Tech not to be blamed for on-line tests failure: experts

No blame should be put on technology for the failure of any on-line testing programme as there are ample solutions available to take care of any large programme, computer experts said today.

"Technology should not be blamed for any fiasco in a large on-line testing programme as several technologies and solutions are easily available," they said in the backdrop of the recent problems faced by students in the online test of the Common Admission Test (CAT).

Refusing to buy the excuse of viruses to be the cause of failure of the testing centres, the experts said, there are many ways in which the entire system are made trouble free and it is the culture of organisers taking responsibility in verifying the system before putting out for the students.

It is purely the organisers' responsibity to see that things move smoothly as the number of people appearing for the examination was not difficult to be handled by the available technologies, they said at a panel discussion on "Opportunities and threats in the online testing domain" at Indian Merchants Chamber here.

The experts were Prof Deepak Pathak, head, computer division of IIT Mumbai, Vijay Mukhi of IMC and Ninad Karpe, CEO and MD, Aptech; who initiated the discussion.

The organisers (like IIMs) along with the industry (like Prometric) which provides the service for such massive on-line tests must plan the logistics and carry out Dress Rehearsal --- end to end tests (to the remotest place) and conducting extensive trials, Pathak said.

"More than that, all the centres including the remotest one should be provided with mandatory do's and don'ts so that, uniformly, every centre will follow the rules and without getting into any 'virus' problem, he said.

The competitive CAT exam that went on-line for the first time this year ran into trouble, when computers crashed in around 40 centres across the country. American firm Prometric was awarded the $40 million (Rs 185.5 crore) as a five year contract from IIMs.

Around 2,40,000 students had registered for CAT this year which was scheduled at 105 centres in 32 cities, all linked to a main server.

"I do not know what were the problems encountered in on-line CAT examinations and how it happened but for the sake of future successful large scale pre-admission tests, it was important that a joint exercise is carried out by institutes and the on-line industry and an end to end testing is very crucial," Pathak said.