Over 170 Economics professors from Delhi University have issued a join letter against the online exams to be conducted by the administrators and also suggested some alternatives to conduct the semester-end exams.
“Based on the strong student feedback and our experience of the unsatisfactory and limited scope and coverage of online classes, we feel that there are very serious hindrances to time-bound online open book examinations in the pattern suggested by the university,” were some of the concerns the letter addressed .
Questions have also been raised by them regarding the “sanctity” of the papers to be conducted.
“As this is designed to be online examinations, how will the university ensure that the answers that the students are uploading are not copied from each other (through parallel internet communication) or dictated by someone else? This problem cannot be avoided by making it open book because open book exams are open about source material but they strictly bar communication with anybody else, which can be easily violated here,” the letter further states .
Concerns have also been raised about the choice of questions that will appear in the examinations as the course wasn’t completed when the universities were shut down and online teaching has been highly insufficient as well as inaccessible to many. They believe that the choices given should also be increased than the usual however according to the university guidelines students will be given 6 out of which 4 have to be answered.
The letter has suggested some alternatives for the promotion of students. It says that for the final semester, students can be assessed based on internal assessment and no grades should be assigned for this semester’s papers at all.Students would need to pass their course based on the respective internal assessments and no grades for these courses will be mentioned in the grade-sheet. Many Universities in USA are following this similar method, the letter says.
Option for appearing in exam to improve grades should be allowed after the situation normalises.The letter also says that the unique situation of ex-students who were due to write their exams has also been overlooked in the directions issued by the University.
