Monday, January 21, 2002		Article

IT was an ambitious task. One of the leading management institutes of the country, Xavier Labour Relations Institute (XLRI) decided that its entrance test, XAT -2002, would be conducted online this year. Scheduled for January 6, 2002, applicants could register online and obtain their forms and other information from their site. The test would be conducted in cities and towns of India, with each entrant being given a different set of questions, each with more or less similar level of difficulty, according to the institute.

As an idea, online tests have their advantages. They can be administered at any place where the Internet access is available, saving a lot of trouble for persons living in remote areas. Scores can be made available and candidates may also be able to check their mistakes. In fact, many people talked about the fact that in future all tests would be conducted this way. Was it too futuristic to assume that the medical and engineering tests, as also school tests for Class 10 and 12, would be conducted online sometime soon?

But when the test was cancelled - at the last moment - it showed the inherent weaknesses in the online test model. Far from being a convenient way of holding future tests, the cancellation of XAT -2002 has showed that much needs to be done before such things could be made possible.

Glitches were, in fact, becoming obvious even when candidates were registering on the site. Many candidates had to make several attempts before they could download the forms. The browser would inexplicably show an error - a result perhaps of too much traffic on the site or of overloading of the servers. The institute had to make arrangements with several Internet cafes all over India where the test would be conducted; in cities where such facilities were not arranged, candidates were asked to register at some other towns. Towards the last date, many centres had been filled up, and far from making it easier for people living in remote areas to appear in the test, candidates were asked to travel somewhere else to appear in the test. Amazingly, a student from Bangalore had to travel all the way to Ludhiana for the test. Talk about modern communications making life easier!

On January 5, 2002, when students had to print out their hall tickets for the next day's test, the Website simply had the notice that the test was cancelled and candidates would be informed by e-mail as to what they should expect next.

Of course it is not correct to say that the cancellation shows that online tests cannot work. But much has to be done before they can become a reality. First, computer software, despite being widely used, is annoyingly unreliable. Hard disks crash, communication lines stop working, browsers take ages to download information. Even if software works properly, there are hackers and virus mongers who can wreck just about any plan on the Internet. Assuming that these things are taken care of, the last - and perhaps the most important aspect - is the human element that takes into account the psychology of students. The XAT showed utter disregard for students who had paid to appear in the test and giving out a little more information from the institute surely would not have hurt anybody.

Online tests, if they are to succeed, must take several things into consideration. Institutes thinking about using modern technology must consider what they are using the Internet for. Is it just for the novelty of the purpose? Surely this is a narrow aim indeed. If an institute plans to use the Internet for testing, it must think of making life easier for the candidate.

The purpose of the online test should not be to make a person travel long distances to go to an Internet cafe but to make available the test in his or her home. That would be the real benefit of doing things online. Software is available whereby a timer starts when a person logs on and must complete the test in the stipulated time. So making people go to a cyber cafe for this purpose does not use the technology effectively:

Making people appear in the test all at one time would tax the servers, causing delays in some parts, at the very least. This would make a candidate unfairly placed. Similarly, facilities at different cyber cafes would result in different test conditions for candidates. If one is not comfortable with the ambience of a cafe, it would mean messing up the entire test. The institute ignored this aspect while chalking out their plans.

Most important, the online test simply ignored the needs of candidates. When they tried to

register, all that the computer screen had to tell them was that a particular centre was full. They could apply to some other city. Then, if the reporting time in a different city was 7.30 a.m., it meant that the student had to travel one day before and make arrangements for stay, etc. The least the institute could have ensured was that people from distant cities should report at a more reasonable hour: this is what I mean when I talk of human touch. It means keeping the basic human needs into account --something which a computer program cannot do.

The XAT fiasco should be a pointer to all institutes who may be thinking of introducing online tests in the future. Before embarking on such an exercise the objectives of using the Internet must be very clearly specified. Using it simply for novelty purposes would not give any benefits. In fact, the crash in the IT industry is partly because many films started hoping to make money out of the novelty of n technologies. When a sustainable business model did not work out, it led to the crash that we are witnessing today.

The first online test by a management institute could have been a forerunner for all other tests of the future. But it did not work out. The institute has now announced an offline, paper and pencil test next month, after causing-a lot of anxiety and tension among the students. Perhaps the writing on the wall is clear - use the Net for communication and giving out information. But for more serious business, come back to the real world!