Thiruvananthapuram: The APJ Abdul Kalam Technological University has published the technical details of the rescheduled first and third semester examinations scheduled for January 6 to ensure transparency. It may be recalled that the university had been facing flak for the muddle in the examinations.
The question paper module (QPM) will be operated by the controller of examinations and not any private agency. The question papers will be digitally sent to the examination centres one hour before the start of the examination. The QPM module which is part of the e-governance system of university hosted at the State Data Centre 2 (SDC2) in Technopark is managed by Kerala state IT Mission, said Mr S. Shabu, controller of examinations, in a statement here.
The question papers were prepared by the faculty members of government engineering colleges. Five sets of each subject were prepared and the same were scrutinised by a committee consisting of professors. This was kept in the safe custody of the controller of examinations. For each course, the system allows upload of multiple question papers, out of which one will be selected only on the exam day. For each subject, the controller of examinations will upload different sets of question papers to the server at SDC2.
When a question paper is uploaded, the document is encrypted and saved. Uploading privilege is only available for the controller of examinations. Once uploaded, the document cannot be directly accessed from the storage location in the server since it is in encrypted format. It can be decrypted and read only when it is downloaded through the application after providing the authentication credentials and one-time password (OTP) provided only to the college principals.
On the exam day, one hour prior to the exam the CE will select one question paper out of the different sets uploaded for the digital transmission. The colleges can download the question papers just before the exam, print them and make them available to the students. Each principal is provided with a user ID and login in the e-gov platform of the university, said Mr Shabu.
