Impressed by Governor P.Sathasivam’s call for stepping up the standards of the examination system in the higher education sector, the Cochin University of Science and Technology (Cusat) is planning to hold its B.Tech examinations online in a phased manner.
The move to shift from the paper-pen pattern to the online mode comes in the wake of the growing demand to streamline the examination and evaluation pattern by speeding up publication of results and checking exam-related malpractices.
Senior university varsity officials close to the development told The Hindu that a trial demonstration of the online examination system would be carried out in the coming days. Faculty members of engineering departments had recommended that the online examinations could be held from a select question bank for each term.
Experts had also suggested that the question bank could be changed periodically. The online examination could also help in simplifying the examination and valuation work.
The universities can think of conducting online examinations from a question bank for a particular term. The questions in the bank can change during each season. This will further simplify the examination, valuation and related activities, they said.
The Hindu had reported on November 24 that the Kerala Technological University (KTU) was in favour of implementing the online mode for engineering examinations in the State.
But teachers reminded that the success of the online pattern of examination will depend on the efficiency of internet connectivity available in each affiliated college. Moreover, the colleges will also have to improve the reliability of the fibre optic backbone to ensure smooth conduct of the examinations.
Even though the university supports the move to revamp the examination system, it has ruled out changing the existing descriptive and explanatory pattern of questions to the objective type as suggested by a section of teachers. The university authorities say that the objective pattern of questions would not help in assessing the problem-solving capabilities of students.
