Sheffield HEAR Implementation Project

 

The scope of this project includes:

The capture, centralised storage, and display of the additional student information required for the HEAR.
The inclusion and display of students' module/unit results and degree award information, i.e. the equivalent of the academic transcript, within the HEAR.
The building of a system to give UG students access to the HEAR while students are registered with the University.
Support to the JISC-funded project DARE (Digital Academic Records Exchange), which is tasked with building a shared, cloud-based system to enable the secure online distribution of electronic documents, including HEARs. The project is being led by Liverpool John Moores University in collaboration with the company Digitary. Sheffield is an active partner and will trial the shared service as a means of providing graduates and third parties secure access to the HEAR, in students’ final year at the University and after graduation.
The creation of a mechanism to display and distribute HEARs in an online electronic format, which adheres to the nationally agreed HEAR template in format and content.
Provision of a paper copy of the HEAR to the UG student on exiting the University.
The provision of long-term storage of information and publication of HEARs (in perpetuity in the case of some information, in line with University data retention policies).

Project stakeholders include:

• Undergraduate students.
• Academic Departments, especially administrative staff, personal tutors, and managers of extra-curricular activities.
• Professional Services (e.g. Careers Service, LeTS, Outreach and UK/EU Recruitment, Student Support and Guidance).
• Students’ Union and Sport Sheffield.
• Modern Languages and English Language Teaching Centres.
• University of Sheffield Enterprise.
• Development and Alumni Relations Office.
• Accommodation and Commercial Services.
• Employers and other third parties, e.g. PG Admissions Tutors.
• DARE Project partners.
• Digitary.

Project Board Members

Role	Name/s	Department
Sponsor	Paul White	Pro VC for Learning and Teaching
Customer	Helen Grindley	Taught Programmes Office
Project Manager	Anne Rodgers	CiCS
Project Support	Helen Tattam	Taught Programmes Office
User Reps	John Barrett Stephen Beck	Faculty Director of Learning and Teaching (Arts and Hums) Faculty Director of Learning and Teaching (Engineering)
	Kathryne Fraser	Students' Union, representing SU Working Group
	Megan Hobbs	School of Mathematics and Statistics
	Francine Lindley Jonathan Narcross Chris Stokes Richard Ward Rachel Watson Marcus Zientek	Careers Service Student's Union Dept of Adult Dental Care, representing Academic Working Group Learning and Teaching Services Dept of Economics Careers Service

Technical Rep	Tim Snow	CiCS
CiCS Service Manager	Patrice Panella	CiCS
Comms Rep	Bob Booth	CiCS

The aim is to deliver HEARs to all incoming undergraduates from 2012-13 onwards.
The HEAR has been identified as a key element in the delivery of aspects of both the University’s Project 2012 Proposition, and the University's new Learning and Teaching Strategy for 2011-16. In particular, the HEAR will assist undergraduate students in articulating and presenting a comprehensive view of their academic achievements and extra-curricular activities and awards gained during their time at Sheffield, and will thus help to evidence their attainment of 'Sheffield Graduate' attributes to employers and others.
Two further drivers have consolidated the project’s timescales:
(i) the publication of the recent higher education White Paper (June 2011), in which the government announced its expectation that most institutions will develop HEARs for their undergraduate students from September 2012;
(ii) an update from the national HEAR Implementation Steering Group on 8 November 2011, announcing that 78 higher education institutions have now declared their intention to implement the HEAR.