Thursday, April 27, 2017

MU to go in for digital evaluation from this year

On-screen marking to be introduced by month-end; 9,000 teachers will be trained at 50 centres

University of Mumbai, from this year, will be carrying out the evaluation of answer sheets digitally, through on-screen marking.
Earlier this year, Vice Chancellor Sanjay Deshmukh had announced the move for all answer sheets, which amount to over 19 lakh, but there are trouble in adopting the technology and training teachers.
Teachers’ apprehensions
A release from the university on Sunday said the Vice Chancellor reaffirmed the decision at a meeting of chairpersons, examiners, and officials who set the question papers. The meeting also discussed the apprehensions expressed by faculty members. If all goes as per the plan, the university will introduce the online marking system by month-end.
“In our engineering faculty, we have been following an on-screen marking-based evaluation for the last six years,” said Leeladhar Bansod, deputy registrar (public relations). “So we decided to take this to other faculties too.”
Around 9,000 teachers, who are in-charge of the evaluation, will be trained this week, at 50 centres across all the seven districts under the jurisdiction of the university.
E-tenders invited
Further, e-tenders are being invited for the software. Mr. Deshmukh told The Hindu that the delay in implementing the system is not because of technical glitches or implementation problems, but because the university has not received enough applications for the software. “We need a system detailed enough to support 19,50,000 candidates. We have extended the deadline for e-tenders to April 27.”
Students’ benefit
The major advantage of the system, Mr. Deshmukh said, is students will no longer have to wait for weeks to know the results of evaluation or re-evaluation. It will also make the role of the teacher easier, since answer sheets can be scanned onto the computer, with the answer key on the right side of the screen. The new system will leave no room for any manipulations at any point of assessment.

Source: THE HINDU-25th April,2017