM model, on the production for the Scottish Funding Council, of a "Baseline Study of the e-Readiness of Scotland's Colleges". Work, between 2008 and 2010 on Becta's annual survey of FE "e-readiness", and on an international benchmarking study of practitioner ICT capability in further education.

Sheffield City Council. In July 2007, in partnership with Sero Consulting Ltd, I won a contract to produce a evaluation of the Sheffield Family e-Learning Project. We completed this in December 2007.

STEM Learning. Work between Q4 2012 and Q1 2013 with David Jennings, David Read, Jonathan Drori and Dominic Tinley to help STEM Learning revise and develop its online strategy. Subseqently, with David Jennings, I have been working with STEM Learning on the development of several open online courses. These now form FutureLearn's Stem Teaching Programme.

The Association for Learning Technology (ALT). Working between July 2012 and February 2013, with Nicky Ferguson, David Jennings and Caroline Sutton to produce support resources to help learned societies and other stakeholders in the transition to Gold Open Access.

Trades Union Congress

Between Q4 2002 and Q3 2003 I managed a project to help the TUC develop an Online Learning Strategy.
From Q4 2003 onwards I provided the TUC with occasional advice on various aspects of the implementation of the strategy, as well as working on several other projects relating to e-learning. One of these projects was to write, with David Jennings, "E-Learning in the Workplace - A Union Negotiation and Implementation Guide". The Guide was published in March 2005 and is available for download from the TUC web site [0.5 MB PDF]. Another is TRACE, a large-scale project, using e-learning, which aims to improve capacity within European trade unions to deal with economic restructuring.
In Q4 2006 I was commissioned by the TUC to advise it on how to develop a "knowledge information system" to support the work of unionlearn. During Q4 2007, with Doug Gowan of the Open Learning Partnership and David Jennings I undertook a follow-up project focused on the practical implemention of knowledge management within unionlearn.

Ufi Charitable Trust

Work during Q1 and Q2 2012 to report to the Trust on priorities for interventions by the Trust and others through learning technologies in adult learning and employability in the UK, with Adrian Perry OBE, Clive Shepherd, and Dick Moore. Announcement. The report Scaling up: Achieving a breakthrough in adult learning with technology was published on 23 May 2012.
Work from Q3 2013 leading a three year project, Citizen Maths, to develop and open online Level 2 maths course, for a consortium headed by Calderdale College.

Ufi Ltd. Work during Q4 2002 on basic skills delivery by e-learning at factories operated by a major UK employer of people with disabilities, and, in Q4 2003, with David Jennings, on analysing the tutor-support requirements of learndirect courses.

University of Derby. Work with David Jennings during Q2/3 2012 on approaches to the provision online of Access to Higher Education courses.

Yorkshire Forward. Work for the Yorkshire and Humber Regional Development Agency as part of two teams working on the following.

Creating a Regional ICT Skills Framework (Q4 2002).
Commissioning the provision of ICT Vendor Skills training in Yorkshire and the Humber, and leading on the production of a "rough guide to vendor skills provision" [A3 PDF], the purpose of which was "to help training providers who wish to offer industry training by providing a ready source of up-to-date information on the requirements for delivery". The first edition of this guide was issued at the end of 2003. The second edition was published in Spring 2005.