Mindlogicx Creating a New Order in Higher Education Date:   Tuesday , August 04, 2009 Malavika, a first semester MBA student at Anna University in Coimbatore is one of the 75,000 happy and surprised students of Anna University Coimbatore today. She never expected that the results would be announced in just 15 days from the day she had finished her exams. Malavika even got her marks sheets printed and delivered with her photograph and with an authentication code embedded that makes her certificate worthy among millions of such certificates. “Thanks to the university for announcing the results so soon. I can now plan my next semester with peace without worrying about exams results any more. Even for my seniors in the final semester this would be a boon, as it will enhance their prospects in the job market. Earlier, for many, the delay in announcing results meant losing a chance to apply for higher studies. Now the situation has changed,” says elated Malavika. Indeed, there is a silent revolution under way. Today the novel software suite, ‘intelliEXAMS’, developed by the Bangalore headquartered Mindlogicx, a player in the knowledge management and delivery domain, handles the complete life cycle of Anna University’s high-stake semester examinations. The system totally automates all the examination processes like electronic delivery of question papers in a secured network just few minutes before commencement of the examinations, enable digital evaluation of handwritten answer scripts, provides facility for result processing and publication, prints mark sheets and degree certificates with unique Global Access Code to eliminate faking of the certificates besides allowing college authorities to generate and print hall tickets online along with the photograph of students embedded, thus completely eliminating impersonation problems. In addition to this the system efficiently handles program management, fee and attendance uploading, distributed authoring of question bank etc. Dr. R.Radhakrishnan, Vice Chancellor of the Anna University believes, “This would herald a new digital trend that showcases the power of IT in the education space, virtually in a transparent, efficient, and foolproof manner.” Suresh Elangovan, CEO of Mindlogicx has a strong reason to feel proud. He believes that the solution can rejuvenate the higher education system built over the past about two centuries. When Elangovan founded Mindlogicx in 2002, he intended to build a business, which should revolutionize the knowledge space. A successful IT consultant - who happens to be a die-hard admirer of Dr. APJ Abdul Kalam and Infosys founder NR Narayana Murthy - with a vision of delivering technology to a common man is now all set to build a great company in knowledge domain. “If you see the evolution of any successful company, you see a great vision behind it. It might be the solving of an existing problem or addressing an untapped opportunity. In our case both are true,” says a prideful Elangovan. Addressing The Problem, Social Impact From a university perspective, conducting hassle free examinations has been a Herculean task. There are over 367 universities across India and over 18,000 colleges, half a million teachers, 11 million students, 1,500 management colleges, 3,500 engineering colleges, and 1,200 medical colleges. Each university, on an average, conducts over 650 examinations in different subjects during summer and about 500 in the winter every year. And also there are several other institutions and government bodies, which conduct various competitive examinations, which are being attended by lakhs of candidates every year (See Table). Imagine if technology could help save billions of rupees, all universities and institutions put together, which are spent on conducting examinations and on several related activities, which are now carried out the traditional way, and also help them in making their students’ future even brighter. “Certainly technology has been doing it,” asserts Dr. Radhakrishnan. First of all, completing the formalities for examinations and announcing results in time itself has become a burden for the officials of any university. Several Universities across India have reported mal-practice during examinations and post examinations including fake certificates, leakage of question paper. Also, there are numerous instances of controversies and legal tangles caused by question paper leaks that lead to a loss of faith in the very system. The other major issue in the higher education segment is scheduling of examinations, examination process, result-declaration and ancillary processes usually have high turn around time. This inordinate delay in the announcement of results, which lands students of colleges affiliated to the universities in a fix. The delay normally causes problems to those who have already received job offers from leading companies through campus recruitment and for those who have applied to higher educational programmes in India and abroad. Additionally, the increasing number of educational institutions being granted affiliation to the university further worsens the situation, as it adds to the burden of these universities. There are known geographic limitations to large Universities to conduct examinations, like colleges present in distant places, vast student base, multiple courses being offered. Every year, the university conducts examinations for the students of hundreds of affiliated colleges. The number of exams has gone up, but there is inadequate infrastructure to meet these demands. Also, there is vast amount of data (related to students, affiliated colleges), which tends to get cumbersome for universities to manage. Data could range from details on students’ attendance, fees to grading system. Also, on an average 2 out of 10 universities face threat of foolproof examinations, which often lead to examinations re-scheduling/cancellations. And there is low accuracy in evaluation/re-evaluation has been the issue for a long time. In fact, several such loopholes had to be plugged in the examination wing, especially at a time when it faced allegations that money had been collected from students for providing results in advance. Sometimes printing of question papers in excess also created problems for the university authorities. According to a senior university official, in some regions of the country one out of every 10 marks cards (statement of marks) is turning out to be forged one. Furthermore, cumbersome examination methodologies, complicated question sampling, increased overhead costs, security challenges, geographical challenges, examination malpractices, and person dependent methodologies have worsened the situation and have given some states in India a malignant notoriety, creating social consequences as well. “Technology could be effective in addressing such pain points in conducting examinations for any university by ensuring an efficient and foolproof conduct of their examinations,” says Elangovan, adding that the software could also help in creating a great social impact. Mindlogicx is exactly into that. It’s trying to address the issue with its technological effort, namely intelliEXAMS, an Examination Management System (EMS). “Implementation of this scalable and customizable software can prevent many examination malpractices, like leakage of question papers and issues pertaining to fake mark sheets and degree certificates,” says N.Somasundaram, CTO. Imagine, question papers are pushed to the examination centers in encrypted format, which will be decrypted by an authorized person in the center and printed just few minutes before the exams!. Also, using its Web-based authoring tool by which the question papers can be set by subject experts located in different parts of the world, the university has the convenience of having the best set of question papers in the shortest possible time. Note that these are just a few of the functionalities out of a myriad of features the software, which is developed by a team of experts led by the CEO that has deep knowledge in both academics and technology domains. “It’s not so easy to address the pain points and actual needs. It took us four long years to build the product,” remembers Somasundaram. The First Taste of Success The jubilation is clearly visible on the faces of all 327 employees of Mindlogicx. Last year Mindlogicx deployed its solution for the first time at Anna University in just 60 days. During December 2008, the solution went live for the first time with all the stages of the examinations held as per the schedule without affecting any day-to-day business of the university. The company has set up a Network Operating Center (NOC) in the university campus and examination data center for other colleges in various districts under the university. “Imagine management of question paper dispatch to the respective colleges affiliated to the university on the eve of the exam and pooling of answer scripts at close, under the conventional system. It has been a mind-boggling exercise. We had to ensure that papers do not leak, amidst rumors and reports of purported attempts. This will go into history now,” says Radhakrishnan, while stating that it has been a fantastic journey since then. As of now, the project implemented for Anna University caters to about 75,000 students and 110 colleges spread out in eight districts of Tamil Nadu wherein the university and the colleges are networked through VPN. What is unique is Mindlogicx’s business model. In the current system, it would be very tough for Indian universities to take care of the upfront cost of the automation process, which runs into crores. However, the company came up with a model where there is no license fee, and hence would not be a burden for the universities, students, and easily recoverable for Mindlogicx as well, putting all in the loop in a win-win situation. The solution is offered under Managed Application Service (MAS) arrangement, by which the company manages the complete project by deploying and managing application software, hardware, connectivity, backup, and disaster recovery. “We normally manage projects under any of the three models: The build- operate-transfer (BOT), build-own-operate-transfer (BOOT), and build-own-operate (BOO) models for a fixed duration that is normally five years and above,” informs Prashanth S.B., Vice President, Sales and Marketing. In fact, in all the models the client (the university) pays Mindlogicx some percentage of the money from the examination fees paid by students, on a per student per examination basis, ensuring that no student is charged more just because the technology is being implemented in the university. “If there is more number of students, the cost will be further lower. The existing system will not be affected during the implementation,” he adds. Also, Mindlogicx itself takes care of all the upgradation, training activities for the university staff, and maintenance and support. The solution has helped Anna University in conducting successfully two sets of semester examination cycles for both under graduate and postgraduate courses. And it was able to announce the results much earlier than before. “It is planned in such a way that within 15-20 days from the date of last examination, the results could be announced and the marks sheets distributed to the students,” explains Somasundaram. Currently, the company has been fine-tuning the product on customization requirements. The