ONLINE EXAMINATION

SYSTEM

Submitted by:
Seema Zahid
Rida Idrees
Anum Zehra Ali
MBA(R) – 2Y
Sec: A

Faculty:
Prof. Dr. Nasreen Hussain

Institute of Business Management

Karachi

8th December 2010

 Online Examination System

TABLE OF CONTENTS

LETTER OF TRANSMITTAL......................................................3
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY...........................................................4
INTRODUCTION.....................................................................5
BACKGROUND.......................................................................5
METHODOLOGY
.............................................................................................6
ONLINE RESEARCH................................................................6
THE MANUAL EXAMINATION SYSTEM.................................................................7
Drawbacks:..................................................................................................................7
Advantages:..................................................................................................................8
ONLINE EXAMINATION SYSTEM OVER MANUAL SYSTEM.............................9
Advantages: .................................................................................................................9
Drawbacks:................................................................................................................11
QUESTIONNAIRE FINDINGS:.................................................12
INTERVIEW FINDINGS:.........................................................16
CONCLUSION & RECOMMENDATIONS..................................17
REFERENCES.......................................................................17
APPENDIX A......................................................................... 18
APPENDIX B......................................................................... 20

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LETTER OF TRANSMITTAL

December 8th, 2010

Prof Dr. Nasreen Hussain

Head, Department of Education
IoBM, Korangi Creek

Dear Dr. Hussain

This report is written to discuss the practicality of implementing an

online examination system for MBA students at the Institute of
Business Management. Through this report, the pros and cons of both
the online as well as the currently existing manual system of
examination are discussed thoroughly. Finally, recommendations and
measures are given as to how the system upgrading should be carried
out, if necessary.

Sincerely

Seema Zahid 11686

Anum Zehra 11274
Rida Idrees 11471

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EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

Examination system and policies are an important part of an institute

as it shows the performance of students. This report is intended to
figure out the drawbacks of the standard examination system (that is
manual system) of IoBM so that the problems can be overcome by
replacing it with an online system for conducting examination. A
research was conducted for this purpose which consisted of
Questionnaire and Interviews.

On the basis of research, it was concluded that the manual system

requires more time and effort in conducting exams, checking answer
sheets and giving results. It is also costly and has security issues. Such
problems can be addressed by introducing an online system for
examination which is much faster, reliable, secure, cost effective and
less prone to errors. An important conclusion drawn from the research
was that the online system will help in raising the level of students and
ranking of institute in the country.

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INTRODUCTION
Online examinations, sometimes referred to as e-examinations, are the
examinations conducted through the internet or in an intranet (if within
the Organization).

Today many institutions are conducting online examinations worldwide

successfully and issue results online. Competition has stepped up a
notch for eligibility and examinations of international standards are
given more credibility.

The Online Examination System has the benefit of being eco-friendly,

secure, error free and it generate optimum results in the matter of few
minutes. This automated system is a step forward to revolutionizing
the entire examination and ultimately the education system of our
local institutes. The concept is extremely user friendly and provides
the flexibility of being altered by authorities for changing levels of the
exam as frequently as required.

This report is based on the information collected regarding the

practicality of online examination system for the Institute of Business
Management to upgrade the current system specifically for the MBA
students.

BACKGROUND
The foundation of Institute of Business Management was established in
1994 to promote dissemination of quality education. The academic
programs are up to date and comprehensive in concept and structure,
resembling honors program offered by UK and graduate programs of
US universities. The students are trained to rise to the challenges
placed in front of them by the ever changing global scenario and
provide them learning experiences that last a lifetime.

Currently the system of examination existing in the institute is manual

which is not only an administrative issue but difficult from students

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view also. The institute has always tried to improve the level of its
education in order to be able to come up to the standards of the
international universities. For maintaining the institution’s standard, it
has never lacked behind in its research for providing its students with
quality education.

METHODOLOGY

As a part of the research conducted by the Quality Improvement Cell of

the University, we performed an online research of the manual as well
as online examination system. After this a questionnaire (See Appendix
A) was distributed to the faculty members and students were
interviewed (See Appendix B).

The questionnaire which was designed for teachers conducting MBA

courses was focused to understand teachers’ opinion of manual
examination vs. online examination giving them a brief idea of the
online system. For this purpose 25 faculty members were selected.

The other part of the survey was the short interview session which was
designed to gain knowledge of the students’ perspective. The session
was conducted for two days at the Student Activity Center (University
Campus). During this session, 15 students each from MBA(R)-2 yrs,
MBA(R)-3 yrs and MBA Executive were interviewed.

