DU to go for open-book online exam for UG & PG if COVID-19 situation doesn’t improve

May 14: In a notification issued on Thursday, the Delhi University (DU) stated that the examination for final-year students of all undergraduate (UG) and postgraduate (PG) courses, including those registered in the School of Learning (SoL) and the Non-Collegiate Women Education Board (NCWEB), will be held from July 1. However, in case the situation arising out of the COVID-19 outbreak did not normalise, it will adopt ‘Open Book’ mode to conduct the test.

The notification issued on Thursday by the Dean of Examination Vinay Gupta stated, “In case the situation doesn’t appear to be normal because of Covid-19 and to maintain social distancing, safety and health of the students become difficult, the University will adopt an alternative mode of examination i.e Open Book Examination (OBE) for final semester students of all undergraduate and postgraduate programmes and streams along with arrears previous semester/year. Students shall be allowed to attempt their examination from seating at home or any place as per the guidelines issued in this regard.”

All these examinations shall be conducted in three sessions in a day including Sundays with a duration of two hours. The University will release a detailed guideline on conducting Open Book Examinations (OBE) along with the date sheet for UG programmes will be released by the University by the end of May. The date sheet for PG programmes will be notified separately by the respective departments, centre, and faculty.

During the two-hour exam, the students will be given one extra hour to download the question paper, scan the answer sheets and upload them. The question paper will have six questions; students will be asked to attempt four in two hours.

However, both students and teachers are opposing the move. Commenting on the issue, a senior faculty member of DU said, “If open books exams are being proposed, we are not prepared to conduct them. Such exams are only feasible if classroom teaching has taken place.” A member of the Academic Council of DU said, “By introducing the open-book format, things will get further complicated. Our students are already struggling to attend online classes due to logistical challenges. We can’t experiment with the future of our students.” Teachers also raised concerns over the poor Internet connectivity in case of students living in remote areas. The university should promote students based on their internal marks and last semester exams, said a college teacher.

Meanwhile, the Delhi University Students’ Union said it would suggest alternative measures as well after wider consultation with all stakeholders. A group of final-year students in the University has started an online petition on Thursday demanding the cancellation of their examination. They expressed the view that at a point in time when a lot of students do not have smartphones or laptops, thinking about online examination system is an absurd move.