BANGALORE: It has become an increasing trend in entrance examinations in India, a lot of pen pencil exams are being replaced by online ones.
“AIEEE exams are likely to go online next year (2011) for the urban and suburban candidates, along with the pen pencil paper exams.
The exam will be conducted by the CBSE board,” said PK Bose, director of National Institute of Technology (NIT), Agartala. Bose is part of the reformation and admission committee of AIEEE exam.
Madan Padki, CEO of MeritTrac Service Private Ltd said that 68 per cent of the exams that are conducted in India are planning on go online in the next three to five years. There is a mass migration from pen pencil exams to online format.
Bangalore-city based colleges like Christ University plan to start online entrance exams in the near future depending on which course gets the maximum number of hits.
“The advantage of online exams is that the results are published instantly. We have already conducted an internal online exam for the first time this year, and it was a success.
We are looking at more such internal exams,” said Kerwin, admission coordinator, Christ University.
There are challenges, says Padaki, like infrastructure in terms of terminals and Internet connectivity. Appropriate technology or software needs to be used for the exams. Science of testing and question banks for multiple batches should be put in place. The question banks should be equated (to ensure questions are not repeated). There must also be a quality process and quality check, he said.
Manipal University had adopted online entrance examinations in 2005 for all India level admission to the university. “Online exams are a great boon as the candidate gets to choose his time slot, date and centre according to his convenience. The post-graduate level window is open for 20 days while for undergraduate level it is 40 days,” said GK Prabhu, registrar, Manipal University. Initial hiccups faced were Internet connectivity, but that was resolved. Online exams ensure transparency and no malpractices, he says.
What MeritTrac survey says 84% of all the VCs/registrars interviewed indicated that they are interested in the concept of using technology in exams 77 per cent of all VCs/registrars indicated that they are considering introducing online examinations and 50 per cent of these respondents indicated that they will do this in the next 6-36 months.
■Decision makers largely believe that technology solutions can mitigate some of the immense challenges faced ■The top three priorities in exam management are faster results, greater transparency, student authentication and higher security.
Respondents said these would have the most impact on their decision to go online.