The COVID-19 pandemic has escalated the function of expertise in each sector together with training. As the nation battles the second wave of the pandemic, universities and faculties wish to override the lengthy haul of uncertainty and worries by adopting technological instruments.
Recently, the Institute of Company Secretaries of India (ICSI) needed to re-conduct the Company Secretary Executive Entrance Test, (CSEET) 2021 for candidates who confronted technical points through the examination held on May 8 by means of distant proctored mode. The examination was performed once more on May 10.
As the training sector prepares for extended on-line training and on-line open-book exams, these crucial of the sanctity of conventional analysis programs for selling rote studying are favouring proctored exams over offline exams as a dependable choice.
Skipping or cancelling examinations would have unfavorable penalties on the way forward for the scholars, mentioned Niranjan Hiranandani, Provost – HSNC University, Mumbai. Hence, it turns into essential to undertake an alternate technique of evaluation, he provides.
Ensures evaluation with diligent monitoring
“At the beginning of the pandemic, institutes were doubtful about managing remote exams for students. Gradually, however, many institutes have quickly adopted the viable option of AI-enabled remote proctored exams to assess students. Remote proctoring provides a viable alternative to physical exam invigilation. Exam invigilators can monitor the activities of students in the form of audio, images, videos, and screen activities. The most important improvement we have observed is quick result processing and flexibility in defining exam patterns with technology-driven exams,” Hiranandani added.
Niranjan Hiranandani, provost, HSNC University
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Reeta Sonawat, member of advisory council, Association of Indian Educacy Schools (AIS), mentioned, “As an alternate means, what we will undertake is a 360-degree evaluation methodology, which takes into consideration 50 per cent of on-line and 50 per cent steady assessments. For on-line cognitive capacity evaluation, college students might be assessed on solutions to application-based questions. In addition, they’ll submit a thoughts map of the subject, which is able to give a trainer a transparent understanding of the scholar’s mindset. Our training system is exam-oriented and this ensures that college students adhere to a every day routine. It is vital that some evaluation sample is put in place.
Reeta Sonawat, Member of Advisory Council, Association of Indian Schools.
“Remote proctoring is efficient, secure, cost-effective, and evaluations are accurate, reliable, and timely. Especially at a time like now, when health is a priority and we must maintain safe physical distance, institutions need to implement technology to maintain academic timelines.”
No lack of reply scripts or probabilities of misevaluation
“Online exams provide a clear advantage due to the nature of technology that is far easier to track and manage from a centralised secure server, as opposed to managing physical test centres across the country. There is no chance for paper leaks, loss of answer scripts during transit, or missing evaluating a question. Since April last year, MeritTrac has remotely proctored over five million assessments for various institutes and none of the exams had to be rescheduled or called off,” mentioned Sujatha Kumaraswamy, CEO, MeritTrac Services.
Sujatha Kumaraswamy, CEO, MeritTrac Services
Vaidyanathan Jayaraman, Dean – UG applications and professor of provide chain operations, knowledge sciences & analytics at SP Jain School of Global Management, mentioned, “The software tool should ensure biometric authentication based on ID scan, face scan and a 360-degree view of the room in which the candidate is taking the exam. A crucial feature that can make this tool authentic, reliable and trustworthy is the feature of a lockdown mechanism the second the exam taker tries to access any applications or web-browsers during the test.”
Vaidyanathan Jayaraman, Dean – UG Programs, SP Jain School of Global Management
Jayaram believes if these options might be mixed with a single sign-on performance that may be seamlessly built-in with a studying administration system, the device turns into reliable. The pupil expertise earlier than, throughout and after the examination is just not solely the deal breaker however a game-changer.
Open books exams – one other various
Akhil Shahani, Managing Director, Thadomal Shahani Centre for Management, and CEO of ask.Careers, considers open-book exams to be a greater various.
Akhil Shahani, Managing Director, Thadomal Shahani Centre for Management
“While proctored exams ensure that students solve a question paper, much similar to the traditional format without cheating, in open-book format, students are given complex problems to solve that require them to refer to different concepts from the subject and apply their minds to solving the problem. The focus is assessing the students’ understanding of the topic and not how much they have memorised,” he added.
The extension of lockdown has led to the postponement of quite a few large examinations at starting of the outbreak final 12 months. Students have been in a state of fixed uncertainty owing to examination dates and the closure of training and training institutes. While on-line exams might be held for entrance checks or semester exams, they is probably not a viable choice for college exams, particularly board exams.
Not a viable answer for rural areas
“Online proctored exams in rural setup amid COVID is not possible, especially in school education, as there are many problems such as less connectivity, limited access to e-gadgets, less awareness among teachers. Students in rural areas are not well-versed with handling technology and if anything goes wrong then they could be at a great academic loss,” mentioned Sudhershan Punia, lecturer, District Institute of Education and Training (DIET), Jhajjar, Haryana.
Schools have been closed down in most areas throughout the nation and the federal government has really useful transferring to on-line studying as a stop-gap association to keep away from disruptions in educational calendars.
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“Online proctored board exams are not a viable option as conducting online exams will lead to all sorts of misconducts, students who have studied throughout the year and not studied throughout the year will be at par, which is not the right thing. Besides, the arrangements required to conduct online exams will cost a fortune to the government and we cannot ignore the fact that many areas of India are still devoid of internet connectivity,” mentioned Kumar Tarun Narula, Class 12 pupil, SAI International School Bhubaneshwar.
Kumar Tarun Narula, class 12 pupil, SAI International School, Bhubaneshwar
COVID-19 accelerated expertise adoption
While the expertise was out there for a very long time, the shift from conventional examination to on-line was triggered over the past 12 months. The advantages of proctored exams similar to accuracy, flexibility, cost-effectiveness, safe, scalable, quick and personalised assessments are designed to fulfil the hole whereas minimising the dependency on bodily infrastructure.
“It becomes essential to educate and familiarise students and examiners with the advantages and good practices of proctored exams to make students feel conformable,” Sunil Kumar Agarwal, Head, Portfolio, Test Prep & Assessments at Pearson India.