Challenges and Implications of Technological Transitions: The Case of Online Examinations in India

Abstract

Technology-enabled remote learning ecosystem is one of the several recent products of the intertwining of information technology and education. This study identifies the issues and challenges of the rapid and sudden transition of Higher Educational Institutions from face to face learning to technology intervened remote learning in India. The main objective of the study is to investigate the implications of online examinations necessitated by this rapid transition to remote learning that lacked the usual planning, design and structure, training, infrastructure, and access to technological resources. This transition, aimed at maintaining the educational delivery continuum in the face of the COVID-19 pandemic, reinforces the belief in technology as the pre-eminent solution regardless of its pervasive challenges and implications. A sizeable population in developing countries like India lack equal access to minimal enabling resources and technical know-how to keep pace with the transition. Data collected for this study using surveys and interviews from final semester undergraduate students who undertook remote lessons and technology intervened online examinations for the first time during the COVID-19 pandemic at a technical university in India was indicative of the same. The findings of this research revealed that a considerable number of students lack access to individualized facilities, resources, and a conducive environment at home, required to avail digital assets for their education, which deter the fair and efficient implementation of online examinations in the digital present. The results of this study further showed, how, unequal educational opportunities arising out of inefficient implementation, disadvantage a significant group of students, from primarily weaker economic backgrounds of society. This study has practical implications since it raises seminal concerns regarding sudden transition to remote and online modes of learning and examination, which need to be addressed to avoid jeopardizing the future of students, should sudden online education become imperative again.