Online Examination System for Tilak Maharashtra University ...tmvonline.org/creditbase/Announcements/TMU Online Exam - Studen… · Online Examination Student User Manual Tilak Maharashtra

Online Examination Student User Manual Tilak Maharashtra University

Page 1 August 1, 2009

Online Examination System for

Tilak Maharashtra University

Student User Manual

Version 1.0

August 1, 2009

Copyright 2009, Tilak Maharashtra University. All contents of this document are the property of Tilak Maharashtra

University. These contents are confidential and may not be used or disclosed directly or indirectly for any purpose

without the prior written permission of Tilak Maharashtra University. Any trademarks used belong to their respective

owners.



Table of Contents

Table of Contents 1 INTRODUCTION ........................................................................................................... 3

1.1 PURPOSE ................................................................................................................. 3

1.2 INTENDED AUDIENCE ......................................................................................... 3

2 OVERVIEW .................................................................................................................... 3

2.1 CONTEXT ................................................................................................................ 3

2.2 OVERVIEW OF PROCESSES ................................................................................ 4

2.2.1 Admissions Process ............................................................................................... 4

2.2.2 Distribution of Lecture Material (Download) ........................................................ 4

2.2.3 Examination Management ..................................................................................... 4

2.2.4 Evaluation Process ................................................................................................. 5

2.2.5 Examination Results .............................................................................................. 5

3 HARDWARE & SOFTWARE ENVIRONMENT ......................................................... 7

4 How to use the Web Site .................................................................................................. 8

4.1 Home Page ................................................................................................................ 8

4.2 New Student Registration Process .......................................................................... 10

4.2.1. Login Information ........................................................................................... 10

4.2.2. Personal Information ....................................................................................... 12

4.2.3. Qualification & Identification ......................................................................... 14

4.2.4 Apply for Admission........................................................................................ 16

4.2.5 Finish................................................................................................................ 18

4.3 Post-Login ............................................................................................................... 21

4.3.1 Post Login Menu .............................................................................................. 22

4.3.2 View My Application Status ............................................................................ 23

4.3.3. View My Courses ........................................................................................... 27

4.3.4 Online Exam .................................................................................................... 29

4.3.5 User Menu ........................................................................................................ 36

4.3.6 Forgot Password............................................................................................... 37



1 INTRODUCTION

1.1 PURPOSE

This document is the Student’s User Manual of the Online Examination System of Tilak

Maharashtra University (hereafter “TMU”). This document explains how to use the

online examination website as a student.

1.2 INTENDED AUDIENCE

This document is intended for students who are enrolled for the Distance Learning

programs of TMU, initially starting with BCA, BBA and MBA programs.

2 OVERVIEW

2.1 CONTEXT

TMU offers over 100 different programs, both in in-campus as well as Distance Learning

modes. These courses are offered through the University campus and authorized study

centers. The university envisages expanding the reach of its programs as well upgrade the

evaluation methods using the latest Internet technology. For this purpose, the new online

system has been developed to handle the following functionalities as follows:

a. Online Admission

b. Online Examination

c. Online Results Publishing

This new system is initially launched for BCA, MCA & MBA courses in the Distance

learning mode starting from the Academic year 2009.

This new system has been developed as a

a. Independent Web site including separate domain registration and is hosted on a

very reliable internet server in a data center of a very reputed hosting provider in

the US

b. The website has been developed as a common Internet-based portal for students,

admission office, examination office, Study center Authority, Examination

supervisors, Examiners/Moderators etc.



2.2 OVERVIEW OF PROCESSES

This section gives an overview of various processes related to students who are enrolled

in the online system.

2.2.1 Admissions Process

- Students will apply for the admissions on the application form provided

online and be given a temporary registration number

- Students would then take a printout and hand over it along with the

Demand Draft for fees/other documents to the admission office at the

university or the study centers.

- The study center would send the collected application forms of all the

students to the TMU admissions office.

- The central admission office would verify the applications and

approve/reject the admissions or demand clarifications if required.

- Students would be sent an email confirmation regarding the status of

admissions.

- Admission cancellation: Students will have to apply on paper (offline) to

the Admissions department. The Admissions department would complete

the procedure & refund of fees as per rules and only mark the Cancellation

Status in the online system.

2.2.2 Distribution of Lecture Material (Download)

- A designated course content editor (course In-charge) will to upload the

course material in the form of files including text, documents, audio/video

files etc.

