Although the dynamic shift to online testing has had its fair share of technical problems, the CBT format continues to gain prominence among education stakeholders. This change gained momentum after the formation of National Testing Agency (NTA) in 2017 and started conducting big ticket entrance exams including UGC/CSIR NET, TET and JEE in CBT mode.
drastic change
Speaking to Education Times, Sanjeev Kumar, Senior Manager, Test Development Solutions at Prometric, who used to conduct online CAT, says that CBT has come a long way from the time when we successfully conducted MBA entrance exam in pen-paper. organized in the format. “Most of the high-stakes tests are now in CBT format. The key is to provide an optimized, intuitive, easily navigable interface and a consistent display of test material. The fulfillment of these factors has reinforced the strong footprint of CBT,” says Kumar.
The credibility of CBT has grown in the last two years. “During the pandemic, the CBT mode was rapidly and widely adopted in education, admissions, recruitment and certification. The secure experience, as well as the increased accessibility offered to the candidates, gave test sponsors the confidence to choose CBT.
widespread adoption
Discussing the benefits of online proctored exams, Manish Mohta, founder of Learning Spiral, an online exam solutions provider firm, says that internet-delivered tests make the process easier for candidates. “Many of our customers have renewed the option of proctored examinations for admission. Many institutes have opted for CBT to conduct evaluation tests,” says Mohta.
“Many companies adopting CBT saw their revenues drop as they saved their expenditure on physical centres, associated logistics, and planning required to conduct offline tests. In many cities/labs, CBTs are abolished,” says Mohta.
All India Management Association (AIMA) used to conduct Management Aptitude Test (MAT) entrance exam in offline mode till 2019. Internet based tests were started remotely during the COVID 19 lockdown.
Rekha Sethi, Director General, AIMA, says, “Over the past two years, due to increased convenience and popularity, AIMA has seen widespread acceptance of CBT and remote proctored tests. This trend is likely to follow and sustain in the post-pandemic phase as well. ,
face the challenges
The education sector is undergoing a major transformation, but CBT has its own challenges. To meet the challenges, CBT needs to incorporate questions including higher-order thinking and performance-based skills, says Skillenable CEO Nirkshak Kumbhat.
A common benchmark is followed to set the question papers which may be a problem in future. “The pattern of questions to be prepared for Mathematics should be different from that of English language or essay writing question paper. A well-researched strategy to frame the right set of questions will help in overcoming the challenge,” says Kumbhat.
No technology is completely foolproof, however, there are ways to eliminate incidents of fraud by adopting better practices and procedures. “AIMA avoids such lapses by deploying dynamic IP, IP tracking, network intrusion detection systems during testing procedures. The mechanism has eliminated the possibilities of paper leaks, the malfunction is close to zero,” says Sethi.
Detailing about the question paper security aspects of the Proctored Online Examination, Mohta informed that in this mode of examination, the question bank is located in the cloud which minimizes the risk/leakage risk of question object. He further added, “This year, we conducted the NIFT entrance exam with the help of two-device proctoring method, in which the candidate uses two instruments. Two mobiles, one at the front and the other at the back, were used to capture their videos/photos in real time. This technology reduces the chances of fraudulent malpractices, proxy presence and has been appreciated and well accepted by the institutions.