Treading a new path, Osmania University has switched over to online evaluation of answer scripts of postgraduate examinations that would cut down the evaluation time, curb malpractices and maintain secrecy, apart from making the scripts accessible to authorities to deal with disputes, if any.
It’s the first university in the State to adopt the new technology that would also make evaluation error-free and information retrieval easy and faster.
To start with, the varsity has put in place an online evaluation process for 80,000 answer scripts of MBA second semester examinations. It has firmed up ties with a firm to undertake bar coding and scanning of answer scripts which would be uploaded to a dedicated server at the Data Centre located at Central Facilities for Research and Development on the campus.
The coded and scanned answer scripts would be made available online and scanned scripts could be accessed through an internet facility at a designated online evaluation centre that would come up on the campus. Vice-Chancellor S. Ramachandram said using a special ID, password and an OTP, evaluators can access the 32-page answer script, evaluate it and award marks. The marks awarded in a particular answer script would be totalled automatically by the system and sent to the main server. Nearly 30 to 60 answer scripts would be given to the evaluators on a daily basis in phases.
The Vice-Chancellor said once the process becomes a success, the online evaluation would be extended to all undergraduate and postgraduate courses. “It will help the university announce results faster, without errors, and also curb malpractices. The new system will help us in retrieving information quickly, unlike in the traditional evaluation system,” Prof. Ramachandram said.
In the earlier manual evaluation system, every answer script had to be coded by professionals who are few in number and it was also a time-consuming process.
