Dr. Som Naidu has spent most of his professional life in the higher education sector in a variety of roles to do with enhancing learning and teaching practices in distance education, online learning and elearning, as well as education more generally in various jurisdictions and geographical locations.  Currently serving as Pro-Vice Chancellor Flexible Learning and Director, Center for Flexible Learning, at the University of the South Pacific, Dr. Naidu has served as Associate Professor (Learning Transformations) at Swinburne University of Technology in Melbourne, Director of Teaching and Learning Quality Enhancement and Evaluation of Learning and Teaching at Charles Sturt University, NSW Australia, and Associate Professor of Educational Technology and Multimedia Education at the University of Melbourne.

Dr. Naidu possesses undergraduate qualifications in Education from the University of Waikato in New Zealand and graduate qualifications in Distance Education and in Educational Technology from Concordia University in Montreal, Canada. He has undertaken sabbaticals in the Institute for Learning Sciences in the Graduate School of Computer Sciences at Northwestern University, Illinois, USA, in the Learning and Teaching Unit at Manchester Metropolitan University, the Learning and Development Directorate at the University of London, United Kingdom, and in the Centre for Research, Innovation and Training in eLearning, Universitat Oberta de Catalunya, Barcelona, Spain.

Dr. Naidu has served as president of the Open and Distance Learning Association of Australia, and is executive editor of its journal Distance Education. In May 2014 the Open University of Sri Lanka awarded Dr. Naidu a D.Litt. (Honoris Causa), in recognition of his extensive contribution to the field of open, flexible, distance and e-learning both regionally and internationally.

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