With the advent of Online Examinations, the nexgen procedures have been found to be more secured, uninhibited by the data loss possibility, resulting in unbiased evaluations
By Jaydeep Saha
Ten-years back an exam without pen, pencil and paper would have been absolutely beyond belief. But for the Facebook generation, who wake up by checking their mails, Google for verifying the time and go bed by Tweeting 'good night', the old system of pen and paper is definitely not going to work. However, today, by virtue of online examination, the old system has become almost obsolete. Thanks to our outstanding advancement in IT and software, online examinations have made the entire examination process not only hassle-free but also accessible to all. In an online examination system a student answers all exam queries through his computer and later submits them to the organisation taking the online examination. These answers are then evaluated by examination software which already has the answers to the questions fed into its system. The answers are checked and scored instantly thus saving a lot of time which is usually spent by the professors in reading and checking the answers one after the other.
Globalisation has opened the gates of success for millions across the world. People today are not just competing with strong challengers from the same state, but with the best people from across the world through the use of new online examination system.
Moreover, several other features make online exams well-accepted by the student fraternity. The first and foremost issue with the students is always the time factor to which e-exams come as a relief where answering is just a matter of click. Other factors are that no physical presence is needed for taking the test as starting and completion time are both recorded by the server and cannot be manipulated. Online exams are flexible, involve auto-grading, no wastage of time during evaluation, instant availability of results and are totally secured (beware of hackers though!).
How do Online Exams work?
Online exams are basically software based. Just the way in an exam department, various people are given different tasks and duties like enrolling students, managing the questions papers, checking answer scripts etc. Examination software also have various working units or components called modules. There can be various modules such as the student details modules, authorization module, subject and question management system, examination paper management, examination evaluation module and finally the result generation module.
This online exam system is ideal for multiple choice questions and other derivative questions. For every question asked, the student needs to select the right answer provided from the given choices. Once the questions are answered and then submitted to the examination system, the software will score the student after analysing his answers with the ones already fed into its system. After the evaluation is performed, the result of the examination is also generated by the system based on its scoring method. The generated result comprising the students score, time taken for the exam to be completed and the number of students passing through the examination is then sent to the student within minutes of the examination.
Online examination in India
For a country like India, e-examination is a great way to cover spread and reach to the masses. In addition e-examination brings in quality and efficiency to the process of conducting exams. In the near future we are going to see many exams converting into an online format, the initial ones would be the competitive objective type followed by others.
It is important that students get used to some practice of manoeuvring mouse, keyboard controls to focus more on solving the questions at hand than worrying about the technology side of things. If a student is exposed to few online mock exams which can simulate a real exam scenario, he or she can become efficient in no time. Technology is increasingly becoming apart of the learning process and, in a natural progression, has entered the testing and evaluation area as well. Increase in computer usage has accelerated the process and made it possible for e-examinations to be carried out not only in Tier 1 cities but in Tier 2 and Tier 3 cities as well.
A student from India can today take examinations in the US, thus competing with other global competitors from across the entire world through the new web based exam systems
Advantages of Online Examination software/system
