SDM college initiates online examination

09 September 2009

Imagine examinations being paperless and thus eco-friendly. SDM College, Ujire, an autonomous institution, has initiated the online examination system for its PUC and degree students from the current academic year. The first online internal test was conducted at the institute on Monday.

The idea was initiated to provide more academic days to every student which cannot be done while conducting class room tests due to the semester system, says B Yashovarma, principal of SDM College. Under this system, students are made to write tests for an hour and the rest of the day is used for academic activities as usual.

One internal examination out of the two is being conducted online from this academic year so the students will have the experience of attending descriptive as well as objective examinations, said Yashovarma.

The college has developed a special software that has a question bank to which any number of questions with multiple choices can be added. During the examination, a student has to enter his examination code, register number and the password as soon as the examination commences. When multiple choice questions start appearing on the computer screen, the student has to answer by clicking on the options. The next question appears only after one question is answered.

A server has been set up for the purpose of online examinations where the questions of all the subjects are stored, said Yashovarma. Each examination is of 45 minute duration in which the student has to answer 25 questions. The student can make corrections to his answers any number of times before clicking on the submit button at the end of the exam. But once after the students presses the submit button no further corrections can be made. There is no room for copying as the order of questions for every student will be different, notes Shailesh, the head of computer science department.

Online examination demands a thorough knowledge of the subject says Tippeswamy, a student of final year. "Though there was apprehension at the beginning about the new system, I am confident after giving the exam'', opines Sushma, a final year student of BA.

The SDM Education Society plans to extend this system to around 20 institutions across the state run by the society so that over 20,000 students will be benefited by it.
 
source times of india