- The uploaded filed will be stored under each subject separately, in

chronological order and be available till the end of the semester only

- The students who are admitted will be able to download the lecture files of

their courses anytime as long as they are available

2.2.3 Examination Management

- The examination department would announce a schedule of examination

at various centers, along with the examiners & external supervisors for

each examination center

- The examination center would arrange multiple time-slots within the

prescribed schedule for the students to come & take the online exams.



- Students will have to reserve their time slot in advance with the exam

centre.

- The students can appear for the online examination on the new TMU

website for this purpose, but only at the authorized centers. The student

are not allowed to appear from any other location

- The students can start the examinations only after the Exam Supervisor

marks the session for that center to be open in the system, followed by the

supervisor recording his photograph for the verification of external

supervision.

- The students would be free to appear for any course available to them in

any order within the given period subject to their prior booking of time

slots at the exam centre.

- Topics for each course in the exam would be identified along with the

weightage for each topic for that exam.

- The examination paper would be generated at the time of examination by

randomly selecting questions from the question bank for the subject

selected by the student and on topics identified for the particular exam.

The number of questions on each topic would be generated according to

the weightage assigned to the topic for the exam.

- The answers recorded by student would be saved in a tamper-proof image

form with date/time stamp

- The examination would terminate automatically on expiry of time or on

attempt to change/move browser window of the examination

- In case the student’s examination gets terminated due unforeseen

problems such as lack of electricity, hardware or network failure etc., the

student may be permitted to attend the next session. The student will be

allowed only the time lost in the first attempt and the number of questions

so as to make the total number of questions same as that of the prescribed

exam paper.

2.2.4 Evaluation Process

- The evaluation of objective questions would be done automatically as

soon as the answers are saved by the student

- Evaluation of subjective questions & internal assessment would be entered

manually by the examiners online in the same system

- Moderators would revaluate the answers of students only for the

subjective questions & internal assessment in case of Revaluation requests

from students or University authority.

2.2.5 Examination Results

- The results of online examination would be displayed to the students

immediately after the examination



-

- The final results consist of consolidated marks of online examination &

the internal (subjective) examination conducted by the TMU Center

- The final results of the semester or year would be sent an email intimating

them of their result



3 HARDWARE & SOFTWARE ENVIRONMENT

The application is hosted from a data center of an internationally reputed ISP vendor for

high capacity bandwidth and 24x7 availability.

The users (students) can access it using a browser from the desktop computers.

While the application for admission and other options can be accessed from anywhere,

the online examination can be taken only from the examination hall of designated TMU

Examination Centers.

The environment on student’s desktop computers should be as follows:

Client Operating System: Windows XP/Windows Vista

Internet Connectivity: Broadband internet connection with appropriate bandwidth

depending on number of simultaneous students

Proxy Setting: Necessarily use Proxy server to connect to the Internet.

Browser: Internet Explorer: ver. 6, 7

Security settings for browser: Allow pop-ups from this site.



4 How to use the Web Site

4.1 Home Page

You can access the home page by typing the following URL in the browser:

http://www.tmvonline.org

a. This is the first page of the application.

b. You can login in the system if you are already a registered user by typing the user

name & password & clicking on the Log In button.

c. If you are a new student, you can register by clicking on the New Student?

Register link.

d. If you are TMV or Center staff, you can register by clicking on the Register as

TMU/Center Staff link

e. If you have registered before, but have forgotten the login user name or password,

you can reset your password & get an email sent to you by clicking on Forgot

Login ID/Password.



Other than this, you can download program prospectus PDF files by clicking on the

respective links. You can also see the TMV contact information by clicking on Contact

Us link at the top.



4.2 New Student Registration Process

The new student registration process consists of 5 steps as follows:

a. Login information

b. Personal information

c. Qualification & Identification information

d. Application for admission (selection of program)

e. Finish

There is a separate form for each step. These forms are described below.

