UG examinations go web way

enitiative by SDM College in Ujire taken up on experimental basis

Sri Dharmasthala Manjunatheshwara College at Ujire, about 60 km from here, has introduced online examination for its 2,000 students by developing an in-house software. The autonomous college, which has been accredited ‘A’ by National Assessment and Accreditation Council (NAAC), has adopted this novel method with a view to save time, money and energy.

“In the present system of education, students are forced to spend a number of days just writing exams. Amidst the pressure of exams and extra-curricular activities, the time they get to digest their actual curriculum is very limited. e-examinations will certainly set a new trend in solving this problem,” SDM Education Society Secretary Dr B Yashovarma told Deccan Herald.

The college has brought its 23 departments under this online examination system, on an experimental basis. Students are grouped into different batches, with each batch comprising a total of 200 students. “Each examination is of 45 minutes’ duration, and has 25 questions. A total of seven sessions are conducted each day. Thus, the entire examination process is completed in a one-week period,” Yashovarma said.
“In the traditional method of examination, classes of the entire college get disrupted, as regular classes have to be cancelled for several days. In this system, regular classes need not be suspended. Only those students in the specified batch will appear for the tests,” he explained.

New pattern
Lawrence Pereira, who heads the Software Development Cell of the institution, said the software works in such a way that each student gets the same question paper, but with questions in different order. “As soon as the student logs into the system with the given password and exam code, the question paper appears on the screen. Even though students sit side by side, they cannot copy, since the sequence of questions will not be the same in any question paper. The questions are of objective type, each having four options. The student clicks ‘submit’ after answering all questions, and he gets his total score immediately,” he said.

The student can also correct his answers until the duration of the exam is over. But once he finishes, the system gets locked. At the end of the exam, students can compare their answer and the correct answers.

Examinations in-charge Ajay Kumbrabail said that a majority of students have liked the system, which according to them is “friendly”. Sandeep, a BSc student, said the system has encouraged students to read thoroughly since they have to read line by line to answer the multiple-choice questions.
The college, now conducts internal exams online, while the annual exam in the traditional method. The college is planning to web-enable the system so that students can attempt the examination from any centre.