Paperless examination using Exam pad (E – pad): A unique practice of evaluation system implemented in Manipal Academy of Higher Education (Institution of Eminence Deemed to be University) (MAHE) across all the programs of offered in all its campuses 

Development of Best Practice

MAHE offers 277 academic programs in the Faculties of Health Science, Science Technology & Management and Humanities Liberal Arts & Social sciences across 5 campuses. There are about 29150 students enrolled in these programs and conducts about 4.5 lakhs examinations annually.

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. Students are given a writable electronic tablet called E-pad to write exams. The biometric system embedded in the E-pads ensures the examinee's authenticity. This eliminates the possibility of any student impersonating another. Because this information is also used to determine their attendance, there is no need to collect the students' signatures manually during the exam. Prior to the examination, the question papers are encrypted and uploaded to the cloud. During the scheduled time slot, the question papers will be visible on the E-pad at the same time for all the students appearing in the examination, and if the students have not submitted the answer paper manually by the end of the time limit, the answer paper will be automatically submitted. This will avoid any complaints from students about the delay in receiving the question paper or providing extra time for submission to some students. Students can use a stylus to write their answers on the E-pad’s designated areas. There are options for selecting multiple colours, drawing tools, and so on, which allows students to present their answers in a visually appealing manner. There are even options for selecting page types such as ruled or unruled, line spacing, etc.  As the tactile sensation while writing is similar to that of writing on paper, students will notice very little difference or difficulty in using the E-pad. The invigilator can monitor the progress of each student's examination using another device called e-Proctor.

During evaluation, the examiners can view the answer scripts on a computer monitor. The entire marking process uses advanced technology to replicate the pen-and-paper marking system. The system generates a username and password for each examiner. Once the examiners have logged in, they will be able to see the scripts assigned for marking and begin evaluating the papers. While doing so, the examiner has the option of evaluating all of the assigned scripts question by question, or they can choose to evaluate one script completely before moving on to the next. The software automatically computes the total marks and notifies the evaluator if any questions are missed. 

Additionally, the system prevents the examiner from awarding more than the maximum marks assigned for a question. Following the evaluation, the institute/university can generate a data sheet with question-by-question marks scored by each student, facilitating easy outcome attainment analysis in an outcome-based education system.

Deployment of Best Practice

At MAHE, exams were originally conducted in a traditional way, with pen and paper. The hall tickets were provided to the students in paper copies, and they were manually checked at the examination halls. Question papers, answer sheets, and additional sheets were also manually distributed. Examiners used to assess the answer scripts, and the marks were physically entered. To avoid any manual errors, two clerical staff members used to add up the entries and double-check them. In a large university like ours, where many exams were taking place, this was a laborious process involving several staff. All of these mundane jobs have transitioned to higher level and manpower requirement has reduced due to exam digitization. Training is organised at several levels. During the orientation program for newly admitted students an overview of the E-pad is given. A thorough workshop will be held later in the first few weeks, during which all the students will have ample opportunity to practise writing on E-pads. The students' biometric information will be taken at this time. All newly employed faculty members will also receive training on creating question paper and on-screen marking. Authorized teachers upload the question paper to the E-pad cloud two to three days prior to the exam's scheduled time. If the exam is an internal one, the head of the department will subsequently verify and approve the questions. The uploading and approval processes for end of term university exams are handled by designated personnel of the office of the Registrar-Evaluation. The approved documents will be immediately encrypted.

On the day of the examination, invigilators will distribute the E-pads to all the students. Students will open the E-pads using the biometric credentials and verify the entries. Later the students may calibrate the stylus using the application available in the E-pads, which ensures smooth and efficient writing experience. The question paper will be made accessible to the students on their E-pads at precisely the designated time, at which point they can begin taking the test. The ability for students to choose between regular and unruled paper, a variety of drawing tools, and several coloured pen tips are just a few benefits of writing on E-pads. If a student doesn't submit their answer script within the allotted time, it will be submitted automatically.

The evaluators must use their login information to access the E-pad portal on a computer in order to conduct a paper valuation. They can choose to grade the paper in a question-by-question format or sequentially. Unless all the assigned questions are evaluated, one cannot submit the papers. This will ensure complete evaluation of a script. The automated tabulation eliminates chances of counting mistakes and missing evaluations. These characteristics make this E-pad system much stronger than the traditional approach. Following the evaluation process, the mark list of each batch of students can be downloaded as excel files, which will be utilised to process the results further.

