Open and Distance Education in Global Environment Opportunities for Collaboration

Santosh Panda is Professor of Distance Education and Director, Staff Training and Research Institute of Distance Education (STRIDE); and Head, Inter-University Consortium for Technology-Enabled Flexible Education and Development (IUC-TEFED), Indira Gandhi National Open University (IGNOU), Dr Panda has previously served as Director, Research and Policy Division, Association of Indian Universities (AIU) (1994-1997). He was a Visiting Professor in 2004 and in 2005 at the Manchester Metropolitan University, UK and in 2004 at the University of London, UK: and in 2003 was a Fulbright Scholar at the University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, USA. As founding head of IUCTEFED, he has been responsible for initiating policy formulation and system-wide implementation of new educational media and technology focusing particularly on interactive multimedia, online and blended learning, and faculty development toward effective transition from traditional distance learning to blended and online learning. Dr. Panda has published 16 books, 32 book chapters, and 48 articles and research papers nationally and internationally; and is Founder Editor of a referred international journals Staff and Educational Development International; co-Editor of internationally referred Indian Journal of Open Learning; Editorial Board Member of Canadian 'Journal of Distance Education', 'International Review of Research in Open and Distance Learning and professional Development', 'Malaysian Online Journal of Instructional Technology', American 'International Journal of Instructional Media'. He has consulted and conducted programmes for UNESCO-IICBA and UNESCO-China; World Bank and Global Distance Learning Network; British Council; Commonwealth of Learning; UNDP; Ford Foundation; IDRC; Governments of Lesotho, Nepal and Nigeria; and for capacity building of Indian government bureaucrats on distance training sponsored by the UNDP and the Government of India.

Suresh Garg is a Professor of Physics and currently Pro-Vice Chancellor, Indira Gandhi National Open University, New Delhi. He taught Physics in Hindu College, University of appointed Director, School of Sciences in the University. He has been Commonwealth distance Science Expert at the University of the South Pacific, Fiji from 1996 to 1998. He is member of several national and international professional bodies like CASTME-Asia, and ICTP-India. He is serving on academic, research and management boards of several universities in the country. He has co-authored two books in Physics, edited three books on distance education, and published several research papers in national and international journals of repute. He is the chief Editor of Indian Journal of Open Learning published by IGNOU; and since 2005, he is on the Editorial Board of the AAOU journal. He was an Editor of the Global e-Journal of Open, Flexible and Distance Education from 2001-2004, and Guest Editor of Staff and Educational Development International. He has travelled abroad widely to countries like China, South Lorea, South Africa, UK, France, Kenya, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Australia, Thailand, Mauritius and spoken on various topics. IGNOU has broadened its international networking particularly in Africa, SAARC national and Middle East with his efforts and guidance at the International Cell. He was the academic content coordinator (Honorary) of South Asia Foundation, Which is engaged in the spread of peace, cooperation, understanding through education and sustainable development among the people of South Asia. He was team leader of UNDP-DOPT project for capacity building of India Bureaucrats through distance learning.

C.R.K. Murthy is Reader in Distance Education at the Staff Training and Research Institute of Distance Education (STRIDE), Indira Gandhi National Open University (IGNOU). He holds a Ph.D. degree in Education and has two decades of experience in training and research in higher education in general and distance education in particular. Dr. Murthy has been associated with Editorial Boards of Media and Technology for Human Resource Development and Indian Journal of Open Learning. He has organised, conducted and participated in many national and international workshops, seminars and conferences, particularly for capacity building and professional development of academic as well as non-academic staff at IGNOU and other universities in India.

Sanjaya Mishra holds a Ph.D degree in Library and Information Science in the area of library networks. He has been involved in successful implementation of many multimedia and Internet based courses. With professional training in distance education, television production and multimedia, he is actively involved in collaboration at international level. At present, he is Reader in Distance Education at the Staff Training and Research Institute of Distance Education, Indira Gandhi National Open University, New Delhi. He also served (2001-2003) the Commonwealth Educational Media Centre for Asia at New Delhi as a Programme Officer, where he conducted a number of workshops on ‘Multimedia’ and ‘e-learning’ in the Asian region. He was Book Review Editor of Indian Journal of Open Learning from 1997-2000 and also edited few special issues of the same journal. He is author/editor of 5 books and has contributed more than 60 research papers in reputed professional journals. He is one of the founder editors of the Asian Journal of Distance Education.