Introduction to Digital Evaluation

Evaluation of answer sheets of the exams conducted in the traditional way is a tedious and critical task. Lot of time and energy is invested by the teachers or examiners to check every question, mark the blank pages, write the marks for each question and count their total.

There is a likelihood of showing bias by the examiners if the identity of the students is not masked properly. The assignment and distribution of answer sheets to the examiners can be cumbersome.

Also, there is always a possibility of the answer sheets getting misplaced or damaged during transport.

The only solution to all these issues is the Digital Evaluation tool named as Eklavvya-OSM.

It is designed using advanced and innovative technology and can perform the work of examination controller, registrar, answer sheet evaluator such as teacher or examiners, moderators, result printing team all alone.

It has simplified the entire process of answer sheet evaluation. It includes many different features such as answer sheet scanning and storage, evaluation dashboard, analytics and reporting to measure performance.

It can manage exam pattern, student information, examiner, moderator and result.

After the brief introduction to the Digital Evaluation system, let us now understand the importance and necessity of digital evaluation and Onscreen marking of the answer sheets.

The need for Digital Evaluation of Answer Sheets

In the times of corona virus breakout, social distancing is the most beneficial way to prevent the transmission of the disease. Due to this, many educational institutes are becoming tech-savvy and conducting classes and exams virtually. 

Conducting online examinations can be a tricky job. Moreover, evaluation of answer sheets can be even difficult. This has given rise to invent solutions for digital evaluation.

The Digital Evaluation tool by Eklavvya can be the ultimate solution to addressing all the issues related to digital evaluation. It makes the entire process of answer sheet evaluation easier in the following ways:

• The scanning of physical answer sheets and their storage in digital format has helped in reducing the physical handling of answer sheets.
• The feature of QR code mapping is used to mask the identity and other details of the student which prohibits any kind of bias during evaluation
• The evaluation dashboard can keep track of the overall progress of the answer sheet evaluation using multiple statistics and a dashboard.
• It helps in managing exam pattern, student information, examiner and moderator as well as the result analytics to keep a track on the students’ performances.
• It also can check the answers sheets by comparing it to the model answers, provides the facility to add comments on the answer sheets, mark blank pages digitally, add or delete annotations, undo previous tasks and auto-calculate the results.

Thus, we can see that there are numerous benefits of opting for Digital Evaluation system. Let us move on to understand exactly how the entire process of Digital Evaluation actually works:

Process of Digital Evaluation

The step by step process of Digital Evaluation of answer sheets is as below:

1. The physical copies of manually written answers sheets by candidates are collected for scanning purposes. These answer sheets are scanned by using high-speed scanners at a secure location.
2. Students identity such as name, roll no, etc is masked using QR code which is left untouched by the high speed scanners. Hence, the examiners cannot see the details of the candidate which avoids partiality and gives way to fair and transparent evaluation process.
3. Later, the bar code on the answer sheet is scanned to map it with specific student records.
4. The questions and other examination attributes such as marks, Batch, exam name, semester and stream are already defined in the tool. The examination pattern is also in the system which is based on the question paper format.
5. The information of each student is imported in the system for each stream, semester and specialization. The students receive links and credentials for logging into the exam tool.
6. The examiners can also log into the system and see the summary of the answer sheets assigned to the individual, completed and pending evaluation count. It helps to track the overall progress of the answer sheet evaluation.
7. The examiners can start checking the sheets onscreen. They can identify and mark blank pages of the answer sheets. Various controls available on the screen help examiner to see the questions, their answers, mark them using correct or incorrect signs and allot the marks.
8. They can even undo or delete operations, add comments and calculate the total marks Onscreen digitally.

This entire process requires less than half of the time required to complete it manually. Now, let us see how the answers sheets are checked online in depth.

How to check answer sheets online with Digital Evaluation?

