New-age exams giving sleepless nights? Delhi University says dial us for help

NEW DELHI: With Delhi high court clearing the road for the online Open Book Examinations of Delhi University from Monday, colleges are trying to assist final-year students and allay their anxiety. Besides setting up control rooms, colleges are staying in touch with students through WhatsApp groups to keep them motivated.
Late on Saturday, DU issued a notification giving out details and processes to be followed by the undergraduate and postgraduate candidates during the examinations.While many students are still worried about possible glitches on the examination portal, the university has assured everybody that their problems will be resolved.

Hindu College has set up a control room through which students can be in constant touch with department teachers. A WhatsApp group has also been created for resolution of any problem during the examinations. “I will personally send a message to my students as they may be anxious about the exams,” said principal Anju Srivastava. The college is also ready to provide its computers to the students who may want to take the papers on the campus.
SGTB Khalsa College principal Jaswinder Singh said DU had deployed nodal officers who could be contacted for any issue. “The college will also be in constant touch with students all through the three examination slots. We are doing our best but there is always a concern about the internet connectivity. Hopefully the exams will go smoothly,” Singh said.
School of Open Learning (SOL) director U S Pandey told TOI that they had set up 32 phone lines for students. SOL has uploaded frequently asked questions and their answers on its website and also sent it to the students to clear their doubts.
“The exams will go smoothly,” claimed Sanjeev Singh of DU’s computer centre. The duration of each examination has been increased to allow students extra time to download and upload question papers and answer scripts. “DU is hopeful of a good operation and if students face any problem, they will always have the option of an offline exam,” he said.
The high court on Friday cleared the examinations after DU had changed the dates twice owing to the Covid-19 conditions and the glitches faced by students during the mock tests.
While several students feel they are not “mentally prepared”, many teachers and students have accepted the idea despite having reservations. Jaishree Kumar, a final-year history (H) student at Ramjas College, said “there are still chances of glitches. Our teachers have told us that the question papers will be set leniently and I hope the checking is also lenient.”
On her preparation, Kumar said many students had expected the court to strike down OBE. “It is not an easy environment to study with the raging pandemic.” Another student alleged that “we are sure there will be lapses and many students are worried about the possibility of an offline exam in September”.
Pankaj Garg, who teaches mathematics at Rajdhani College, still have objections. Not only the court has pointed out many loopholes in the examination procedure, the attitude of UGC and DU has been “callous as students do not have much reading material”, he alleged.
Political science teacher Tanvir Aeijaz felt the absence of any form of teacher training to deal with the queries “could be disastrous as teachers may have to handle these for over 12 hours daily till August 31”.