Himachal Pradesh University Journal, July 2011 Automated Integrated University Examination System Mohini Bhardwaj*1 Amar Jeet Singh** INTRODUCTION Information and Communication Technology (ICT) has become a valuable, decisive and critical resource for individuals, communities, enterprises and organisations. ICT has reached at every door step, but its protenctial has not been fully utilised. ICT is a very helpful tool for providing good governance by bringing a sea? hange in the working of organisations and institutions. Most of the developing countries now understand the importance of ICT and have been adopting it as a basic tool for good governance. The new ICT mediated good governance is also called e? governance. In most of the government run Indian Universities, examination system is managed manually. The manual examination system is facing many problems such as not declaring examination results in time and accurately.
ICT is an effective tool for integrating and automating various activities of examination system at different administrative levels to bring reliable, efficient, scalable, transparent and robust e? governance solutions. NEED OF ICT IN EXAMINATION SYSTEM In Indian higher education system, there has been many fold increase in its institutional capacity since independence. As per University Grants Commission (2008) report titled “Higher Education in India?
Issues related to expansion, inclusiveness, quality and finance”, the number of universities in India has increased from 20 in 1950 to about 431 in 2008, colleges from 500 in 1950 to 20,677 in 2008 and enrolment of students has increased from mere 100,000 in 1950 to 11,612,000 in 2008. The Gross Enrolment Ratio (GER) i. e. which is a ratio of persons enrolled in higher education institutions to total population of the persons in age group of 18 to 23, rose from 0. 7% in 1950 to about 11% in 2007 Still the fact remains that the GER in India is quite low compared to that of the developed countries and world average having GERs 54. 6 % and 23. 2% respectively. Indian government aims to bring GER to 15 % by 2012. India’s higher education system is the third largest in the world next to China and United States. Student enrolment at university level and at collegiate level is increasing manifold. The management of examination data of the *Research Scholar, Department of Computer Science, H. P. University, Shimla **Associate Professor, Department of Computer Science, H.
P. University, Shimla 1 Himachal Pradesh University Journal, July 2011 large number of students is a very tiresome and a complex job involving different types of data by different administrative line branches. According to Sofield (2000), many developing countries have not taken up ICT to the fullest possible extent as a means of reaching increased socio? economic development. Educational institutions are also increasingly recognizing the importance of ICT in education and examination reforms.
ICT, as an assortment of new computing and communication artifacts, is a rapidly advancing technology. ICT has provided means for faster and better communication, efficient storage, retrieval and processing of data and exchange and utilization of information to its users, be they individuals, groups, businesses, organizations or governments. ICT has the potential to provide better services to the citizens, interaction with business enterprises and communication and exchange of information between different agencies of the government in a speedy, convenient, efficient and transparent manner.
If optimum potential of ICT is utilised, it can definitely increase efficiency and effectiveness of the system. The cases of Indian railway computerization and online banking are the candidate examples demonstrating the benefits of ICT. Thus, ICT has become indispensable and an effective tool of growth in any society. The nature of technology is that everything becomes almost transparent once it is ingrained in everyday life. In his 2004 Independence Day speech, Dr. A. P.
J. Abdul Kalam, the then President of India, said that “there is a demand for a more transparent and reliable system of examination, evaluation and reporting”. EXAMINATION SYSTEM IN INDIAN UNIVERSITIES Examination occupies a very significant place in a university system. Examination is an instrument to test what the student has learned and retained in his mind during course of study. University examinations have stimulating effect on both students and teachers.
To the Student, it gives a goal toward which he is directed and impels him to attain that goal with in specified period of time. Examination may be used as a means to organize and integrate knowledge, it encourages student to go through various books and integrate ideas to respond to a given problem. For a teacher too, examination gives a stimulus and goal orientation to his work. In a nutshell, we may say that examinations are inevitable, without examination the work of students and teachers will neither have precision and any direction.
Examination is always an effective instrument to evaluate the quality and quantity of knowledge or say learning in a specific field Mishra (1988). University examinations are conducted for each stage at the end of the academic session. There is hardly any month for which there is no exam. Examinations continue for months causing physical and mental stress both for students as well as for university administration. Declaration of results also takes very long time owing to which students remain ideal for months together. Moreover, the dates of examinations and those of declaration of
