SAMBALPUR: Acting on the directives of the Department of Higher Education, the Odisha State Open University (OSOU) commenced examinations for its final year Post Graduate students online from Monday. As many as 1,640 students, enrolled in various PG programmes offered by the university, had applied to appear the final semester online examination. Of them, 1,225 are from rural areas and 24 differently-abled. The examinations will be conducted for 11 PG programmes.
Vice Chancellor of OSUU Srikant Mohapatra said, “A MCQ based question module has been prepared and the students can take the examination on their desktop, laptop or smartphone. Each paper will carry 50 objective type questions and the duration of examination will be one hour. The services of Maharashtra Knowledge Corporation Limited have been used for conducting this examination. The university has also conducted mock tests and provided user ID and password to all candidates prior to the examination.”
Considering the prevailing situation, the students have been exempted from paying the examination fee and asked to purchase data card using for appearing that examination. The coordinators of all 70 study centres of Odisha and five regional centres of OSOU will help the candidates in case they face issues with their digital devices and internet. There will be 16 examination days with three sittings each day.
Mohapatra said, “We have decided to conduct the examination in three sittings to avoid overloading of the server and ensure proper monitoring of the students. Elaborate arrangements have been made to maintain transparency. The pictures of the examinees will be captured at regular intervals during the period of the examination to ensure they do not get any external support or resort to unfair means.”