With colleges testing e-tablets, exams likely to go paperless
While the country makes efforts to go digital, Manipal University has also taken a step in this direction. For a while now, several batches of students at Manipal University's institutes have been taking their exams on electronic tablets instead of the traditional paper system. Not only is this a fresh experience for students but also an avenue for the administration to save 30 lakh sheets of paper every academic year.
For now, 10,000 students have used tablets for their mid-term examinations and assignments while the management is planning to increase the number to 25,000 by the end of 2018. A few institutions like Bengaluru's PES University have employed this paperless procedure and there has been a positive response from teachers and students alike.
Manipal University is attempting to employ the method in all parts of the regular academic curriculum at the earliest. Registrar of Manipal University, Dr Narayana Sabahit, told The Times of India,
"We introduced tabs on a trial basis for two years and got positive feedback from both teachers and students."
These electronic devices are exclusively designed for examinations and have a special writing surface to make the experience as close as possible to the traditional paper system. In this context, a separate app and interface are used where the students can also cut, copy, redo, and undo. The copy-paste option, though, has to be strictly monitored so as to avoid malpractice.
The introduction of this system for engineering students, though, might take some time as their tabs need to be specially designed with codes that reduce chances of copying, The Times of India reported.
Dr Sabahit told Daily Hunt,
"The move towards digital examination was taken in the wake of deteriorating environment conditions. As of now it is introduced to all streams except engineering, since it requires more technical features."
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