Blame people, not technology for CAT's failure

MUMBAI, INDIA: The maiden attempt of Indian Institute of Managements (IIMs) to organize the online Common Aptitude Test (CAT) was in news for all wrong reasons. Owing to virus attacks and other technical glitches, IIMs' CAT was caught in a mousetrap, which embarrassed the students.

However, in expert's view, the failure has more do to with the people who conduct it rather than the technology because the same technology is used by very large number of people across businesses on daily basis without any major technical issues.

According to IIT Mumbai’s professor and educationist Dr. Deepak Pathak, for any online tests or systems, there’s need of strong back-end server, networks and last mile connectivity.

“The important aspect is how the system can handle the peak-loads during any online tests or processes. And for that the organizers need to have estimates for sizing of servers, networks, communication loads and bandwidths. And doing so, one needs to follow certain disciplines,” Dr. Pathak said.

“If there had been the prior thorough testing drills of online testing systems as well as the physical infrastructures or there had been an alternative mechanism, any kind of last minute technical glitches could have been easily handled,” he stressed.

Giving the examples of online business processes such as net banking systems, stock exchanges and websites, Dr. Pathak pointed out, “Even the online testing systems should have adopted to business process continuity plans, as such online tests are far more critical to students’ career and their future.”

While, Cyber security expert and Cloud evangelist Vijay Mukhi strongly said that the technology should not be blamed for the online CAT failure because the technology is matured enough to handle such small number of students.

“Today far more numbers of people and processes are handled by the same technology compared to the number of students which appeared for the online CAT,” Mukhi said.

Further he pointed to some measures to coup up with technical glitches, such as investments in new technology, by hiring more servers using the pay-per-use model, shifting the online exams on cloud, using mobile data cards for last mile connectivity and setting up local servers with back-ups and revamping the hard drives prior to online tests.

Moreover, Dr. Pathak raised an important point that there is virtually no substitute to online tests, as it offers great benefits in handling large number of students.

“The idea is that end user should have comfortable and easy life at the last mile. However, testing of infrastructure and process should be done thoroughly before embarking on it,” he cautioned.

According to Aptech’s CEO and managing director Ninad Karpe, the online testing business is a billion dollar industry globally and it’s relatively new in India as it started off during last 4-5 years.

“Online testing industry’s growth areas are entrance exams, distance education, recruitment process and online assessments of employees,” Karpe said. He added that the IT industry needs to offer helping hand to the education sector in organizing online tests and for benefits of students.

These experts were present in a discussion on opportunities and threats in the online testing domain organized by Indian Merchants Chambers (IMC) in Mumbai on Monday.