Page 35 - AQAR Report

enabled yet environment friendly practice • To optimize the efficiency of the
examination process while ensuring a uniform and consistent approach throughout
exam conduction and evaluation • To facilitate assessment of the attainment of
course outcomes and strengthening Outcome Based Education (OBE). 3) The
Context: CHARUSAT believes in increasingly adopting environment friendly
practices in its academics and allied operations. Conduction of examinations
and ensuring fair yet timely evaluation makes one of the most important
components of progressive academics. Conducting sessional and semester-end
examinations for over 5000 students on campus requires serious consumption of
papers for printing, besides requiring a dedicated storage space for the answer
books. Conventional mode of exam conduction and evaluation also engages
dedicated manpower to ensure error free evaluation and results, requiring
intensive investment of man hours. Adopting technological interventions in the
examination process was realized to be the need-of-the-time considering its
ecofriendly nature and benefits in terms of optimal use of human and financial
resources. 4) The Practice: • The digital examination system, an initiative of
IQAC-CHARUSAT, was adopted as a major exam reform after due brainstorming and
approvals from the concerned academic boards of the university. • The system
was implemented by partnering with M/S Ppyurs India (P) Ltd., (The parent
company, Littlemore Innovation Labs, Singapore), IIT Madras Research Park,
Chennai, Tamilnadu • Initial implementation involved sharing the standard
operating procedures for authoring the question paper and steps to access and
answer them followed by subsequent training for all the faculty members,
students and other concerned staff to understand the system. A team from
CHARUSAT visited Manipal University, Karnataka to observe the actual
implementation of digital examination and figure out operational difficulties
in order to ensure smoother conduction of the exam. • Mock exams involving both
objective and descriptive questions were conducted to accustom the students
with the device before appearing for the final exam. • The question papers were
uploaded to the cloud 48 h before the scheduled and then were released on to
individual devices at the scheduled time. The inbuilt system of the device
authenticates the identity of the student using biometrics thereby alleviating
the need of the hall-tickets • The exams were conducted in a conventional
classroom arrangement but with the pre-tested devices in the presence of
dedicated technical experts from the partnering company for convenient
troubleshooting as required. As programmed in the devices, the access to the
exam paper would automatically switch off after defined time period, thus
meeting the supervision needs. • The assessment rights were then distributed to
the respective internal and external examiners through unique login
credentials. Remote access to the answer books was also enabled for the
external examiners to facilitate timely assessment. 5) Evidence of Success: •
Acclaimed as first in Gujarat state to have introduced paperless examination
system as a major exam reform • All first year students of CHARUSAT appeared
for the digital exams conducted using e-tablet devices. The plan is to
gradually take forward the system for students of higher academic years. •
Assessment of the answer books through remote access made the process of
assessment by external examiners more convenient, economic and faster. 6)
Problems Encountered and Resources Required • Ensuring robust internet
connectivity throughout • Sufficient hardware to meet the student numbers •
Technologically skilled set of

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7.3 – Institutional Distinctiveness
7.3.1 – Provide the details of the performance of the institution in one area distinctive to its vision, priority and
thrust in not more than 500 words