4.2.1. Login Information

This form is used to get the student’s login information.

a. First Name: The student’s first name should be entered here. This field is

mandatory.

b. Last Name: The student’s last name should be entered here. This field is

mandatory.



c. Email: An already existing email id of the student should be entered here. The

student should have his own email Id from any of the email service providers or

private institutions. This Online Examination website will not provide an email

Id). Various emails from this site such as admission confirmation/rejection, exam

results etc. will be sent on this email Id. This field is mandatory.

d. Login Id: The login id with which you wish to login into this site. It is possible

that the login id may have been used by some other student already. For this

purpose, after entering the login id, click on Check Availability button. If the

login id input by you is already used, an error message will be displayed as Login ID

already registered, please try another ID. If the login id is available, the message will be

displayed as Login ID available, continue registration. This field is mandatory.

e. Password: Enter the secret password that you wish to use to login to this site. The

password must be between 8 to 16 characters and you should follow the well

known security guidelines for a good password such as – it should not be a

dictionary word, it should not be names (of friends/relatives) or dates (birth dates

etc) concerning you, it should be a combination of letters, symbols and numbers

so that it is not easy to guess for hackers. This field is mandatory.

f. Confirm Password: Repeat the same password again. This is to ensure that you

have typed the correct password. This field is mandatory.

g. Secret Question: This will be used when you forget your password and want to

request to reset it. You can either choose from the questions displayed in the list

or create your own question. This field is mandatory.

h. Secret answer: Input the secret answer to the above secret question which only

you can know. When you request to reset your password, you will need to give

the correct secret question & its correct answer. This ensures that only you can

make for a password forgot request and no one else can tamper with your

password. This field is mandatory.

Click on Next button after filling all the above information to proceed.

At any point if you wish to cancel this process, click on Cancel button.



4.2.2. Personal Information

This form captures the personal & contact information of the student.

Personal Information

a. Gender: Select from Male/Female. This field is mandatory.

b. Marital Status: Select from the list e.g. single, married, divorced etc. This field is

mandatory.

c. Father/Husband’s Name: Input father’s name or (in case of married woman,

husband’s name). This field is optional.

d. Mother’s Name: Input mother’s name. This field is optional.

e. Birth Date: Select date, month and year of your birth date. This field is

mandatory.

f. Employed: Select employment status whether employed or unemployed. This

field is mandatory.

g. Annual Income: This field is available only if the above status is selected as

Employed. If employed, input your annual income in Rupees here. This field is

optional.



h. Nationality: Currently only Indian nationals are allowed to register, hence the

default value is set to Indian and it is not possible to change.

i. Religion: Select from the list of religions. If your religion is not in the list, you

can select Other – a text box will appear below the list box and you can type in

your religion in it. This field is mandatory.

j. Caste: Select from one of caste categories in the list. This field is mandatory.

k. Handicapped: If handicapped, select Yes. This field is mandatory.

Address Information

a. Local Address: Input the local address here. This field is mandatory.

b. City: Input the name of the city/town/village where you currently live. This field

is mandatory.

c. Country: Select the country of your local address. The default is India. This field

is mandatory.

d. State: Select the state of your local address. The default is set to Maharashtra.

This field is mandatory.

e. District: Select the state of your local address. The list shows the districts in the

State selected above. This field is mandatory.

f. Zip: Enter the pin code of your address. It can be 5 or 6 digit code. Select the state

of your local address. The default is set to Maharashtra. This field is mandatory.

g. Phone No.: Enter the landline phone number along with STD code. If you do not

have a landline at your residence, you may a request number or give the phone no.

of the TMU Center with which you are associated.

h. Same as Local: If your permanent address is same as the local address, then check

this checkbox. Once you check, all the values of Local Address fields will get

copied to the Permanent Address fields.

i. Permanent Address: If your permanent address is different from the local address,

enter all the fields similar to the local fields as explained above.

j. Mobile No.: Input your mobile phone number. This field is optional.

Click on Next button after filling all the above information to proceed to

Qualification & Identification details. At any point if you wish to go back to the

Login Information page, click on Back button.



4.2.3. Qualification & Identification

This form captures the educational qualifications & identification document of the

student.

Qualification

This section is about your current qualifications. Only the Highest Educational

qualification needs to be entered. The purpose of this is to establish the eligibility of the

student. Depending upon which qualification is given here, the programs that will be

offered to the student in the next screen (Apply for Admission) will vary. For example,

giving STD XII as qualification, only Graduate level programs (such as BCA, BBA) will

be offered. Giving a graduation qualification will result in Post-graduate programs such

as MBA to be offered.

a. Qualification: Select your current qualification from the list. This field is

mandatory.

b. Month & Year of Passing: Select month & year when the results of the qualifying

examination in the above qualification were published. This should be the same

date on your passing certificate. This field is mandatory.



c. University/Board: Input the name of the University or the board that conducted

the examination. This field is mandatory.

d. Percentage: Input the percentage marks obtained by you in the qualifying

examination. This should be the same as on your passing certificate. This field is

mandatory.