Monitoring of Best Practice

The E-pad examination system has been successfully initiated across all the institutions of MAHE. Students and faculty members have accepted the new system positively and are well versed in the E-pad examination process. Continuous feedback has been collected about the examination process from all the students. Feedback and suggestions are also being taken from various constituent institutions. Based on the user feedback many modifications have been made to the user interface of E-pad system and to the types of reports generated. Since the examination using E-pad are conducted in a fully digitised manner, continuous logs have been generated at the back end. These logs are the evidence for the student activities during the examination process. If any grievances or complaints are raised by any student, that can be verified and appropriate response can be given back in a convincing way. After the introduction of this fully transparent and digitised examination system, number of grievances about the examination processes have reduced drastically. Due to the introduction of question-wise distributed evaluation, the number of instances of marks change/revaluation also has reduced. Another significant change evident due to the digitization of the examination process is the drastic reduction in manpower requirement for conduction of examination and also in the paper consumption. During the last five years around 16,000 students wrote 7,77,241 examinations in MAHE. Since most of these examinations were conducted in digital format we could save approximately 1.4 crore sheets, which would have saved around 500 trees as per the calculations provided by an organization, ‘Conservatree’.

Results of Best Practice 

The significant achievement of MAHE after introducing this digital way of conducting the descriptive and objective type of examination is the reduction of the paper consumption. Being a multi-disciplinary university having 38 constituent Institutions/Departments, offering more than 275 programmes, one can imagine the number of examinations that are carried out during one academic cycle. Currently, more than 4.5 lakhs of examinations were conducted using E-pads every year. Previously all these examinations were conducted using pen and paper. Paper was used for printing the hall tickets, question papers and answer booklets. Hence many trees were saved. Another outcome of digitization of the examinations include the easy archiving of the answer sheets. Since the answer papers are available as E-files, we can save it for a longer duration without any fear of losing. Not only that, this will not occupy any physical space. The soft forms also help to make the data retrieval process seamless and fast. 

Why is it a Best Practice?

This can be explained at multiple levels;
 

Evidence making

MAHE is one of the very few universities in the world who have adopted this innovative examination system. This ensures transparency with authenticity in the assessment practices. Availability of the activity logs of writing process enhances the credibility of the examination system and brings more confidence to the university in establishing the evidences of student participation and actions happening during the theory examinations.

Outcome attainment analysis 

MAHE follows outcome/competency-based education. In an outcome-based education environment, ensuring the level of outcome attainment by the learners is very important. Here the assessments are directed to know whether the learners are achieved the expected learning outcomes. This is very much important as the course outcomes are targeting to a group of intended learning outcomes. The marks scored by each learner against the questions direct to a particular course outcome indicates whether they have achieved the expected outcome, which ultimately helps to find out the level of course outcome by the cohort as a whole. Due to the availability of the question wise marks in digital format immediately after the paper evaluation in the E-pad system, the outcome analysis process is easy and error free. 

Eco friendliness

The reduction in the amount of paper used after introducing the E-pad system has tremendous impact on the environment. During the last five years around 16,000 students wrote 7,77,241 examinations in MAHE. Since most of these examinations were conducted in digital format we could save approximately 1.4 crore sheets, which would have saved around 500 trees as per the calculations provided by an organization, ‘Conservatree’.

Number of examinations conducted using E-Pad since 2016

Data storage and retrieval 

Since the papers are available as e-files, we can save it for a longer duration without any fear of losing. Not only that, this will not occupy any physical space. The soft forms also help to make the data retrieval process seamless and fast.  

Student testimonials 

“… it was a great experience and I highly appreciate the effort that has been put behind the ExamPad” 
 

“I liked it. Initially it was difficult, but with time, the speed increases and you get used to the functions” 

“Impressive ! Very well planned and executed” 

“Experience was good. Initially – difficult; later – smooth” 

“It was good, but the Screen can be more wider and sensitive” 

“It was unique and I feel privileged to be given an opportunity to use it”