Building the Universities of the future with digital evaluation

There is no denying the fact that the future of education depends on innovation. But as the boundaries between physical and virtual classrooms continue to fade, an interesting question emerges - what would futuristic universities look like?

This is far from an easy question.

When we look at the present educational scenario, several gaps can be instantly spotted.

This is especially true in the case of examinations where issues seem to compound with each scaling effort. With manual evaluation, several issues can crop up. These include:

• Manual Workflows: Intensive manual workflows that are vulnerable to errors and require significant manpower.
• Outdated Filing: From the point of conduction of the exam to the instance of result declaration, every answer-sheet needs to be manually stored and retrieved.
• Logistical Issues: Answer sheets need to be physically transported from one location to another, compounding the prevailing bottlenecks.
• Error-prone Process: Manual marking and totalling systems introduce human errors that are difficult to track.
• High Turnaround Times: Owing to the drawbacks of the current processes, there is a direct correlation between the entire process of evaluation, result-processing and the time taken to publish results.
• Manual Retrievals: To comply with existing regulations such as RTI, universities also need to cater to student requests regarding re-evaluation, re-totalling, etc. This adds to the existing administrative hassles.

A futuristic university would need to be more adept at handling such issues. Not only do manual processes need to be automated, but evaluators also need to be empowered towards more productive outcomes. Enter Digital Evaluation systems - a proven technology that makes the best of both the worlds.

Why Digital Evaluations Are Futuristic

A Digital Evaluation System, such as an on-screen marking system, enables universities to upload scanned copies of all the answer sheets onto a centralized database. The evaluators can accordingly access them through a screen for evaluation, instead of the manual process of evaluations on the answer paper. They also include a host of customization options that can be specified according to the evaluation needs.

The immediate result? Evaluators can mark the sheets at the click of a button. Hence, this can enhance the quality of evaluation while making the entire system transparent and secure.

Benefits of Digital Evaluations

Digital evaluations impart much-needed ease and comfort to the existing examination processes. Their benefits include:

• Better Accuracy: Avoids publishing of miscalculated and excessively delayed results by reducing the reliance on manual processes.
• Elimination of Malpractices: Answer-sheets can be scanned and anonymously saved on the cloud, eliminating malpractices and evaluation bias.
• Faster Evaluation: Answer sheets no longer need to be manually transported for evaluation, eliminating transport times and minimizing pre-evaluation preparatory tasks.
• Digital Features: Introduces digital processes for tracking of answer sheets, totalling of marks, and handling of unevaluated questions.
• Efficient Request Handling: Enables students to file for re-evaluations by publishing the evaluated answer sheets online, boosting transparency and satisfaction.
• Robust Security: Since the sheets no longer need to be transported and are stored digitally with encryption in place, the security of the evaluation process is enhanced.

The On-screen Marking Platform from MeritTrac is one such system that is helping many universities digitally overhaul their manual processes. In one such use case of the tool; a large-scale technical education board was able to reduce the turnaround time of results to less than 30 days.

The Verdict

While the concept of futuristic universities is not far-fetched, they are closely tied with next-gen examination processes like digital evaluations. And although universities have been quick to adopt the trending technologies, examination processes are far from perfect. The digital assessment system from MeritTrac is functioning as an end-to-end solution for universities, helping them get significantly closer to a futuristic operational model.