The answer sheets of subjective questions are checked remotely by the examiner. It is done in the following way:

1. The answers sheets are assigned to the examiners randomly by the system. The identity and other details of the students are masked under a bar code. This helps to prevent any favouritism while evaluating the answer sheets.
2. The examiners can login using credentials provided to them. The feature of face recognition can also be useful this case. Hence, they can check the papers from their home or any remote location.
3. The manually written answer sheets are scanned using high speed scanners and uploaded for evaluation and stored in a digital format.
4. As a result of this, the main copy of answer sheet remains secure while the copies of those answers sheets get distributed. This not only helps to save the physical storage space but also saves the answer sheets from any damage or misplacement.
5. The examiners and moderators receive these digital copies for evaluation.
6. The OSM tool can identify the blank pages. These pages can be stroked off directly by the examiner and they can move forward towards checking only those pages on which answers are written. This brings down the total time wasted on evaluation to a great extent.
7. The correct and incorrect signs are available to mark the answers by the examiners. They can assign the marks there and can add their own comments. The undo and delete options are also available if the examiners wish to cancel the previously performed tasks or make any other modifications in the annotations or assigned marks.
8. The marks allotted for each question are displayed by the system against the question numbers. The sum total or the final score of the marks is calculated by the system and displayed. This sum can be further used to decide the passing or failure status of the student.

Thus, we can see how eParikshan tool has made Digital Evaluation of digital answer sheet hassle-free and time saving.

Here is the demo video about how Digital Evaluation works

Advantages of Digital Evaluation

Now that we have understood the process of Digital Evaluation, lets check out some of the advantages:

• Scanning and storing of answer sheets

Each and every page of the answer sheet is scanned by the advanced high speed scanners. These scanners scan the answer sheet with proper masking   so that identity of the candidate remains sealed.

• Digital correction of exam papers

This one of the best advantages, as the examiners or moderator doesn’t need to visit a specific central location to collect or check the papers. The scanned copies of the physical paper can be shared with people and they can check them from any remote location by logging with their credentials. This can cut down the risk and cost of physical handling and transport of the answer sheets.

• Auto total calculation

An examiner needs to keep a track of the compulsory and optional questions as also marks allotted for each answer. The system considers the best of performances of the students for optional answers. The system calculates the marks as per the question paper pattern and marking scheme. It saves a lot of time consumed during manual evaluation.

• Result generation

The system can calculate the result and generate mark sheets instantly and even export in excel format. The manual tasks of entering the data and marks and validating them can be eliminated. The pressure of following the timeline to complete checking the entire set of answer sheets is completely reduced with the help of Eklavvya tool. The results, thus generated, would be accurate and within the stipulated time. 

• Student request for scan copy

It is mandatory for most of the institutions and universities to allow their student to issue their evaluated answer sheets. The students need to pay to get access to their checked answers sheets. In case of such requests, the institution needs to identify physical answer sheet copy, prepare a photocopy of it and issue it to the respective students. There is a significant logistical and administrative activity in this process. The eParikshan tool can eliminate all these hassles by sending the digital copyu of the evaluated answer sheets to the students through email. Hence, the entire process is simplified for the students as well as the institute to acquire the answer sheets for the future reference.

• Re-evaluation of answer sheet

If the students are not satisfied with the results, they can request for rechecking or re-evaluation of answer sheets. Tool for Digital Evaluation makes this task much simpler. This process can be completed sooner and can also help in generating the results quickly.

Thus, we can see that the Onscreen Evaluation is indeed very advantageous for the universities, examiners as well as students. It can help save time, money and all the efforts as well.

Let us move on to understand the roles of examiner and moderator in the evaluation process and how their work is simplified with the help of  tool.

Role of Examiner during Digital Evaluation

Examiners can log into the desktop or tablet to evaluate the answer sheets. This reduces the time consumed in travelling to the location where the manually written answer sheets are stored for checking.

The examiners can evaluate the answer sheets from anywhere as per their convenience. The following facilities are provided to the examiners for simplifying the evaluation process:

1. Reference to Model Answers and Question Papers-

The examiners can refer to an online copy of the model answers and question paper if they feel the need to do so. A link is provided to the examiner to refer the required documents to speed up the evaluation process.

2. Facility to add Comments on the Answer Sheets-

This feature comes handy when the examiner wants to add some remark for a particular answer written by the students.

3. Facility to Mark Blank Pages-

It is a tedious process to check every page of an answer sheets which contains total 16 pages but only first 4 pages have answers written on them and mark the rest of the pages as blank. The eParikshan tool can identify those pages beforehand so that the examiners can skip them while checking.

4. Add annotations to mark entries-

There is a facility to assign annotations for half mark as well as No attempt mark for the particular answer. Adding annotations is easy with the digital evaluation process. There are also annotations available for marking correct or incorrect answers.

