MUMBAI: Even as more departments at IIT-Bombay are giving their nod for the semester-end exam to be conducted in the hybrid mode (students on the campus will take the offline exam under teachers' physical vigilance and the ones at home will be giving the digitally-proctored exam), students on the campus have raised their concerns over not having a level-playing field.
An article in their campus magazine, Insight, mentioned that professors put in their best efforts, but no online examination system has proven to be completely cheat-proof and the ones giving the exams from home are at an advantage. The end-semester exams are scheduled to commence from Monday.
In their article, the students pointed that the relative grading system has ‘pit student against student and mere margins of a few decimal points can cause a grade to drop’. The students mentioned that it is an accepted fact that varying degrees of cheating always take place.
‘With high weightages resting on the end semester exams, the outcome of this exam often determines the grade. In this context, the necessity of a level playing field is amplified further,’ they wrote. ‘The advantage to students giving exams online is no secret and the fact that making sets of students write the exams in different conditions, with the conditions having a direct impact on the outcome of the exams would lead to an imbalance of advantage,’ the article stated.
A professor said that the idea of hybrid mode was floated before the mid-semester exams as it was suspected that students who are on the campus may collaborate to copy. “In-person exams were implemented with full Covid related precautions including distancing and good ventilation. Though we agree that no system is 100% foolproof, but we are trying to minimise cheating in online exams,” said the professor.
He added that while students did get better grades on average in the online semesters last year compared to earlier semesters, that cannot be attributed to copying. Grading normalised subsequently, he added.
Professor S Sudarshan, deputy director (academic and infrastructure affairs), said that cheating cases are not tolerated at the institute. "Our faculty members make all efforts to prevent online exam related malpractices, using video proctoring. Several students have in fact been caught, and stringent punishment has been given to ensure that it acts as a deterrent," he said.
Barring the first-year undergraduate students, the institute is expecting a majority of students to be back on the campus in the next semester, though returning to campus will still be voluntary, based on current government guidelines.
