Exams are one of the major tasks in an academic cycle, and answer sheets are an integral part of it. But, what if the answer sheet is eliminated? It could help save around 1.4 crore sheets of paper a year from Manipal Academy of Higher Education (MAHE) alone. To achieve this, students of MAHE use e-pad (exam pad), a tablet PC on which they scribble seamlessly with the help of a stylus.

Vinod V Thomas, Registrar, Evaluation, MAHE, told businessline that MAHE believes in academic transparency and environmental friendliness. The primary goal of digitising the assessment and evaluation process is to make it transparent, error-free and fast, with the added benefit of less manpower and environmental friendliness.

MAHE offers 277 academic programmes in the faculties of Health Sciences; Science, Technology and Management; and Humanities, Liberal Arts, and Social Sciences across five campuses. About 29,150 students are enrolled in these programmes.

“Since most of the examinations were conducted in digital format, we were able to save around 1.4 crore sheets, which would have saved around 500 trees as per the calculations provided by an organisation, ‘Conservatree’,” he said. Around 16,000 students wrote 7.77 lakh examinations in the last five years using e-pads.

How it works

Before the start of the examination, students are asked to calibrate their stylus using an application available on the e-pad. This helps to adjust the angle at which students hold the stylus, the pressure they apply while writing and so on, allowing them to follow their regular handwriting styles.

Once a particular student is registered for an examination, his/her roll number will be tagged to the registered courses and automatically to their respective biometric data. On the day of the examination, students will be provided with an e-pad, on which they have to authenticate themselves using their biometric data and take their examination.

The evaluators too login on a computer using their biometrics to conduct valuation. Unless all the questions are evaluated, they cannot submit the script. In addition, automated tabulation eliminates the chances of counting mistakes and missing evaluations.

All the documents in the e-pad’s cloud are end-to-end encrypted and will get decrypted only for the assigned users, Thomas said.

MAHE was the first university to implement the e-pad system developed by a Singapore-based company in 2016. “Based on our feedback and suggestions at multiple times, the product got developed and implemented,” he said.

Paper vs e-pad

At MAHE, exams were originally conducted in the traditional way — with paper-based hall tickets, question papers and answer sheets. “In a large university like ours, where many exams were taking place, this was a laborious process involving several staff,” he said.

In the e-pad, evaluation happens on-screen. Teachers can enter the marks as well as the comments, if any, on the screen, thereby eliminating the possibility of totalling errors. Through this, the institute can also generate a consolidated mark sheet straight away for result-processing.

With the e-pad system, MAHE could publish the results of all major exams within one week from the date of the last exam, he said. “Since the answer papers are available as electronic files, we can save it for a longer duration without the fear of losing it. Also, this will not occupy any physical space. The e-format makes the data retrieval process seamless and fast,” he said.

Students say that the feeling of writing is as good as on a paper surface. Manoj M Mallya, a final-year engineering student at Manipal Institute of Technology, said the speed of writing is the same in both the paper and e-pad.

Asked about the use of formulas while answering queries, he said a handbook has been embedded within the e-pad and students can refer to the handbook while writing answers.

Ronel Fernandes, third-year student of Kasturba Medical College of MAHE, said students can use the stylus on the e-pad for drawing as well. There are options for selecting multiple colours, drawing tools and so on. This avoids carrying piles of stationery to the hall, and drawings can be presented in a visually appealing manner, he said.

AP Poorvi, third year B.Com student from Department of Commerce of MAHE, said students were given orientation after joining the course on the use of the e-pad system. There are even options for selecting page types such as ruled or unruled, line spacing, she said.

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