E-Paper
Glitches mark day 1 of DU’s online open-book exam
New Delhi:
New Delhi:
Day 1 of the first online open-book examinations (OBE) held by Delhi University for its final-year undergraduate and postgraduate students on Monday was marked by glitches that ranged from downloading question papers to submitting answer sheet.
The online exams, being held as a one-time measure in view of the Covid-19 pandemic, will continue till August 31 for around 240,000 students of the university– including those enrolled in non-collegiate courses of School of Open Learning (SOL) and Non-Collegiate Women’s Education Board (NCWEB).
Social media platforms such as Twitter and WhatsApp were flooded with complaints of glitches, including alleged cases where students received question papers four hours before the stipulated time and confusion over the number of questions to be attempted.
“Our Technical Writing paper was supposed to start at 3.30 pm but we got it at 11 am. Not knowing what to do and with no help from the grievance cell, we started writing our papers. At 3 pm, we received another question paper,” said Deewansh Khatri, a final-year BA programme student. “We had to discard what we wrote earlier and begin afresh. There were also conflicting instructions in the general guidelines and the question paper on how many questions we had to attempt.”
For Avijit Singh, a PG student of History, the problem was entirely the opposite. “We received the question papers an hour late on our email accounts and could not finish on time. Some couldn’t submit their papers on time. A friend who received the question paper first shared on our class WhatsApp group but we could not be sure it was our paper. There was so much anxiety.”
Poor internet connectivity in several parts of the country did little to help DU students – many of whom had gone back home due to Covid-19. Abhay Krishna, an undergraduate student of Physics, who is in flood-hit Kerala, said, “Data connection here is very poor. I struggled to upload my answer sheets using my phone on the website and ultimately had to take a friend’s help using WiFi. To be sure, I emailed my answers to the university.”
Maria, a final-year Chemistry student from Jammu and Kashmir, said she faced more hassles than her peers in other states. “Students with 4G connection could not upload their answers on time. It can be well imagined what we might have gone through having a 2G internet connection. We ran out of time and had difficulty in even writing the answers since we could not prepare enough due to lack of resources,” the student said. She said Covid-19 concerns prevented her from going to Common Service Centres in the region.
Common Service Centres are facilities created under the ministry of electronics and information technology to access government services online. But due to lack of awareness, many students were not able to avail of the facilities on Monday.
Students from the School of Open Learning complained of a host of issues. Bhim, a final-year student of political science at SOL, said, “Apart from the upload and download issues, which took up more than the designated time, a few papers were not bilingual like previous years, which might be a disadvantage to some people.”
Sanjeev Singh, head of DU’s Computer Centre, said, “Around 35,000 students appeared for their exams on Monday. It will be difficult to compile the actual data because students also submitted their answer scripts through e-mails. The grievance cell is active and we have been responding to students’ queries. As far as question papers are concerned, all papers are available on the website and students can go and download it session-wise.”
Professor KS Rao, deputy chairperson of the grievance redressal committee reconstituted by Delhi High Court, which is hearing a plea on the matter, said, “There is a set procedure for the exams. We are compiling the complaints we received and will submit them in court. If there are any complaints, students have the option of taking physical exams later. The decision will be taken by the court because it will look at the data and pass the final order.”
Dean of Colleges Balaram Pani said, “We got positive feedback from students and other stakeholders that the exams were conducted in an excellent manner. Students who weren’t able to able to upload their answers resorted to alternative system to email their answers, which worked for them.”
