Many final year students of Anna University, who presented their projects online as part of their end-semester exams, faced severe network issues on Tuesday. The students, however, said they managed to complete the task.
A student from Dharmapuri said the connectivity snapped every few minutes. “BSNL does not offer 4G connectivity. Even now on my phone, there is only feeble signal. The other service provider has 4G facility but even that was poor,” he said.
Another student from Namakkal said she and her friends made the presentation through their mobile phones as they had left their laptops at their college hostel. "The connectivity was poor and for some there was no video or audio reception. Sometimes it automatically got disconnected. As a team we managed to make the presentation," she said.
Sivamani Raj, a student of a college in Coimbatore, said if the connection snapped three times the student wouldn’t be able to log in. “I live in Kurumbapalayam and I had difficulty in connecting. The poor connection made it difficult for my team mate. His voice would fade or the connection would break mid-sentence. My friends in Ooty and Thalavadi in Erode district could not connect,” he said.
If connectivity issues cropped up during the exam, he said he would have to take the exams again as an arrears candidate. "My friends and I cannot afford high-end phones. When I asked the service providers they said they were short-staffed,” he said.
Anna University had stipulated that there should be no external noise and no one should be present in the room. Students could not go to a net centre or even to their college to take the exams. Students said they could not access the internet even in parts of their houses. “Quite a few of my friends could not complete the presentation. The college then gave us another opportunity. I don’t know if the same opportunity will be given for theory exams as well," he added.
The principal of a college in the city suburbs said the University sent out a questionnaire to find out if all students could take the test remotely. “There were only four options for the question on how connected the student was. The option was did the student possess a laptop, tablet, mobile phone or desktop. Some students do not have any of the gadgets. We, however, told the students the University had not given that option and asked them to mark one of the given options,” he said.
V-C responds
Anna University Vice-Chancellor M.K. Surappa said the colleges had flagged the issues, and that the University had taken note of them.
“Since last evening I have been receiving complaints only from one or two colleges. This kind of exam is being conducted at such a large scale for the first time in the country. We have 1.4 lakh students sitting for the exam. If students have issues despite the arrangements, we will look into them," he said.
The University has increased the number of log in attempts to five from three. Further increase would not be possible as it could lead to malpractice, he said.
“If students have network issues, they must move to a place where connectivity is better,” he said. The University has proposed to hold a mock test again on Wednesday. The theory exams begin on Thursday.