FAISALABAD: Students of the Government College University Faisalabad (GCUF) are facing a difficulty in taking the online exam due to poor loading speed of the exam portal.

Due to the load of students taking final examination on the online portal, the university has been revising its entire examination schedule but in vain.

The sources say that the online exam option was given to the students on their own demand.

Talking to Dawn, the students, who did not want to be named, have complained that sometimes they cannot log into the portal for minutes, making them panicky as the university is not giving them extra time. They claim the officials are aware of the issue but nothing is being done to improve the situation.

Giving the possible cause of the issue, the students think it would have been better if the university could hold mock exercises by involving thousands of students to test the portal speed and efficiency. But that did not happen and instead of improving the situation, they say, ‘the learners’ are being forced to take the exam.

University sources claim online exam was students’ demand

“We are facing agony and spending extra money only to keep our internet speed smooth although the fault is with the university system,” they bemoan, adding that a number of learners who couldn’t take two or three MCQs during the stipulated time were asked to attempt the whole paper again. Similarly, scores of students were asked to take exams again although they had submitted their papers online.

Giving an example of the issue, they say that a biochemistry paper was scheduled for 12pm; however, it started at 9am online and they were not informed about it. The online portal often stops working and wastes time of the students who are left with no option but to restart the system. After completion of the first page, they say, the portal often does not open the next page for further questions.

The students say that most of the time they cannot refresh the portal when it stops working. The exams, scheduled to end on Feb 25, are still going on due to the poor management of the university.

If a student can’t take the exam online due to issue of the slow online portal response, he or she has to visit the university for physical examination.

Sources say the university officials, ignoring the IT department of the university, have hired the services of some people on daily wages to conduct the online examination and such people are not trained enough to tackle the load that’s why students are facing issues. Besides, the exam schedule is being frequently changed only to manage the students load as the server managers of the university cannot handle the load.

No inquiry has been launched so far to find out why the system could not bear the load of students although an expensive cloud hosting of Microsoft had been purchased, the sources add.

An official of the university says online examination was the demand of the students and it was not the decision of the university. He says dozens of students staged protest demonstrations, demanding online exams and the GCUF respected their point of view.

Replying to the question of mock exams, he explains that the university had conducted the mock tests so that students could understand the entire process. He asserts that anybody could face issues with the internet or server speed mentioned above.

An IT expert says the poor speed of the portal can be the fault of the weak hosting where the portal has been parked. He says one could check online why hosting providers clearly mention with their packages the number of visitors in a day that the host can handle. He says a probe into the issue must be launched to know why effective arrangements have not been ensured for smooth functioning of the final exams.

GCUF Vice Chancellor Dr Shahid Kamal explains that due to the Covid-19 and under the government policy, the university had decided to give a choice to students to either take exam online or sit a physical exam. He says the date sheet has been changed only to facilitate the students and to run system efficiently, if needed.

“A team has been formed to look into any inconvenience faced by the students and faculty and to act promptly for the efficient conduct of examination.”

Mr Kamal says both the IT department and controller of examinations office are conducting the exam online for the first time; therefore, they are learning from their experiences as do the students.

The VC has expressed satisfaction with the online exam; however, added that a report would be available on the portal issue soon and adjustments would be made accordingly for improvement.

Published in Dawn, March 10th, 2021