John holds academic positions as a professor of computer science, electrical engineering, and education. Prior to this, he served as chair of the Computer Science Department at Stanford and Vice Provost for Teaching and Learning. In their capacity as vice provost, his group collaborated with more than 500 Stanford professors and instructors on more than 1,000 online initiatives for campus or public audiences and spearheaded the Year of Learning to foresee the future of teaching and learning at Stanford and elsewhere.