ONLINE RESEARCH

Apart from the questionnaire and interview based survey that was
conducted, a web based research was carried out in order to justify
which system of examination is better suited to the needs and
interests of the students and ultimately, the institute. Following is the
outcome of the online research:

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THE MANUAL EXAMINATION SYSTEM

Drawbacks:

The manual examination system has many drawbacks which require

the system to be modified. These drawbacks are:

a) Time Consuming
b) More people required
c) More prone to errors
d) Less secure
e) More effort required
f) Costly

a) Time consuming

The current system is very time consuming. The whole process of

conducting exams, starting from setting exam questions, carrying
out the examination and finally checking, evaluating and recording
the scores is done manually in the currently prevailing system. This
takes up a lot of time of everyone involved in the examination
process.

b) More people required

Another drawback of a manual system of examination is the need of

several people to invigilate and control the entire examination.
Invigilators need not always be faculty members themselves and
incase of other people hired to invigilate, the institute has to bear
their cost as well.

c) More prone to errors

Since the manual system of examination, as the name suggests,

requires human effort to be conducted efficiently, chances of error
are greater as compared to an automated examination system as
humans are more error prone. Calculation and recording of results
might not always be as accurate and precise as required when done
manually.

d) Less secure
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The manual system of examination has a number of security issues

ranging from chances of paper leakage to chances of altering
results as there is no such concept of authorization rights to access
the examination papers and ultimately the result sheet in a manual
system of examination.

e) More effort required

As mentioned, conducting examination manually is a painfully slow

process that wastes a lot of precious time and requires more effort
than is necessary of not only the faculty but the students as well.
Students have to put up more effort in copying tables and writing
everything down within the short duration of an exam where they’re
already working under stress. Teachers, on the other hand, have to
put in more effort to invigilate, distribute and collect papers
manually, evaluate and mark them and finally keep a secure record
of every paper checked.

f) Costly

Manual examinations system incurs higher cost as compared to

online examination system. A lot is spent on paper, printing and
stationary etc that is purchased in huge quantities for just one time
usage.

Advantages:

a) A basic and significant advantage of manual examination system

has is zero dependency on electricity and/or generators to
power up the computer systems as its required in an online
system of examination.

b) Secondly, manual system requires students to work on and build

up their writing speed and power. It’s a traditional system of
examination and nobody needs to be trained to use it.

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ONLINE EXAMINATION SYSTEM OVER MANUAL

SYSTEM
Advantages:

Online Examination System will provide an efficient means of

conducting examination and raise the level of standard examination
system of our country. It includes several advantages:

a) Time Efficiency

b) High Accuracy

c) Data Security

d) Easier and Faster Accessibility

e) East to maintain

f) Cost Effective

g) Less Chances of Cheating

h) Time Management and Awareness of Technology

a) Time Efficiency

The Online Examination System will reduce the efforts required by

the teachers and students. It will complete the work of teachers as
well as student in much less time than the manual system.
Teachers don’t need to check each answer sheet individually and
then calculate the result for each student. This work will be done by
the system automatically.

b) High Accuracy

Another advantage of Online System is its high accuracy. It will

produce more accurate results as compared to the manual system
that is, there will be fewer chances of errors in calculation of total
marks and marking/checking answers like marks of any answer(s)
missed while checking. The answers will be checked and results will
be calculated automatically by the system.

c) Date Security

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The other advantage of Online System for examination is its better

security of data as compared to manual examination system. The
online system will overcome the chances of losing important
information like loss of questions. It will also eliminate the chances
of changing answers as it is observed in the manual examination
system. In addition to this, information is stored in a single location
rather than being scattered in different locations.

d) Easier and Faster Accessibility

Different sort of information like total number of questions

attempted by a student, the correct answers of questions, total
marks of a student etc. will be easily available to analyze the
performance of a student. The system will provide all the
information on one place that is computer rather than acquiring it
from different and scattered sources like question paper, answer
sheet, result sheet etc. The access to the information will be much
faster as compared to manual system.

e) Easy to Maintain

The online examination system is easier to maintain as it will

require less physical space than the manual system. It only requires
a computer and a database rather than separate rooms that is, one
for storing answer sheets/question papers/results and other for
conducting exams etc.

f) Cost Effective

Another advantage of the online system it is effectiveness in terms

of cost. It will be less costly as it will eliminate the cost of stationary
like paper used for question papers and answer sheets, pen/pencil,
printing cost etc. It will also eliminate the cost involved in allocating
rooms for conducting exams.

g) Less Chances of Cheating

Another affecting aspect of online examination system is its control

over cheating. It will reduce the chances of cheating among
students by giving time limits for every question and every section
plus blocking websites like search engines. Therefore, students will
be forced to avoid cheating and focus on their work due to limited
timing.

h) Less Chances of Unfair Marking

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Unfair marking is commonly observed in different universities that

is, extra marks are given to students on their requests. By
conducting online examination, this practice will be discouraged by
limited access of teachers to marks that is they will not be able to
enter marks themselves but the marks will be calculated by the
system automatically. Thus, it will introduce a fair marking system.

i) Time Management and Awareness of Technology

The online examination system will help students to manage their

time effectively (as questions are limited by time) in order to
attempt as many questions as possible. It will also help both
teachers and students in developing their computer skills like
improving typing speed, computer knowledge about usage etc.
Besides this, they will learn about the actual working of the system
thus making them more aware of technology.

j) Better Standard of Education and Improved University

Ranking

Another important advantage of online examination system is its

contribution towards university ranking. It will benefit the institute
by differentiating it from other universities by its fair, efficient and
faster system of examination system. In addition to this, the system
will avoid any unfair marking (extra marks) which will enable the
institute to raise its level of aptitude test to admit only students
with good aptitude to meet grading standards and policies. Thus, it
will improve university’s ranking.

