Mumbai varsity readies to go online for paper correction

Mumbai University (MU) is going digital. From May 4, answer sheets of all examinations under the varsity will be checked online through a process called OnScreen Marking (OSM). To start with, over 22 lakh answer sheets of 406 semester examinations of all faculties will be checked using OSM.

To implement the process, all answer papers will be scanned and uploaded online for checking and stored on a remote server. Around 50 scanners and image enhancers will be installed at the varsity’s Kalina campus. More than 1,500 answer sheets each containing 32 pages can be scanned using one scanner.

To scan and upload the sheets, 250 people, 50 officers, will be appointed. All the existing 142 Centralised Admission Procedure (CAP) centres will be part of this OSM system. The evaluators will be tagged to their respective subjects as fixed by the colleges and the university. In addition to the existing CAP centres, the university has announced that all colleges that have labs with more than 50 computers and 10 MPBS internet connectivity will become a micro-CAP centre.

The process will be carried out with advanced technology, CCTV surveillance and biometric access. MU has chosen the agency, Merit Trac, for the process. MU vice-chancellor Sanjay Deshmukh said, “Answer sheets of priority subjects will be scanned initially and will be enabled for on-screen evaluation within a few days. We will try to declare the results soon.”

Training for this online screen assessment for evaluators was conducted at 50 different centres across all the seven districts under the jurisdiction of the varsity this week. Around 9,500 teachers in more than 750 MU affiliated colleges have been trained.