No clarity whether MU will continue digital evaluation

Even as the University of Mumbai announced on Tuesday that it has declared the results of all 477 subjects, there is still uncertainty over whether digital evaluation of papers, known as on-screen marking (OSM), would continue to be used. 

The exams in the first term are set to begin in November, university officials are still in two minds about the system. While some have suggested the scrapping of this system and going back to the traditional off-screen method, others feel that giving up on the system at this stage after working on it for over four months would be a loss for the varsity. 

With the uncertainty, experts are now worried about the repeat of the debacle caused by last-minute implementation of the system this year, which led to the delay in declaring results of 4.9 lakh students.

“Onscreen evaluation is good but it’s time the university takes a call about whether it should be followed in future. If the method is continued, efforts need to be put in to ensure that it is error-free and there are no glitches that would make the assessment and result declaration smooth. If the university fails to do this, it would be total chaos yet again,” said a senior professor on the condition of anonymity. 

Arjun Ghatule, acting director, Board of Examinations and Evaluation, said that the university is likely to take a call at the meeting of the Board of Examinations (BoE) scheduled on September 26.