More than
170 economic professors from DU are resisting online exam. They have issued a
joint letter opposing the idea of online exam. However, they also suggested
some alternatives to conduct the exams.
"Based
on strong student feedback and our own experience of the unsatisfactory and
limited scope and coverage of online classes, we feel that there are very
serious hindrances to time-bound online open book examinations in the pattern
suggested by the university," says the letter.
The teachers
refer to the issue of having poor connectivity or no internet connectivity at
all. They said that they faced issued while teaching online. Another hurdle in
conducting online exam is scanning and uploading the answer sheets. 'The server
may take hours to upload and many students' internet connection may be weak to
sustain this process,' says the letter.
Students who
went back home during the midterm break and did not had proper study material.
Not all the study material is uploaded online. Many students do not own a
computer and they cannot be expected to prepare using their mobiles. The letter
also pointed that domestic environment of some students may not be conducive
for the exams. Teachers also expressed their concerns regarding the sanctity of
the exam conducted in online mode.
"As
this is designed to be online examinations, how will the university ensure that
the answers that the students are uploading are not copied from each other
(through parallel internet communication) or dictated by someone else? This
problem cannot be avoided by making it open book because open book exams are
open about source material but they strictly bar communication with anybody
else, which can be easily violated here," states the letter.
The teachers
also raised their concerns about the choice of questions to be provided to the
students. The university was closed before the completion of the course and
online teaching experience was very uneven the range of choice should be much
more than usual.
The letter
also suggested some alternatives saying “for the final semester, students can
be assessed based on internal assessment and no grades should be assigned for
this semester's papers at all. Students would need to pass their course based
on the respective internal assessments and no grades for these courses will be
mentioned in the grade-sheet. Many Universities in USA are following this
similar method.”
Tags: Du
Online Exams In Du
Delhi University
Covid-19 Lockdown
Covid-19 Breakout
