Delhi University mock online exam marred by glitches on day one

The mock test was scheduled across three slots — 7.30am to 10.30am, 11.30am to 2.30pm and 3.30pm to 6.30pm.

The first day of Delhi University’s (DU) mock online open-book exams (OBE) was marred by several glitches with hundreds of final-year students complaining about difficulties they faced while logging on to the online portal, downloading question papers, uploading answer copies and complaints of the website crashing multiple times during the day. Hundreds of students took to Twitter and posted their concerns using the hashtag #DUAgainstOnlineExam.

While the final exams are scheduled from July 10, the mock online tests began on Saturday with an aim to familiarise students with the format. (Sanchit Khanna/HT file photo. Representative image)

Despite protests by students and teachers, the university administration has decided to conduct online exams for around 210,000 final-year undergraduate and postgraduate students, including those enrolled with the School of Open Learning (SoL) and Non-Collegiate Women’s Education Board (NCWEB). While the final exams are scheduled from July 10, the mock online tests began on Saturday with an aim to familiarise students with the format.

The mock test was scheduled across three slots — 7.30am to 10.30am, 11.30am to 2.30pm and 3.30pm to 6.30pm. The students were given three hours — two hours to answer questions and an hour to download the question paper from an online portal, and once done, scan and upload the answer sheets.

Although students were allowed to log in and take the test during any of these slots, many said they would not be able to register throughout the day.

Heena Makwana, a student of BA (hons) in Political Science at Kirorimal College said, “I started trying to register myself on the portal at 10am, but was unable to do it till 4pm. It kept displaying ‘Invalid, the record not found’. The portal was also not accepting my e-mail ID. How is it possible my credentials are wrong when the University has already issued me an admit card? I don’t know what I will do if the same issues occur when the actual exams are held on July 10,” she said.

While many students said that it took 20 to 30 minutes for them to download the question paper, some had to switch to the next slot after a host of errors. Many students said they were given the wrong question papers.

Abhijeet, a final year BCom (Hons) student at PGDAV College, said, “After taking so much effort in downloading the question paper, it turned out to be a Political Science paper. When we contacted our teacher, we were told that the mock test is just to make us understand the process and we can upload any random PDF with anything written on it. What is the purpose of conducting such tests? We thought it would be useful and give us some idea about the pattern of the exam.”

Pragati Gupta, another final-year student BA (Hons) in Journalism student at the Institute of Home Economics, said, “How will we get familiar with the pattern of open-book exams if we do not attempt it once. What’s the purpose of the mock test? We have never taken exams in such format before.”

Several teachers said they were inundated by calls and messages from worried students throughout the day. Rajesh Jha, an assistant professor at Rajdhani College, said, “The students faced many issues in even uploading the answer sheets since the portal was accepting PDFs of upto 5mb size. Students were confused if they had to upload single pages at a time or the entire answer sheet together. The website also crashed multiple times during the day making it even more difficult for students to appear in the exam. For many subjects there were no question paper available on the portal and students were asked to upload any random PDF. In such a situation, the whole purpose of mock tests gets defeated.”

DU Teachers Association (DUTA) said the university should scrap the online exams entirely. “At every stage, students have faced uncertainty and confusion. The university should accept the overwhelming demand for the cancellation of online exams without subjecting students to more anxiety and stress,” DUTA president Rajib Ray said.

The university’s dean of examinations Vinay Gupta, however, denied all the allegations and complaints, saying there were no issues with the portal. “The website did not crash even once and our server worked perfectly throughout the day. There may be issues in one or two cases but otherwise everything went well with more than 95,000 registering in the first two sessions itself. Our server is so robust it will not crash even if all the 210,000 students appear in the exam at the same time,” he said.

Gupta said the students are “unnecessarily” creating confusion about “mixing of question papers”. “It’s just the mock test to make students aware about the process. There were dummy question papers uploaded on the website and students were supposed to take an exam in any subject of their choice. They will not be evaluated on the basis of the mock exam,” he said.

DK Lobiyal, a computer science professor at the Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU), said a robust infrastructural system is required to conduct online exams the way DU is trying. “The colleges and universities in India are still not equipped to conduct the online exams at such a large scale. They should have roped in a nodal agency like National Testing Agency, who have examination centres for the purpose. Students can’t give such exams sitting at home,” he said.