On 15 June, several colleges affiliated with Delhi University held open-book examinations (OBEs). These were certificate or diploma examinations held for students enrolled in different foreign language courses. 

While the response to the examinations was favourable, students faced problems while uploading their scanned answer sheets. Many did not know how to use the CamSCanner app and found it difficult to convert their answer sheets into PDFs.

For the online examinations held under Delhi University, the foreign language department had sent the question papers to the respective colleges. Some colleges sent the questions to the students via email; others created a login process with passwords on their portals.

Jasleen Kaur, the Spanish teacher at Sri Venkateswara College, said, “Except one, all students in my class of 42 appeared… We had emailed the question papers to the students and the answer sheets were received on the same ID. As we had conducted a mock test earlier, the process went smoothly for us.”

Animesh Naskar, a teacher at Hans Raj College, said, “Out of the 521 students enrolled in Spanish, French and German, 486 submitted the papers.”

“We used a login ID process to circulate the papers. We emailed questions to some students who were facing problems. The college had provided the students with the phone numbers of people they could get in touch for assistance. Several issues were redressed during a mock test held earlier,” he said.

Jatin Batra, a student of Spanish at the college, said, “There was... some issue at the start. The papers didn’t appear before 10:40 am.m., while the exam was scheduled to start at 10:30 a.m. I had some difficulty in uploading the answer sheet due to the poor Internet connectivity in my home.”

Jaswinder Singh, the Principal of Shri Guru Tegh Bahadur Khalsa College, said that out of the 150 students enrolled in the language certificate course, 10 failed to upload their answer sheets.

“Some students’ answer sheets were either without roll number or page number. The college is confirming with them individually,” the Principal said.

The examinations were held by individual colleges, ensuring a smooth process. However, when the other examinations commence on 1 July, it will be a centralized process. As there will be a large number of students involved, it could pose a challenge, according to some teachers.