5. Facility to Undo the previous tasks-

If the examiner has added the wrong annotation then it is possible to remove or erase it using the undo option.

6. Delete annotations-

Examiners also have the facility to delete the annotations added by mistake. Examiners can select a question and click on the delete annotation button in order to remove annotations added for a particular answer written by the student.

7. See auto-calculation of results-

The digital evaluation system by ePariskshan provides an easy way for automatic calculation of the results. The result is calculated based on the examination pattern, optional questions, compulsory questions, number of questions attempted by the student, extra questions attempted by the student, model answers, etc. Manual tabulation of result and total calculation is eliminated and result processing becomes simpler.

Role of Moderator during Digital Evaluation Process

• A moderator is like the second step in the process of evaluation that comes after examiner.
• Moderators are assigned to certain answer sheets that are already evaluated by the first level examiner.
• Moderator assigned for the evaluation is based on various criteria defined by the educational institutions or universities.
• In the case of physical evaluations, manual masking of annotations is needed in order to hide marks entered by the first level examiner.
• But with the help of eParikshan all the marks entered by the previous examiner are masked and the moderator can initiate a fresh evaluation of the answer sheet.
• As a result, the job of moderation becomes easy due to the digital evaluation.

The efforts and time invested by the examiners and moderators had certainly reduced to a great extent with the help of eParikshan tool. Let us now see how digital evaluation with eParikshan helps in generating the results.

Result Generation Process using Digital Evaluation

• Generation of results is again a tedious task if done manually. During the physical evaluation of the answer sheet, there is a need to add marks manually and calculate the result, which might bring delay in the declaration of the results.  
• Result processing involves activities like verifying the marks, entering them in the system and calculating them to generate the result. The entire process of result generation is automated and simplified with the help of the eParikshan Digital Evaluation process.
• A dashboard which uses multiple statistics such as the number of answer sheets evaluated, pending evaluation count, examiner wise evaluation status, stream wise evaluation status, the average time taken for evaluation is also maintained to keep track of the overall progress of the answer sheet evaluation.
• The system can track time taken for evaluation by the examiner and moderator which can help with the analysis of the average time needed to evaluate a particular answer sheet, the total time needed for evaluation, comparison of each examiner in terms of efficiency of the evaluation process, etc.
• The eParikshan tool can also keep a track on the batch performance for individual questions. For example, the tool can keep track of the percentage of students who attempted a particular question, percentage of students who skipped that question, percentage of students who got their answers right and received full marks or attempted and yet got their answers incorrect and received no marks, etc.

Summary

The examination system can succeed if students, teacher and universities are satisfied with the overall process associated with evaluation. The Digital Evaluation system helps to not only make this process professional, error-free and hassle free but also complete it in record time within the stipulated number of days.

We, at Splashgain Technology Solutions Pvt. Ltd., have been working hard incessantly to provide the best softwares like eParikshan which deals with Digital Evaluation of answer sheets.

We have been working with many reputed education institutes, universities in order to simplify their subjective answer sheet evaluation process using the most advanced feautres of technology. The digital evaluation process has been successfully adopted by many universities and education institutes in order to upgrade to the new and modern ways of conducting online examinations and their evaluation using the best technology available.

This has helped them to make huge savings on administration and logistics. With all these profitable advantages  and the convenience, the eParikshan tool has emerged as one of the best award winning digital evaluation tools in the country.

We, at East Africa University, with seven scattered branches, had to suddenly shift our examination to online because of a new government policy which was intended to limit the coronavirus epidemic spread.
Technologically, we were not ready for such unexpected instructions to move to an online examination.
However, we found Eklavvya, which came from the blue moon, to fit our needs.
Another big surprise for us was how Eklavvya had also appropriated its remote proctoring system with our requirements.It is hard to shorten our excitement and honest feeling of how Eklavvya and its proctoring system fitted our needs with a friendly user system.

Prof Abdisalam M Issa-Salwe
East Africa University

Eklavvya platform is amazing to conduct secure online exams for Graduation and Post-graduation courses. We have successfully conducted remote proctored assessments for our PG Courses. The Eklavvya platform has simplified our examination process to a great extent. It gives the flexibility to students to take the exams from home while being remotely proctored by Ekavvya’s Proctors.We truly appreciate this platform for Subjective type exams

Kalavathi A S
Indian Institute of Plantation Management