Dr. Ishan Abeywardena joined COL on 1 January 2016 as Adviser, Open Education Resources. Dr Abeywardena comes to COL from the Open University of Sri Lanka, where he was Director of International Academic Relations and Acting Director, National Online Distance Education Service (NODES). Prior to that, Dr Abeywardena served as a Senior Lecturer in Information Technology at Wawasan Open University (WOU), Penang, Malaysia (2009 to 2013) and was Deputy Dean at the School of Science and Technology, WOU from 2013 to 2014.

In addition to his academic experience, Dr Abeywardena has held several key technical positions in the UK information technology industry. Dr Abeywardena holds a PhD in Computer Science from University of Malaya, Malaysia, master’s degrees in Engineering Management and Wireless Enterprise Business Systems from Brunel University, UK, and a BSc in Computer Science from Bangalore University, India and is a member of several professional bodies within the technology industry. A computer scientist by training, Dr Abeywardena’s research interests include educational technology, open educational resources (OER), eLearning, MOOCs, open and distance learning (ODL) and mobile application development.