Dr Ramesh Chander Sharma

Dr Ramesh Chander Sharma, Indian national and former Regional Director of the Indira Gandhi National Open University, India, on July 1, 2009 assumed duty as Director of the Institute of Distance and Continuing Education (IDCE), the extra-mural arm of the University of Guyana which was established in 1976.

The new Director’s two-year appointment comes under the auspices of the Commonwealth Fund for Technical Cooperation.

Dr Sharma is the holder of a PhD in Education Technology and has taught in the areas of educational technology, educational research and statistics, educational measurement, and the psychodynamics of mental health to first and second degree students for over a decade.

He has delivered keynote addresses in Hong Kong, New Zealand and Taiwan and has conducted many Human Development training programmes for several in-service and pre-service teachers and is a member of many committees on the implementation of technology at the Open University.

His areas of specialisation include staff development, on-line learning, student support services in open and distance learning, and teacher education.

He has co-authored a book on Distance Education Research, co-edited two books entitled “Interactive Multimedia in Education and Training” and “Cases on Global

E-Learning Practices: Successes and Pitfalls” and he also authored the “Encyclopedia of Distance Learning.” among his many publications.

According to Dr Sharma, his involvement in those settings and in Distance Education teaching has enabled him to gain practical knowledge of technology-based teaching and learning in the tertiary education sector.

Additionally, his experiences have provided numerous opportunities for him to implement distance education programmes from a diversity of perspectives based in conventional campus-based as well as distance education and mixed mode educational institutions settings.

His job also afforded him “the opportunity to work with people from diverse cultural backgrounds and gel well with them.”

Dr Sharma takes over from Mr. Francis Glasgow, who served as Director (ag) from 2006 after the retirement of former Director Mr. Samuel Small.