Dr. Ramesh Chander Sharma to head Commonwealth Educational Media Centre for Asia, New Delhi

Dr. Ramesh Chander Sharma has joined the Commonwealth of Learning (COL) as Director of the Commonwealth Educational Media Centre for Asia (CEMCA), New Delhi on 1 January 2015.

Dr. Sharma is a leading scholar in open, distance and online Learning in Asia. Most recently, he was Regional Director, Regional Centre for Indira Gandhi National Open University, Jodhpur, Rajasthan.

Dr. Ramesh Sharma served IGNOU, India since 1996 as Regional Director of six of IGNOU’s regional centres. Dr. Sharma steered the distance education activities of the University of Guyana, Guyana, South America from July 2009 to June 2011 as Director of the Institute of Distance and Continuing Education (IDCE). He had been a member of Advisory Group on Human Resources Development for the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD). While at IDCE he also collaborated with UNDP for its Enhanced Public Trust, Security and Inclusion (EPTSI) project, Volunteer Service Overseas (VSO) and United Nations Volunteer (UNV) to develop suitable educational opportunities for communities and youth.

Dr. Sharma has been involved in the planning, design and development of teaching and learning materials for IGNOU; M P Bhoj Open University, Bhopal; Vardhaman Mahaveer Open University, Kota and Maharshi Dayanand University, India. He has been associated with several peer reviewed journals as Reviewer, Editor and Editorial Advisory Board member in the field of Open and Distance Learning. An author/editor of several books and research papers on educational technology, educational multimedia and eLearning, Dr. Sharma is a leading scholar and practitioner promoting Open Educational Resources (OER). 

He has been a trainer and capacity builder in the field of educational technology, and has supervised doctoral research in the field. He has conducted workshops and evaluation activities for IGNOU, CEMCA, COL, UNCTAD, and Aga Khan Foundation, amongst others.

With a PhD in Education (in area of Educational Technology) from Maharishi Dayanand University, India and additional post graduate qualifications in distance education and computer science, Dr. Sharma has around 20 years of experience in open and distance and technology mediated learning.

The Commonwealth of Learning, which is based in Vancouver, Canada was created by Commonwealth Heads of Government at their meeting in Vancouver in 1987 to encourage the development and sharing of open learning and distance education knowledge, resources and technologies. The Commonwealth Educational Media Centre for Asia (CEMCA), located at New Delhi is the only regional unit of Commonwealth of Learning serving eight countries in Asia- Bangladesh, Brunei, India, Maldives, Malaysia, Pakistan, Singapore and Sri Lanka. Established in 1994, CEMCA has been working in the region on community radio, eLearning, and technology enabled open/distance learning for the entire education sector.