Online proctoring: PU panel for conducting mock test of software first

With PU, Chandigarh, planning to use the online proctoring in the upcoming semester exams to invigilate students, a special panel of the university has suggested to conduct a mock test of the software first

With Panjab University planning to use the online proctoring in the upcoming semester exams to invigilate students, a special panel of the university has suggested to conduct a mock test of the software first to check its feasibility after the tendering process is done.

To invigilate students, PU, Chandigarh, is planning to use online proctoring in the upcoming semester exams. A special university panel has suggested to conduct a mock test of the software. (HT File Photo/ Representational image)

The tendering process is underway for inviting bids. The recommendation was given by the panel as a part of various technical specifications which have been finalised for online examination proctoring software. The theory exams of undergraduate courses will start from December 22 and for PG courses from December 27.

Although the university has announced that forthcoming semester exams will be conducted in online mode, however, the use of proctoring in the exams is yet to be finalised. According to the specifications finalised by the panel, all data has to be preserved for six months at the seller’s side and after six months all data has to be handed over to the university at no extra cost.

It has been outlined that students should be able to access even in low bandwidth. In case there is an interim disconnection of the internet, images captured prior to disconnection and those captured after the connection re-establishes, must be recorded and uploaded on the server for analysis along with an AI analysed report of the student activity during the duration of disconnection.

The panel has suggested that an auto face recognition of the candidate should happen at the start of the examination and a dedicated technical expert must be assigned by the vendor to address students’ queries.

Further, it has been outlined that on the day of examination, only scanned PDFs of question papers are to be uploaded for students to download and a provision must be made for the papers to open in the application itself.

The last three semester exams of PU were held online after the epidemic broke out last year. There was no proctoring, and the university had received criticism over the sanctity of these online exams.