DU readies guideline to hold online exams

As the Covid-19 situation has deteriorated in the country, Dhaka University (DU) authorities have decided to take its postponed examinations online instead of in-person.

The examinations were scheduled to start from the first week of July. But amid the current lockdown situation -- which will be strictly enforced from today -- DU authorities said they will meet today to decide whether they can start the exams from the announced date.

Pro-VC (Academic) Prof ASM Maksud Kamal told The Daily Star that they have already sent a guideline to the departments to hold the exams online.

"We are going to hold honours and masters final examinations online instead of in-person. We have taken the decision following our previous Academic Council decision," Prof Kamal said.

According to the decision of the Academic Council meeting on June 1, honours and master's final examinations will begin from the first week of July, if the coronavirus situation in the country does not deteriorate.

At that time, the council hadn't finalised whether they would take the exams in-person or virtually.

However, within this time, the Persian Language and Literature department already took their 7th semester final exam in-person.

They were now supposed to hold the 8th semester's exams, but following the lockdown announcement, they had to postpone it again.

Prof Saiful Islam, a teacher of this department, told the Daily Star that he got the authorities' direction and postponed the 8th semester exam.

How the online exams will take place:

The directive, which was sent to the departments, said the exam committee members of respective departments have to use Google Classroom to hold the exams, using institutional E-mail IDs.

Visually challenged students will get ten extra minutes for the exams. They have to select their audiographer and send their attested biodata to the department chairs at least seven days before the exams.

Examinees should use their roll numbers instead of their names in Zoom platform, and have to join at least 15 minutes before the test. They must participate in the test by keeping their device's video switched on. Students should write in A4 size papers and mention their role and page number in every page.

At the end of the exam, the candidates need to scan or take photos of their answer sheets and upload it to the same "Assignment" section of Google Classroom as a single pdf file along with the cover page.

An examinee will not be allowed to upload more than one file. Everyone should use a common format for naming the uploaded files as "course code_exam roll number".

The director also wrote that the Zoom platform could be used for taking vivas.

If anyone faces obstacles related to electricity or internet outage, examinees should inform the invigilators immediately, the directive said.