Identification

This section is about the personal Identification proof that you will need to submit along

with the application. You can submit any one of the following: Passport, Driving

License, PAN card, Voter ID card, School Leaving Certificate etc.

e. Identification Type: Select which document you will be submitting as proof of

identity. This field is mandatory.

f. Identification No.: Input the number on your ID – such as passport number or

driving license no. etc. This field is mandatory.

g. ID Issuer: Input here the name of the authority that issued this ID (such as RTO or

passport office etc). This field is mandatory.

h. Issue Date: Input the date on which this ID was issued to you. This field is

mandatory.

i. Valid From: Input the date from which this ID is valid. This field is mandatory.

j. Valid To: Input the date until which this ID is valid. This field is mandatory.

Click on Next button after filling all the above information to proceed to selection of

course & applying for admission. At any point if you wish to go back to the Personal

Information page, click on Back button.



4.2.4 Apply for Admission

Depending on the Educational Qualifications in the previous screen, this screen

displays the list of programs for which the student is eligible, for which the admission

is currently opened.

Click on the Apply Now button of the course of your choice. It is not possible to back

to the previous screens after this screen, so if you need to change anything, click on

Back button before clicking on Apply Now button.

After clicking on a particular program, the list of courses (subjects) in the initial 2

semesters is displayed as follows:



Below this list, there are 3 preferences to fill in.

a. Medium: Currently only English is available for distance learning programs.

Hence English is set as default and it is not possible to change.

b. Mode: Currently online examination website is offered only to Distance Learning

mode. Hence the default is set to Distance and it is not possible to change.

c. Center: Select the name of the TMU Examination Center from where you will

submit your application form & appear for the exams.

Click on Finish button to complete the application process.



4.2.5 Finish

This screen shows the application process is completion message.

If pop-ups are blocked, you will not be able to print the form. So unblock pop-ups

before clicking on the Print Form button.

Click on the Print Form button to print the application form along with the details

filled in by you. The form that will be printed is first shown in a separate window as

follows:



A. Print Form

When you click on the Print button in this form, the printer selection dialog of

Windows will be displayed. Select the printer as per requirement and print this form.

Read the Print Instructions if there is any problem in printing. These instructions are

given to configure your printer on the local computer, for which the website can not

control or make any changes, and hence have to be done on the computer on which

you are going to print.

Paste the photograph in the box provided on the form, and send the form along with

other documents as mentioned in the form to the Admission department of TMV

through the TMU Center where you have applied.



B. Notification email

An email notification of application is also sent at this point to the email Id

entered in the Login Information screen as follows:

The email mentions the program/semester for which you have applied for admission,

the login Id which you created in the process and a Temporary Registration number.

You can also ask the Center Manager to take a printout of your application form by

giving the Temporary Registration number.



4.3 Post-Login

Once the registration is complete, you can login using the user id & password given at

the time of registration.

After login, the home page with a standard menu is displayed from which various

actions are possible.

The screen shows the logged-in user name and login time in the top right corner.

The Home link can be used to come back to home page at any time from any page in

the site.

Clicking on the Contact Us link shows the contact information of the university such

as postal address, telephone numbers and email for support.

The menus are grouped under a main item and the actual actions take place on

clicking on the sub-item in the menu.

Brief description of the various menus for student is given below:



4.3.1 Post Login Menu

Application: This group of menu items provides inquiry about the status of student’s

admission, print admission form, applying for admission in the next year after passing

the examination, applying for repeat examination in failed subjects etc.

Course: These menus provide list of courses (subjects) undertaken by the student,

their course material and option to download course material.

Exam: These menus provide schedule of upcoming examinations and start the online

examination or mock test.

Result: The student can view results of his past exams.

User: The student can view/update his/her own profile and/or

qualification/identification details. The student can also change his/her login

password.

Sign out: Sign out from the website.



4.3.2 View My Application Status

Click on the menu View My Application Status to see the current status of your

admission.



The following screen will be displayed.

The screen shows the program for which the application is made along with the year

& semester.

Medium is shown as English and Mode as Distance.

The Temporary Registration Number & Center from which the application is made, is

shown. Permanent registration number is allotted only after the admission is

confirmed. Hence this is shown blank initially, but once confirmed, this will show the

PRN number allotted to the student.

Application date & Admission date are the dates on which online application is

submitted and the date of admission confirmed by the Admission department

respectively.

