State med univ to use AI to curb malpractice in exams

Software Works Real-Time, Will Be Tested In PG Tests In May

TIMES NEWS NETWORK

Chennai:03.03.2020

In an attempt to curb malpractice and improve surveillance during examinations, the state medical university will launch an indigenous artificial intelligence-driven system, which can monitor examination venues real-time and prompt officials about “suspected” malpractices. The project will be piloted in May for the postgraduate medical examination and will be used from August for UG examination.

The technology can provide directions through instant alerts during exams, university vice-chancellor Dr Sudha Sehayyan said on Monday. The university, in association with the Madras Chamber of Commerce, is working on a software that will raise an alarm when it senses interaction between two students in the exam centre, passing of answer scripts, moving of seats or any other abnormal movement during the examination.

“We are hoping to make the process more stringent to reduce malpractices. We can debar colleges from holding exams and students too will be asked to repeat examinations or be debarred if malpractices are detected,” she said.

In February, the university had asked 35 exam centres holding MBBS exams in the state to livestream the tests. A team of officials were monitoring the livestreams from a control room in Guindy as 12,000 students wrote their semester exams. While it did help in creating a feeling that they were being watched, it was not adequate to catch malpractice such as mass copying or using gadgets to find answers.

The medical university conducts examination for medical, dental, AYUSH (ayurveda, yoga & naturopathy, unani, siddha and homoeopathy) and other medical-related streams in around 500 centres.

Medical students are given bar-coded answer scripts and question papers are sent to examination centres half an hour before the examinations.

Exam centres must download the question papers using a unique password and print them out only minutes before they hand it over to the students to prevent any leaks. The universities will also send a digital footage of the examination hall to the university for reference.