Brief Profile Prabir Kr. Biswas





Prof. Prabir Kr. Biswas has 32 years teaching experience in conventional and distance education, around 40 years research experience in Psychology and Education and 8 years administrative experience  as Assistant Regional Director, Regional Director (IGNOU Regional Centre, Kolkata)  and Director, STRIDE (IGNOU, Hqrs. New Delhi). Besides these he has experience in Psychological testing, and providing Counselling and Therapy services  to children, adolescents and adults since 1980s.

He obtained M.A, and Ph.D in Psychology from Calcutta University and   Diploma in Distance Education (DDE from IGNOU. 
His Ph.D work “Characteristics of Autonomic Responses in Psychiatric Patients and Normal Subjects”  was evaluated and appreciated by University of London in 1984. He was  Lecturer in Psychology at Pachhunga University College, North-Eastern Hill University, Aizawl, Mizoram,  India for five years (1988-1993).Since October, 1993 to February, 2020 he has worked with IGNOU in various capacities as a Lecturer, Assistant Regional Director, Regional Director, Reader and lastly Professor in Distance Education (since 2007). He was actively involved in course design and development, programme and course coordination, teacher training and research, student support services, admission process, academic administration, academic counselling, guiding PhD/M.Phil Scholars in Distance Education both national and international, various activities related to Master of Arts in Distance Education (MADE) and Post Graduate Diploma in Distance Education (PGDDE)  Programme, student counselling, academic counsellors training, guiding dissertations/ projects (more than 150), assessment and evaluation,  developing course and training materials, editing of course materials, developing programme guides and so on. He has, till date, published 2 Books, 25 Book Chapters/ Self-Learning Units  in different programmes (M.A. Education, Vocational Education, Elementary Education, Inclusive Education, M.A. Distance Education  of various  universities and DDEs, more than 50 research papers/articles in international and national journals, 5 Handbooks, 1 Glossary of Terms used in Open Distance and E-learning, and several Book Reviews in international journal. He has also edited more than 130 published research articles in International and Online journals, 16 Book Reviews and more than 100 Self-Learning Units/ Chapters (content and format editing). Latest book chapter in “Technology for Efficient Learner Support Services in Distance Education- Experiences from Developing Countries”,  published by Springer Nature Singapore Pvt. Ltd. 2018. His Handbooks: “Psychological skills for open distance learning- a handbook for distance teachers, managers and learners”, and “Study skills and psychological skills- a handbook for the learner workshop” are very popular.

He was the Chief editor of Indian Journal of Open Learning (International peer reviewed journal) for more than 2 years, and editorial team members and Book review Editor of that journal for another 3 years.

He is the Editor-in-Chief of “Edutech: e-journal of Education and technology” (online peer reviewed journal) since 2007.

Prof. P.K. Biswas attended various national and international conferences, presented several research papers and has visited several countries (46 countries covering 5 continents) for academic purposes (organising workshops, attachment programmes etc.) and on educational tour. He has chaired many sessions in national conferences and Webinars organized by conventional and open universities.

He was the Nodal Officer of Pan-African e-Network Project of IGNOU (2012-2014). In this project more than 2400 students from 19 different African countries were studying in 9 Programmes of IGNOU (MBA, MTM, BTS, DAFE, DECE, DTS, CES, CNCC, and CTS) using Tele-Education services. More than 1400 hours video conference sessions have been conducted during his tenure with the African countries (record video conference session was with 24 countries at a time). He has organized the first conference of the Ambassadors and High Commissioners of African and Gulf countries in IGNOU, International conference on Skill development and national conference as well.

Prof. P.K. Biswas has organised, coordinated and conducted more than 250 training programmes (national and international workshops, orientation programmes etc.) ranging from 2-days to 15 days each as coordinator/resource person for teachers, academics, course writers, academic counsellors, administrators,  support staffs, students and others  in the country and abroad covering a wide range of topics. He has coordinated and developed 15 days training Manual for the Academic Counsellors’ of IGNOU.

He was the coordinator of the Direct to Home (DTH) digital educational TV channel (Number 26, State Open University Channel) under Swayam Prabha during July 2017 to February, 2020 run by Ministry of Human Resource Development, Government of India. He has also contributed in developing online course in SWAYAM Platform



Email: prabir55.biswas@outlook.com

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