Drawbacks:

Apart from all the efficiencies of online system for examination, it will
also have certain disadvantages which include:

a) Lack of computer skills

b) Connectivity Problem

a) Lack of Computer Skills

Teachers and students who do not have adequate knowledge about

computers will face difficulty in using the new system. It will not be
able to measure appropriate performance of a student who is

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capable but do not have a good typing speed due to which he/she
might not be able to attempt more questions.

b) Connectivity Problem

The response from system can be slow in cases of slow connection

and load on server which will affect the access of questions and
results.

QUESTIONNAIRE FINDINGS:
The survey conducted through the questionnaire for the faculty
members provided the following results:

Manual
system Poor Average Good Very Good
rating
Out of 25 3 11 9 2

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More effort in
Yes No May be
manual system
Out of 25 17 3 5

Manual system is Yes No May be

less Secure
Out of 25 13 4 8

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Greater error
chances in
Yes No May be
manual
system
Out of 25 21 4 0

Increase in
technology usage Yes No May be
in online system
Out of 25 6 12 6

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Quick and error free

results in online Yes No May be
system
Out of 25 23 2 0

Prefer online over

Yes No May be
manual system
Out of 25 15 8 2

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According to most of the faculty members, the online system of

examination can benefit both the students and teachers. The students
will learn to think critically and creatively and analyze information in an
intelligent way, skills which prove invaluable in the workplace in future.
The teachers will be able to decrease their work load and will save time
used in invigilation and will be able to generate results quickly. All
these factors would make a system of examination more efficient and
raise the university standards to compete in the international market.

INTERVIEW FINDINGS:

The results are as follows:

Though all the MBA students that were interviewed face a lot of
problems regarding the manual system of examination like carrying
proper utensils, managing time when they receive the question paper
late and many more. Despite of these problems, the students response
for the online system was quiet different.

• A small percentage of MBA(R) – 3yr students liked the idea of

online examination system but none of them wants to replace
the manual system.
• Approximately 80% of MBA (R) – 2yr students preferred the
online system of examination over manual but according to them
it should be implemented for their undergraduate studies and
not on Masters Level only.
• Almost 80-85% of MBA Executive students said that the online
system should completely replace the current manual system as
it would be easy and helpful for them applying it at their
workplaces.

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CONCLUSION & RECOMMENDATIONS

Online System of examination is a newer concept in Pakistan as no

university has adopted it yet. A more detailed study should be
conducted for getting better results to decide how flexible this system
will be.

Based on the findings of the survey and research that was conducted,
following are the recommendations regarding the switch-over of the
current manual system with online system of examination:-

a) As the concept of an online examination system is a new one for

institutes in Pakistan, it’ll take some time for this concept to gain
popularity. Gathered from the survey, a reasonable number of
faculty as well as the students are still not convinced about
replacement of manual examination system with an automated
one. Hence, the institute should only focus on implementing the
online system on trial basis initially to give the faculty as well as
the students the chance to experience how an automated
system works.

b) Being a newer concept, the trial-basis initiation of online

examination should cover only MCQs and short-answer
questions.

c) The concept of an online system of examination has gained the

maximum support of MBA Executive faculty and students
according to the data gathered from the survey. Hence this
system can initially be implemented only for the MBA Executive
program.

REFERENCES

a. http://www.articlesbase.com/online-education-
articles/online-examination-system-3262056.html
b. http://www.myfreearticle.com/education/online-examination-system

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APPENDIX A

QUESTIONNAIRE

The purpose of this questionnaire is to gather information regarding

the replacement of manual system of examination with online
examination system, specifically for MBA students. The idea behind
adopting the system is to provide an efficient and reliable means of
examination to compete in the international market.

Circle the options appropriate for you.

1. How do you rate the current examination system (manual)?

a. Very Good
b. Good
c. Average
d. Poor

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2. Do you think more effort is required for the manual examination

system?
a. Yes
b. No
c. May be

3. Does the manual system of examination require more security?

a. Yes
b. No
c. May be

4. Do you think the chances of errors are greater in manual

examination system?
a. Yes
b. No
c. May be

5. Will the online system increase the awareness and usage of

technology?
a. Yes
b. No
c. May be

6. Do you think quick and error free results will be achieved by online
examination system?
a. Yes
b. No
c. May be

7. Would you prefer online examination system over manual?

a. Yes
b. No
c. May be

8. In your opinion, would the online examination system be beneficial?

How? (Please comment)

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APPENDIX B

INTERVIEW QUESTIONS

Question 1: What problems do you face in the current system of

examination?

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Question 2: Would you prefer the online examination system over the
manual?

Question 3: How would it benefit you?

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