After students demand online exams, HEC says universities to make a decision mode of assessment
The logo of the upper Education Commission (HEC). — Twitter
It is up to the schools to make a decision whether or not they want to conduct in-person or online exams, the upper Education Commission (HEC) said Wednesday, as protests by students against on-campus examinations continue.
In a long Twitter thread, the HEC said that it's taken notice of students' concerns regarding in-person examinations.
"The apprehensions of scholars were reviewed carefully in consultation with the vice-chancellors of all the provinces and regions, keeping in sight the difficulties caused by the pandemic and opening of universities from February 01, 2021," HEC said.
Reminding folks that it had issued guidelines earlier, HEC said that it's allowed universities to use their discretion to conduct exams — either on-campus or online as long because the chosen mode provides "a fair assessment of students’ performance."
Speaking about how universities could conduct online exams, HEC said that they might be taken if the varsities administered ‘open book exams’ or established an invigilation system during a supervised environment.
"In this mode, universities also will need to use Turnitin (a plagiarism software) to see the similarity index with web and therefore the answers of other students," the body said, adding that the tutorial institutions should take viva or oral exams where necessary.
Moreover, the HEC warned the schools that on-campus exams could only be conducted under strict compliance with all of the COVID-19 protocols. Universities can also need to organise make-up classes for 2 weeks just in case students find the course coverage lacking.
"Assessment of all courses requiring psychomotor skills, like medicine and engineering, and subjects involving lab/studio work, must be held on-campus," it said.
All students during a single course are going to be examined within the same mode—either on-line or on-campus, it said.
HEC said that since March 2020 it had been monitoring the pandemic situation and coordinated with universities to minimise academic disruption and continue online education with quality safeguards.
"The HEC Guidance on Online Readiness (#5) and Assessments and Examinations (#6) are available on the HEC website and supply the wants and minimum standards to be observed by universities," it added.
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