Visvesvaraya Technological University (VTU), the only technological university in Karnataka and one of the biggest in India, is all set to achieve another major milestone soon when it will virtually revolutionise the “evaluation system” by introducing “Digital Evaluation System” (DES) for all undergraduate, postgraduate and research/doctoral programmes.
If the pace with which the initiatives taken in this direction is any indication, the new technological order will become operational by the beginning of the next academic session (2011-12). And, the VTU will be the first university in Karnataka to have a DES.
Promoting quality
With its stated vision “to become an outstanding technological university at the cutting edge of science and technology that produces world-class knowledge-delivery, research, extension and leadership in technology innovation for industry and society,” the measure to add a new dimension to the evaluation system could also be seen in response to the expected initiatives under the 11th Five-Year Plan, which while dealing with the higher education system in India, emphasised on “speedy and substantive academic and administrative reforms for promotion of quality and excellence in the university.”
The VTU, with 186 engineering colleges affiliated to it and offering 28 UG programmes and 71 PG programmes and research programmes, has an annual intake of about 60,800 at the UG level and 20,000 at the PG level. It has 13 QIP (Quality Improvement Programme) centres at its various affiliated colleges and 16 Extension Centres offering PG programmes. There are over 2,305 departments recognised as research centres.
Such a massive campus spread across the entire State also brings in greater responsibilities and demands a high degree of efficiency and transparency in administration. Technology is one of the most important tools in achieving them and make value additions to the ‘system'. For any university, conducting examinations and declaring error-free results is the biggest responsibility and underscores the need for the highest degree of efficiency, transparency and speed.
Thus, the VTU is working on its plan to introduce DES and enabling its examination system to become efficient. It is part of reforms in the examination/evaluation system and also to reach out to all the candidates enrolled with the university through technology, said Vice-Chancellor H. Maheshappa.
Integrated system
Highlighting its salient features to The Hindu EducationPlus, he said the system is well designed for integrated examination management. Under the proposed system an enrolled candidate who wishes to appear for the university examinations should be able to fill his examination form online, rather, the form should be available to the candidate at his or her finger-tips.
The eligibility of the students who have examination forms will be ensured through software specifically designed for the purpose. The ‘admission tickets' will be made available online so that the students take a direct print-copy with the help of the software and carry the tickets to the examination centre.
The Internal Assessments marks will be uploaded to the server as and when finalised.
Question bank
A ‘Question Bank' will be created for the purpose of generating question papers. The University will take the services of well-qualified and experienced faculty for this purpose. The question bank in each subject will be updated for every changed scheme.
The question papers will be generated through an automated system under the control of Registrar (Evaluation) and supplied through the Internet-enabled software to every affiliated college.
The Karnataka Government provides VPN (Virtual Private Network) system to educational institutions. The VTU is already in the process of getting one.
The ‘answer scripts' of the candidates will be digitised for evaluation. Once the VPN is available, no teacher needs to move out of campus to evaluate the answer scripts. The physical presence of the valuators will be ensured during the valuation with technological interface.
More economical
“This process will be more economical than the conventional method of evaluation as well as it will expedite processing of results with 100 per cent accuracy. Once we introduce this new digitised valuation system, I am quite sure that our students will get the results in a record time,” said Prof. Maheshappa.
For their post-results documents, students need not come to the university, they can get the documents at their fingertips.
However, certain documents, which required high security-modules, will be issued by the University. Yet, there would not be any delay in the issuance of such documents.
The VTU, as part of its ongoing endeavour to introduce such hi-tech evaluation system for all UG and PG programmes, has already implemented the Digital Evaluation System for the answer scripts that are generated through the Course Work Examinations for research programmes, said Registrar (Evaluation) S.A. Kori.
