New Delhi: The Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Goa is in the spotlight for a fairly unique examination.
The premier engineering institution’s end term paper for the ‘analog circuits’ course last week has found online attention for asking students to create their own questions to answer.
Woah! What an examination! You prepare questions for yourself and answer the same.
Gotta say IIT Goa has find out this unique way to evaluate student by themselves.
It's not gonna be easy when you are set free to choose questions to answer.
Gonna be the test of integrity too. pic.twitter.com/dwZxbKjPRQ
— Rajan Karna (@RajanKarna) May 20, 2021
May be best way to take exams in present situation. Should be learn from IIT Goa. pic.twitter.com/A4hG17igBz
— Pappu Kumar (@impk1199) May 26, 2021
Divided into two parts for a total of 70 marks, the paper first asked the second-year electrical engineering students to “prepare the questions of 60 marks from the lecture material provided to you”. The questions “should reflect your understanding about the course”. This part was set for 30 marks.
The second part, for 40 marks, called for answering the “questions you prepared”.
Speaking to ThePrint on this unique exercise, Sharad Sinha, Assistant Professor of Computer Science and Engineering Department at IIT Goa, said the paper was an outcome of the institute’s experiments with pedagogy and teaching methods.
“We would like to see that students enjoy their learning at IIT Goa and not be bogged down by academia. In fact our institute does not fail any student in the first semester to help them cope and adjust with the environment and syllabus. We wanted to see what the student response is like, some may like it some may not like it,” Sinha said.
This form of examination is expected to highlight the understanding of the subject material.
ThePrint reached IIT Goa Director B.K. Mishra for a comment via calls, but there was no response until the time of publishing this report.
In an earlier report, he had said that the concept of the question paper was “novel” and he would look at the evaluation system being used by the professor in charge.
Also read: What states told Modi govt on CBSE Class 12 exams — Gujarat ready from 1 July, Delhi has riders
Papers sent for review
Speaking about the evaluation process, Professor Sinha said, “Now that the experiment has been completed, the question and the answers received have been sent to the pedagogy committee to review what the outcome of the experiment has been like.”
Amid worries over the fairness of the evaluation process, he said, “The concerned faculty member is well aware of this and will ensure that the grading is done in a manner that suits the style of the paper.”
He added, “We at IIT Goa ensure that the professors share the evaluation process with students once results are announced. The students can then reach out to the professor to understand the process and areas of improvement.”
Also read: Why Defence Minister Rajnath, not education minister, chaired meet with states on board exams