Online exam shift may boost cheating, worry teachers

Mysuru: As varsities and colleges are offbound due to Covid-19, exams are being conducted online globally. Although students are said to be scoring exceptionally well in these exams, concerns are being raised about keeping a close vigil.
Speaking to TOI, two professors who were part of college and university level online examination, said most students secured full marks in all subjects in the online internal examinations conducted by the universities, raising questions about the credibility of the examination. According to them, students were sent question papers through WhatsApp/ email and they had to revert with the answer script.
“Most of the students copied answers from search engines,” the professors added.
Visvesvaraya Technological University (VTU) vice chancellor Karisiddappa confirmed the shortcomings of online examinations conducted at the college level and the high scoring trend. “We are also unable to do much here. We come across complaints in this regard. One of the options is to not consider these marks for any records,” he told TOI.
However, University of Mysore (UoM) registrar R Shivappa said the university is yet to get details on the marks scored by the students in the online exam. “So it’s not possible to say anything at this stage,” he added.
According to the faculty who are involved in the online internal examination, the entire exercise looks like a poor cousin of open book examination. “These are one-hour long examinations. We ask students to send the answer scripts in one hour. Even if we ask tricky questions, they give the correct answer by looking up online. But, for the sake of documentation, we are left with no option other than conducting the examinations,” said an associate professor and HOD from a college affiliated to VTU.
Another professor said his experience was much similar. “My students scored very good marks in theory subjects. When I developed suspicion, I gave a question involving statistical models for which they were not able to answer properly. It is evident that search engines are playing a big role in these examinations. Best thing to do under the current circumstances is to not conduct examinations,” he said.
A city engineering college student who appeared for an internal examination on Tuesday said he wrote the examination with his friend. “Online teaching modules are not helping us in any way. We hardly understand any subject. Naturally we forced to write the examination in this way,” he said. “Online internals are a waste of time,” he added.