Status of application is initially shown as “Applied”, when confirmed is shown as

Admitted or Rejected/Hold/Canceled as the case may be. In case of Hold, the

Comment shows the reason for which the admission department has held the

admission.



Once the Admission Department confirms the admission, a notification email is sent

to the student’s email id.

The format of this mail is as follows:

The email shows the status of admission as Admitted and the PRN number allotted to

the student.



After receiving this mail, if you login & check the status of application again, it will

be seen as follows:



4.3.3. View My Courses

Click on the menu item View My Courses under the Course menu.

The next page will show the list of courses (subjects) undertaken by the student in the

current semester.



The list has a Show button for each course. The Course code & course title are

shown. Also whether the student is a regular or repeater is shown.

Clicking on the Show button shows the list of files available as course material for the

selected course.

The student can download the available course material by clicking on the respective

file in the list.



4.3.4 Online Exam

By clicking on the Start Online Examination menu, the student can start the online

examination.



A. Exam Rules

The page shows some tips and instructions for online examination. Please read these

carefully.

It is important that the security settings are set to allowed pop-ups temporarily for this

website because the online exam is launched in a separate window as a pop-up.

Click on the link Click Here to start exam.

The exam will start in a new window.

Once the exam starts, you should not change focus to any other window by minimizing or

resizing the exam window or any other means. If you do this, it will be treated as

attempting to indulge in malpractices and the exam window will be closed and your exam

will be terminated.

Also you should not click any function keys on the keyboard or right-click of mouse.



B. Exam Sessions

The student can start the exam only from the authorized examination center of TMV

and only when an examination session has been started.

A designated Center Manager will first have to start an examination session and an

external supervisor appointed by TMV will have to authorize the exam session.

This means that the students can not take online examination from any other place

such as their homes or internet cafes etc. Also they can not take the examination at

any time, except during the announced examination schedule days and timings as

announced by TMV.

The student has to finish the exam for all the courses of the semester during the

scheduled examination days in any order which he/she wishes. Once the examination

of a course is finished, that course is no more available for examination again.

If the student attempts to take an exam from anywhere outside the exam hall or

outside the timings of the announced schedule, the following error message will be

shown.



When the student starts the exam from an authorized exam center and after the exam

supervisor has authorized the exam session, the list of available courses is displayed

for selection as follows:

The student can select a course from the list and Start to start the online examination.

The examination page is as follows:



The page shows the students name, PRN number, program name and current date/time in

the top right of the page.

In the main frame, the Question number, total questions, the course name of the selected

course, duration in minutes and remaining time in minutes is shown.

The question type is indicated before the question. The question type can be

- Multiple Choice

- True/False

- Match Pairs

- Fill in Blanks

- Odd one out

The possible answers are displayed below. The student has to click on one of the answers

or type in the answer in case of fill in blanks.

Previous: Click on this button to go back to the previous question. If the previous

question has been answered, then the answer already recorded is displayed and it can not

be changed. Only if the previous question was skipped, then the answer can be typed in.



Submit: Click on Submit button after selecting the correct answer. Once clicked, the

answer is recorded and automatically the next question is displayed. It is NOT possible to

change the answer once submitted.

Skip: Click on the Skip button when you are not sure of the answer. When you come

back to the question you skipped by clicking the Previous button, you can type in the

answer later.

Finish: Click on Finish button to finish the examination.

You will be asked to confirm if you really want to finish the exam.

If the total duration is exceeded, then automatically the exam will be finished.

The result Pass/Fail for the one course which you just appeared is displayed after

finishing the exam as follows:





4.3.5 User Menu

As a system user, each student is allowed to view his/her own profile and change his/her

password.

These menus are available from the User menu.



4.3.6 Forgot Password

In case you have forgotten your password, you can request to reset your password.

However for this you need to remember your secret question & answer you provided at

the time of registration.

Click on the Forgot Password link on the Login page. The following page will be

displayed:

You can input your login id.

If you have forgotten your login Id also, then you can input your email Id and then

change the Radio button (default is Login Id) on the right to Email Id.

From the list of Questions list box, select the question that you had at the time of

registration.

Input the same answer in the Answer textbox that you had input at the time of

registration.



If your secret question & answer matched the ones at the time of registration, your

password will be reset to a new randomly generated complex password and an email will

be sent to your email Id.

The format of the email is as follows:

Documents

Online Examination System for Tilak Maharashtra University ...tmvonline.org/creditbase/Announcements/TMU Online Exam - Studen… · Online Examination Student User Manual Tilak Maharashtra