DU’s open book online exam: 35K take test, many face glitches – education

Round 35,000 Delhi College college students of ultimate yr below-graduate and put up-graduate programs appeared for the online open-book check, a primary such evaluation train undertaken by the varsity because of the coronavirus pandemic. Nonetheless, many college students complained that there have been glitches in the course of the examination and had been additionally unsure about whether or not or not they managed to add their reply sheets.

The exams started at 7.30 a.m. and had been held in three shifts – from 7.30 a.m. to 11.30 a.m, 11.30 a.m. to three.30 p.m and three.30 p.m. to 7.30 p.m. The exams will finish on August 31.

In keeping with the brand new train, the scholars needed to obtain the query paper from the web site and write the solutions inside three hours. One hour was devoted for importing and scanning the reply sheets. The varsity has mentioned it’s choosing the open book exams as a one-time measure in view of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Many college students had been harried as they weren’t positive if their reply sheets had been uploaded.

Zubair Khan, enrolled within the BA Programme course on the College of Open Studying (SOL), appeared for his Hindi examination. He mentioned when he opened the portal to obtain his query paper, he discovered two units — certainly one of Hindi and one other of the paper scheduled for August 13. “I despatched mails to the SOL however there was no response. I consulted a professor who suggested me to try the paper scheduled for right now.” One other pupil, Deepak Gupta, mentioned he was undecided if he had efficiently uploaded his reply sheets earlier than the scheduled time of 11.30 a.m.

“It was 11.28 am by the point I completed creating PDF information (of my reply sheets). I attempted to add them however they didn’t get uploaded. I’ve mailed them to the designated ID however have no idea whether or not they are going to be accepted,” he added.

A pupil of B.Sc Bodily Science, who didn’t want to be recognized, mentioned the paper was fairly robust and in a state of affairs when courses couldn’t occur correctly, it was unjust for college kids to have to seem for exams.

Abha Dev Habib, a professor of Miranda Home faculty, mentioned most college students in her class didn’t get a affirmation mail after importing their reply sheets. The scholars then mailed their reply sheets to the varsity web site and bought an auto-generated response. Pankaj Garg, a professor at Rajdhani School, mentioned the principle downside that college students confronted was in importing the reply sheets.

“They confronted issues in importing PDF information and a few of the college students mentioned if they may add solutions to 2 questions, they may not add the solutions to the third. They weren’t positive whether or not their reply sheets had been uploaded. The school obtained reply sheets on electronic mail put up 11.30 am, which was the scheduled time,” he mentioned.

The educating college have their very own set of issues, Garg mentioned, stating that academics will face points whereas evaluating the solutions.

“There’s a honest risk that there can be swapping of the pages whereas scanning and importing, this is able to disturb the sequence…. Academics must be very very cautious in connecting all these pages which belong to the identical query,” he mentioned.

Whereas scanning, some pages could get blurred, he mentioned, including, it will be troublesome to learn them rigorously and to hook up with the subsequent web page and therefore the continuity of the reply can be misplaced.

For academics, essentially the most difficult level can be marking of pages. “It appears analysis would take for much longer,” he confused.

The exams have been postponed a number of occasions. The Delhi College Academics’ Affiliation had been demanding that the exams be scrapped and the scholars evaluated on the premise of earlier performances and an inner evaluation.

The Kashmiri college students, who moved again to their properties within the valley in the course of the lockdown, had points associated to 2G connectivity which was sluggish and unstable.

The open book examination is altogether a brand new expertise for college kids and academics. Academics felt that the online open book exams received’t be a possible choice in the long term since they aren’t credible, as college students search assist from their buddies, and in addition raised doubts on how they might consider the scholars.

Arun Attri, a professor of Shaheed Bhagat Singh School, mentioned the exams have ended uncertainty for over two lakh college students who now know that since they’ve taken the exams, they’ll get their outcomes and might apply for his or her Masters.

Nonetheless, he mentioned online exams should not a possible choice in the long term for DU which is thought for its commerce and humanities programs.

“The exams may be possible for engineering and science college students however they received’t serve the aim for commerce and humanities programs. They’re extra like assignments than exams,” he opined.

A professor, requesting anonymity, mentioned they learnt that college students had been sharing solutions on whatsapp and dishonest was taking place.

One other professor, who additionally didn’t want to be recognized, questioned how they’ll consider the scholars for the reason that varsity has not but issued any pointers on the identical. The professor additionally claimed the scholars who work onerous had been being pressurised by their buddies to share solutions on whatsapp.