DU portal unable to handle answer sheets as students complain of host of technical issues

New Delhi: At 7 in the morning, Abhirani S, a final-year Botany Honours student at the University of Delhi, sat down in front of her laptop for the online open-book examinations (OBEs) - a first in the varsity's history - scheduled to begin on Monday. For the next five hours, in addition to struggling with a lengthy paper, she had to struggle with the anxiety of not being able to upload her answer scripts.

"My exam started at 7:30 am and was supposed to end by 11:00 am. That included uploading the paper, but I finished at 12:00 pm because the answer sheet was not getting uploaded," she said.

The DU student from Kerala is home and has accessible internet, but said the whole controversy over the online examinations had left her and many others like her stressed and underprepared. "Till yesterday, we were not sure whether the examinations would take place. It was only in the evening that we received a notification that exams would be held from Monday," she added.

The students were given an alternative email id to upload their answers if the varsity's portal was not working. "Almost everyone in my class faced the uploading issue; we wasted one hour on it. As mandated by the high court, one hour extra was given for uploading. But when the paper was not uploading we started panicking and had to immediately send it on the alternative email ids. There were two emails and I sent it on both," she said.

However, students said that there was no acknowledgement from the other side. Richa, who is pursuing Masters in East Asian Studies, said that after her answer sheet failed to upload, she sent her answers to the given mail but "I did not receive any acknowledgement on whether they have received my answers on it," she added.

The final-year student, who is stuck in a containment zone, also said she did not have WiFi and had to appear for the exam through her mobile internet. "I could not get the WiFi due to the restrictions here. I somehow managed to give the exam, which was very lengthy. Now, I have to think of some other alternative to give the exam," Richa added. The anxious student said that she might have to move houses to give the rest of the examinations.

The DU has provided for an option where students who are unable to successfully submit answer sheets can appear in a physical examination scheduled for sometime in September. It is yet to reveal when the results for the OBEs will be announced.

Besides, Deepak, a visually impaired final-year student of English Honours from St Stephen's College was unable to give the exams due to inaccessibility to a scribe and other study material. "For one and a half months, we had been requesting the authorities to provide us with a writer, as we are visually impaired students, however, no demand was listened to, which is why we have not been able to give the examinations," he told Millennium Post over the phone.

The Dean of Examinations at DU did not respond to multiple calls and messages from Millennium Post about issues being faced by students during the exams. The high court had allowed for student grievances to be addressed by nodal officers and then sent to a grievance redressal committee for redressal within five days.

Deepak, from Bihar, is stuck in a containment zone in addition to having to deal with the devastating floods in the state, which have made things more difficult. "There was no study material provided to us and we require different devices, which we left in our hostel rooms," Deepak said, adding that given the scenario, it will be difficult for students like him to travel all the way to Delhi in September for the physical exams.

Meanwhile, students from Jammu and Kashmir had to manage their exams on 2G internet, which was also not working properly and said it was difficult to download heavy files. "If by any chance, we got connected, the connection doesn't remain stable. We missed out on so much studies due to the internet. This has been depressing for us," a final-year student from Srinagar said.

Meanwhile, teachers too are anxiously awaiting instructions from the authorities regarding the evaluation of these examinations. "As of now, there has been no information regarding the evaluation process by the DU administration. But we are assuming the details will be shared with us in a day or two," Rajib Ray, professor at DU and president of DUTA said.