Dr Parshotam S. Manhas
The onset of the first wave of Covid 19 in early 2020 forced the unprecedented closure of educational institutions world over and necessitated to shift from traditional classroom teaching to online mode. Schools and colleges have to enhance the use of digital learning platforms and continue leveraging the platforms such as Zoom, Whatsapp, MS Teams, Google Meet, Skype, and emails to achieve uninterrupted teaching-learning objectives.
Educational institutions will have replaced traditional exams with online assessment tools post Covid 19 lockdown as examinations are the important aspects of assessment and grading the students to the next level. The current ongoing health crisis owing to the so-called second wave of Covid 19 has once again forced everyone to move their academics, assessments, and examinations online. As we don’t know how long our studies, training, and examinations will keep happening online, schools, colleges and universities are taking the help of online proctoring software to make online exams easier to conduct.
The persistent Covid 19 outbreak paved the way to conduct online examinations and onscreen evaluations earlier than anticipated. Onscreen Evaluation System is the technology to improve the traditional paper checking process which is time-consuming and involves many logistical activities. Digital evaluation of answer sheets can be implemented using onscreen evaluation solutions like eParikshan. The encrypted answer scripts are distributed electronically, enabling examiners to mark on-screen and include comments and annotations as they would do in traditional marking. Instead of using a traditional exam method of pen and paper, many institutes and universities have started shifting to the online assessment process.
The online examination software is an open-source web-based platform used by educational institutes to conduct online exams. What all students require is a good internet connection and access to devices for taking objective and subjective tests. It plays an important role in their learning and skill development. Apart from colleges and universities, open-source online exam software solutions can be used across different organizations for managing entrance exams like CAT, MAT, NEET, IIT JEE, GATE, Civil services.
There are a few free online exam software applications among others that help ensure timeliness and transparency in the performance of evaluation.
Moodle is open-source software for Learning Management System (LMS) coded in PHP and distributed under GNU General Public License. This online examination platform has a strong and integrated system which is suitable for educators, administrators, and learners. Moodle with customizable management features is one of the most trusted, secure, and easy to use software available in the market.
Eklavvya is cloud-based online assessment software for education, which helps improve the examination structure in schools and colleges considerably. Using Eklavya online exam builder, you can conduct all types of online assessment, be it semester objective/ subjective question patterns exam, aptitude test, entrance exam test, scholarship exam, etc.
TCExam is open-source online examination software for the evaluation process of schools, universities, recruiting firms, and huge organizations. It also supports translation in several languages, even right to left languages like Arabic.
VirtualX is fully automated, free open source exam software that can be used in colleges, companies, and e-learning organizations to assign homework and conduct effective evaluations.
Papershala is an open-source online exam software for schools/ colleges to conduct online examinations or student analysis.
DigiExam is the leading digital assessment provider to create, deliver and grade academic tests.
Edbase is open source and free online exam software. It supports both online tests and paper tests. You can also conduct surveys and quizzes with this software.
TAO is open-source online exam software which provides a modular framework for collaborative test development with features like subject management, group management, and result management.
Kaldin is highly secure and customizable open source exam software which provides services to schools, colleges and corporate companies. It generates instant test results and backs up data in every 30 minutes.
Think Exam is comprehensive examination management software, which helps automate the complete cycle of test creation, designing, assignment for students, and result generation.
Kahoot – game-based assessment tool, Socrative, Google forms, Mentimeter, Poll Everywhere to name a few are also some useful online assessment tools.
To sum it up, online exam software helps educational institutes manage the student evaluation process with higher efficiency and ease. It is in fact the easiest way to conduct exams without asking students to physically come to the school, college, or any other institution. It also helps schools and colleges to effectively announce the results and even make the re-evaluation process simpler. It is therefore imperative to make the examination process easier by using open source exam softwares and change the dynamics of the education landscape.
(The author is Associate Professor of Physics at GDC Samba)
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