Guidelines/policies related with the conduct of Open Book Examinations (OBE) remotely for final semester/term/year students for all UG programmes of all streams including NCWEB and SOL in view of the COVID-19 pandemic as one time measure for the academic session 2019-2020

Guidelines/policies related with the conduct of Open Book Examinations (OBE) remotely for final semester/term/year students for all UG programmes 

This is in continuation of the notifications related to submission of marks of Internal Assessment, Practical examinations etc. issued on 13.05.2020 and Open Book Examination (OBE) to be adopted as an alternative mode of examinations by the University of Delhi in view of the COVID-19 pandemic for final semester/term/year students for the academic session 2019-20 as issued on 14.05.2020

In view of the prevailing situation of Covid-19 Pandemic, it is hereby notified to all concerned that the examinations cannot be conducted in the conventional mode as per the existing government norms of maintaining social distancing and safety and health of the students. The matter was intensively deliberated in the bodies i.e. Task Force constituted by the University in view of COVID 19 and the Working Group on Examinations, based on which it has been decided that as a one-time measure, Open Book Examinations (OBE) shall be adopted as an alternative mode of examination for the final semester/term/year students for the academic session 2019-2020 for grading /result so that students of the university can take their career forward.

Since the concept of such OBE has been adopted by the University as a one-time measure under the special situation arisen due to COVID- 19 Pandemic in the interest of students at this difficult time, the following information is to be noted by all students and concerned ;

1. The OBE does not entirely require the online platform and require only limited access to the internet and hardware for uploading the question papers prior to the commencement of examination and for uploading the answer sheets after completion of the examination.

2. The examinations of final semester/term/year shall begin from 01.07. 2020 as notified vide notification dated 14.05.2020 available on the University website. The tentative schedule of examinations to be conducted in OBE mode for the final year students of all UG programmes in regular mode as registered with colleges and departments as well as for those registered with NCWEB and School of Open Learning have already been released on 29.05.2020. The tentative datasheets have been released to ascertain any left out papers or any other inconsistency in the same and based on the inputs /suggestions received from the students and stakeholders, the final date sheet as required shall be released.

3. For Ex-students and the students applying for improvement of their performance:

 i) The Ex-students shall follow the schedule/date sheet of examinations as per their year of examination ii) The final year students who have backlog i.e. ER (Essential Repeat) in their previous semesters shall re-appear for the same as per the schedule of examinations along with the VI Semester Examinations

 iii) The students who have passed out their final year (VI Semester) Examinations in the year 2019 can only appear for an improvement in their VI Semester examinations as per the datasheet/schedule and applicable rules in this regard

 iv) The students who are in the final year (6 semesters/ final ) can appear for improvement in papers of 4 semester only.

4. Students who have appeared for the OBE and wish to improve their grades shall also be given chance to improve their grades as per the cycle of the semester in a year i.e papers listed for the odd semester can be attempted in January 2021 and for even semester in May/June 2021 as per applicable syllabus and scheme of examinations.

 5. All students should also ensure that their examination forms for the respective courses have already been filled.

 6. The Admission Tickets shall be sent to the students by the college through mode.

 7. The students should remain in contact with their college/institute. Besides using the official e-mail and SMS services, messaging apps like WhatsApp may also be adopted by the college for sending important information to the students. 3

8. The students may contact in advance with their college through e-mode to avail the ICT based infrastructure facility for examination. Subject to availability of these facilities, the college may decide to extend the same their students in limited number those who need to be taken care in case of non-availability of internet and hardware required for examinations. However, the norm of social distancing, safety and health issues have to be taken care at priority and no compromise should be allowed while extending facilities. If the number increases, the students can avail the facilities available at Common Service Centre (CSC) (as mentioned later) in the nearest location of their residence.

 9. The question papers shall be accessed by the individual students from the designated portal as per schedule/date sheet notified by the examination branch and conveniently downloaded.

 10. The Examination The branch shall also provide question papers at the e-mail of the college on each day of examination for each session prior to the commencement of the examination. In case if any of the students face any difficulty in downloading the question papers from the portal, he/she may request the college for the same. The college shall send the question paper directly to the e-mail address, phone or WhatsApp of the student as per their requirement.

11. Similarly in case, for any reason, if the students are not able to upload their answer sheets on the portal, the same can be sent in PDF format at the designated e-mail address of the college during the time specified. However, it may be noted that this option may be exercised only in case of an emergency.

 12. The college will notify the telephone numbers and alternative mobile numbers to be used by the students in case of any requirement/query during examination days.

 13. The students shall answer the questions on plain papers of A4 size. Students should put a page number on each paper.

14. The total duration of the OBE shall be of 3 hours of which 2 hours shall be given to the students for answering the questions and an additional hour shall be utilized for downloading the question papers and uploading the scanned images of answer sheets after completion of the examinations. The students belonging to the Divyaang (PWD) Category shall be given 5 hours to complete the examination. 

15. To check the use of any unfair means during the examinations, each student shall be required to fill up undertaking through button provided on the portal before uploading of the scanned images of answer scripts. The performa for the undertaking shall be made available to the students on the portal from where question papers are downloaded by students.

16. The University cares for those students who are not able to appear for the OBE remotely and thus will give such students one more chance to appear for the conventional mode of examinations as and when the present situation improves. The conventional mode of examinations in such case if required shall be conducted after the publication of results of OBE. The fresh dates for filling in the examination forms for the left out students of the final semester/term/year shall be notified probably by the beginning of September 2020.

 17. Mock tests shall be available on the portal one week prior from the commencement of the examinations to facilitate the students who are appearing for examinations to become aware of the mode of examinations and use of tools required for downloading question papers and uploading scanned answer sheets after the completion of examinations.

 18. The University of Delhi is bound to protect the interests of those students who are residing in areas like Jammu and Kashmir and other such areas all over India which lack the internet and hardware facility required for the OBE and have stuck up at their places due to the COVID 19 pandemic. To facilitate such students the University of Delhi as a major measure, has finalized to engage Common Service Centres (CSC), under the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology, Government of India.