Bhubaneswar: Odisha government has allowed Biju Patnaik University of Technology (BPUT) and Veer Surendra Sai University of Technology (VSSUT) to conduct final semester exams of all courses online.
In a notification issued Friday, the Skill Development and Technical Education department asked the BPUT and VSSUT vice-chancellors to conduct the final semester exams of all courses online to give an exit opportunity to the final year students.
The universities have been asked to conduct the final semester exam online with an ‘open book system’ and set of innovative questions based on outcome based education, which tests the applied knowledge of the student.
This goes against the usual practice for conducting the examinations and will be a test not only for the students but also for the examiners.
The students will be allowed to appear the exams from their homes.
The State government has asked the universities to devise their own pattern for conducting the online examination as per the guidelines issued by UGC/AICTE in wake of the COVID-19 pandemic. They have also been directed to ensure security and preservation of data on their respective servers.
Due to non-availability of broadband or internet connectivity in several interior and rural areas of the state, students will be allowed to use computer facilities of several professional/technical institutes of the government ITIs, polytechnic institutes nearest to their homes, the notification read.
In addition, the students opting out of the online mode of examination shall be allowed to appear for the examination in offline mode after reopening of the educational institutions.
The Odisha government has also directed BPUT and VSSUT to conduct the exams during the first week of July and declare the results by the end of July 2020.