Pune’s SPPU goes digital in exam paper evaluation, expects new system to solve security issues
Savitribai Phule Pune University (SPPU) has decided to go digital in exam sheet evaluation with ‘onscreen evaluation’ of answer sheets from the forthcoming examinations for final year post-graduate examinations.
In the first phase of this initiative, the system will be used for about 4,000 students enrolled in various programmes within the SPPU campus in Pune and nearly 60,000 students enrolled in post-graduate programmes at affiliated colleges.
SPPU vice-chancellor Dr Karbhari Kale said that the new system would help the university resolve the issues related to the security of the answer sheets, transportation and delay in the assessment. He said the system was already used at Yashwantrao Chavan Open University and Babasaheb Ambedkar Technological University.
As part of the process, the contracted agency would scan answer sheets received from the examination centres in complete secrecy. Then, the sheets would be sent to the moderator (subject-expert) through a log-in id and password. The moderator will evaluate the answer sheet and fill in the marks. At one time, a moderator will have access to 30 answer sheets. Once the evaluation is done, a moderator will receive another set of answer sheets.
Pro-vice-chancellor Sanjeev Sonwane said the university’s education department has been using the system for the past few years for the exams conducted by the department. He said that the system would now be expanded. “This will help us with faster evaluation of exam papers and timely declaration of results,” said Sonawane.
In 2014, then vice-chancellor W N Gade introduced ‘onscreen evaluation’ as a pilot project for evaluation of the exams of the pharmacy degree courses but the project has taken a back seat since then.
