| Indian education: Stepping into the technology league |
| Wednesday, 09 December 2009 | |
These and many other such successful attempts have set the pace for a drastic shift in the Indian education sector, one that will be open to online exams and e-assessment. Online testing is more than 4-5 years old in India. The Indian government is encouraging e-learning as part of its plans to increase access to education. In the last few months, Indian education sector has attracted a lot of attention with plans of huge investments, changes in education structure, entry of private players making news and foreign universities expressing interest in entering the Indian market. A step away from tradition The Indian education system ensures that each one of us is exposed to multiple exams annually. The shortcomings are for all to see, yet very little effort seems to have been directed to making it student friendly. The traditional exam system is an extremely lengthy process that starts with preparing exam papers, printing, sending to centers, evaluating, and eventually declaring results – this continues for months on end. Some other major lacunae include:
It is to overcome these and other issues that pilots for online examination were initiated across India. The success of similar exams internationally has also spurred the growth. Online exams – The way forward? Very simply put, yes. Online pilots were initiated to de-clutter the examination system, make it more efficient and transparent. Students have also responded positively to this format. The benefits are immense, and the technology to conduct these exams exists and positive results abound. Those who have already tested it vouch for the simplicity, ease of practice, transparency, time efficiency and less burden on the exam management system. Murlidhar S, COO, MeritTrac Services opines, “Online exams are here to stay. Moving exams online is a key and necessary component of exam reforms in India. This is necessary to make exams secure and to bring in transparency to the exam process. Online exams also provide quick turnaround times and candidate convenience.” Some large and successful online exams include BITS, Indian Institute of Banking and Finance and Railway Recruitment Board – Trivandrum. The Indira Gandhi National Open University (IGNOU) and the Common AdmissionTest (CAT) 2009 grabbed national headlines over the last month for wrong reasons. The institutes involved are large enough to create national impact and interest, which is probably why they are being heard of and talked about at length. Yet they also brought into focus some other things –
Murlidhar added, “Some of the key prerequisites for successful online exams include technology that is designed and customized for large scale testing in India, high level of prior preparation including elaborate, scientifically planned and diligent mock runs, exam-trained technical staff and proctoring staff with prior experience of running successful online exams, elaborate back-up infrastructure planning and detailed contingency planning, and finally as project management is crucial in such large deployments, a technical partner who has multiple years of experience in delivering successful online exams.” Last heard – there are talks of redoing the CAT – this time with paper and pencil. This is of course not to say that CAT is done with online experiments. The prestigious Indian Institutes of Management (IIM) entrance test will find its way back online, and all set for a successful run this time around. |
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