DU to conduct online exam

Updated on: Monday, June 08, 2009

Delhi University (DU) is all set to adopt a semester system for its undergraduate and postgraduate courses, teachers and students are apprehensive. The university has a history of declaring results late, despite it being once-a-year affair.

In order to address this issue, the university has set up a pilot project to conduct exams online. It is conducting its first-ever online exam for first year students of BSc (programme). Around 2,500 students from 27 DU colleges will be appearing for the environment science exam to be held at three centres from June 8 to June 13.

Computer centres at Miranda House, Deen Dayal Upadhyaya and Sri Venkateswara colleges for students are already in place.

Students from various colleges will be taking the exam in three different batches on one day. The two-hour exam will be based on multiple-choice questions. As far as university examinations are concerned, it is a new pattern.

AK Bakhshi, director, Institute of Lifelong Learning (ILLL), said, 'Computer based testing (CBT) has its own advantages and it will actually enable us to declare the results on time. Besides, the point of any exam is to determine whether a student has understood a topic or not.'

Bakhshi added 'Also, the pilot project will help us figure out if students and teachers are comfortable with computers. We decided on the environment science exam because it is not the main subject in BSc and one is just required to score a pass mark. The exercise will help us in terms of experience and in future all colleges can have the necessary infrastructure to conduct their exams independently.'

The university has been preparing itself well in advance. Teachers and invigilators were trained beforehand. ILLL also presented demos in various colleges for students feedback. All the centres have generators to avoid disruption in case of a power cut. Arrangements have been made for a backup server as well. The institute has also prepared a booklet that offers a step-wise demo for students.

Further, teachers will be at the examination hall to help students in case they get stuck. Fifteen minutes will be devoted exclusively, prior to the exam, to explain the entire process. The university has prepared a bank of questions from which the questions would be generated automatically, topic wise. The paper will comprise 50 questions of one-mark each.

Kalvimalar

DU to conduct online exam

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