A graduate of the Universities of Sussex and Leeds, he has worked in the United States and for the Open University where he founded the Computer Assisted Learning Research Group and worked on a range of educational technology research and development projects, later becoming Pro-Vice-Chancellor there.
He was a Research Fellow at the University of Edinburgh, Department of Artificial Intelligence, from 1974 to 1978.[2]
The most translated of his ten books is Learning and Teaching with Computers, co-authored with John Self and his most recent 2007 book, In Order to Learn, published by Oxford University Press, was co-edited with Frank Ritter, Josef Nerb and Erno Lehtinen.[citation needed]
On 21 June 2016, it was announced that O'Shea would step down from his position as Principal and Vice-Chancellor of the university in September 2017.[7]
Boards and Committees
Since January 2008, O’Shea has been Chair of Jisc (formerly the Joint Information Systems Committee).[8] He is also Chair of the Scottish Institute for Enterprise, was Chair of the board of directors of the Edinburgh Festival Fringe from 2012 to 2021,[9][10] and the Board of Newbattle Abbey College Trust. He sits on the Council of the Confucius Institute Headquarters,[11] and is currently a member of the German Initiative for Excellence, or 'Excellenzinitiative'.[2]