Schools are gearing up to conduct pre-board exams online after the second week of December with an eye on CBSE board examinations for Class X and XII. For these assessments, many schools have planned their own AI-based platforms.

On December 3, CBSE had announced that the board exams scheduled for next year will be conducted offline. However, with the possibility of conducting pre-boards online, schools are trying to ensure no unfair means are adopted by the students while taking the test, and for this the parents or guardians have been assigned as the invigilators. Some schools have taken it a step forward and asked the students to keep a mirror behind them so that the camera captures various angles.

After reopening in the first week of November for around two weeks, schools in Haryana were ordered closed after several students were found with the infection. While the date of resumption of physical classes in the state was set for December 10, the directorate of education has written to the government urging schools to remain shut till the end of this year. 

“Earlier, we had hoped to conduct the pre-boards offline in small batches. But it seems unlikely now, and so, we have decided to conduct the assessment online. Most board papers are 80-mark exams, and we want to give students the practice of writing the whole paper. But we also want to make the experience simpler for them,” said Bhism Bhardwaj, President, Gurgaon Sahodaya, an association of schools in the district.

Charu Maini, principle of DAV Public School, Sector 49 said they are employing artificial intelligence based platforms for smoother monitoring and assistance of students. The software will take photos every few seconds and create time-lapse videos of each examinee to be shared with the teachers. It will help identify students asking for external help or looking away.

Multiple photo grabs of students, taken every few seconds, are stitched to create a time lapse video of every examinee, which is shared with the teachers for proctoring as a report. The technology identifies test takers seeking external help or looking away from the test-screen and flags them.

“The platform's additional features such as auto-selection and randomization of questions, navigation control, and window and image proctoring are built in to ensure a seamless examination process,” said Maini. “We have decided to divide each paper into two parts. First MCQ-based question will appear with time frame and the second part would be subjective. After writing the paper, they will submit by converting the photos of their answers into PDFs, and make evaluation less stressful for teachers,” she added.

Sudha Goyal, Principle of Scottish High International School said they will also be using a similar technology for conducting the pre-board examination. “We require students to keep their webcams on during the exam. We encourage the use of two devices, one to download and refer to the question paper and the other in which the camera can be on continuously to monitor,” she said.

Students of HBSE (Haryana Board of School Education), meanwhile, are waiting for directions to conduct the pre-board exams. “We will conduct the tests virtually in December but still hope to hold a second round of pre-boards offline next month. Our board students will be writing two-and-a-half-hour exams, but we cannot force them to keep their cameras on if they say they cannot. So, we will also be conducting oral exams for an honest assessment,” said Yashpal Yadav, state president, Haryana School Sikshan Sangathan.