next obvious question would be how long it will take for implementation. “It will not take much time for us to deploy the solution. It takes just 20-30 days for the system to be operational,” says Prashanth. First, the company sets up a network-operating center (NOC) in the university campus, where all software installation and infrastructure are deployed. The network-operating center connects to all the affiliated colleges where examinations are being conducted. Intelliexams: A Turnaround Application This is how the intelliEXAMS is typically executed. Phase 1 starts with hall ticket generation and the delivery of question papers. The solution has been designed and developed with a major thrust on security standards. International standards encryption and security systems have been followed for secured delivery of question papers to the remote centers. “The delivery system is so unique that hacking is practically not possible. Further, three party authentication takes care of any possible manual errors,” says Somasundaram. The system has a simple and easy to use Web-based centralized user interface and a well-defined database-centric schema for storing, retrieving, managing, and aggregating examination objects. intelliEXAMS has a powerful but easy to use question bank authoring system to suit the specific needs. The question banks are managed online and can contain multimedia contents also for conducting online exams. The question papers are delivered in a highly secured manner with 128 Bit SSL encryption technologies to provide peace of mind to the stakeholders. The technology used for this purpose is the same one that is used for online banking transactions. The question paper is set by a randomization process, encrypted, and then sent to remote examination centers, from where the authorized person uses his key to decrypt and then print using high-speed printers. Hardware based authentications further ensure the process is highly secure and foolproof. Phase 2 involves the process of digital evaluation of answer scripts. Once the examinations are over, the answer scripts are sealed and brought to the central valuation centers installed at select locations of the university and they are digitized and stored in the central server. After masking the registered numbers, the digitized answer scripts are made available to the faculty for digital evaluation. The evaluation can be done from anywhere using both Intranet and Internet. The online system is built in such a way that features like answer keys and review are completely user friendly, easing out the pains of manual evaluation. Phase 3 involves printing of mark sheets and degree certificates. The printed mark sheets and certificates contain a unique 12-digit Global Access Code (GAC). This is called intelliCAS, a certificate authentication system, which would be a boon for educational institutions. Thus the problems like fake marks sheets and fake degree certificates are eliminated, while enabling a prospective employer to ascertain the credentials of the certificates from any part of the world using the GAC. “These authentication codes can be verified and confirmed via standard browser or even mobile browser,” says Elangovan. In addition to this, the different reports about the details of examinations conducted, examination centers, fees, candidate lists, and information on cost and budget can be generated using this application. The system manages the schedule effectively for examination centers or individuals and prints the exam hall entry pass with multi-level verification processes including photographs of the candidates. Interestingly, “As part of the intelliEXAMS framework, there is an examination management process that encompasses the management of examinations that are online or offline. It takes into account the attendance and regulations for the course and program and then verifies the fee payments made before the hall ticket generation can be implemented,” explains Elangovan. The Technology Other than secured architecture that has been built, intelliEXAMS offers comprehensive solution to the end users and eliminates user-centric issues. The company claims that the solution is completely maintenance free and works seamlessly with any legacy system. “The solution has been so designed that any technical support issues can be handled in a modular manner and hence no individual nodes get affected during the running of the entire project. However, the overall control for managing the system remains with the university,” explains Somasundaram. IntelliEXAMS is based on open-ended architecture, which offers maximum scalability and hence, can be implemented in any environment as an anytime anywhere assessment solution. Moreover, as the system is futuristic and scalable it can be deployed not only in universities but also for online examinations, common entrance examinations, and mass recruitment activities in organizations like large corporate, PSU and banks. The Road Ahead The company’s sprawling lush green campus in Bangalore has become the hearth of ideas and the hotspot of activity. The campus houses the corporate office, R&D center, development center, and knowledge resource center. Followed by the successful deployments in Anna University and Svyasa University in Bangalore, over a dozen universities across the country have already approached the company. “We have won several accolades and awards to our credit and have certainly emerged as one of India’s most exciting innovative companies providing highly flexible, scalable, and affordable technical services and solutions in the knowledge domain,” says P.S.Srijith, Associate Vice President, Operations. The company, which wishes to be a SAP in the higher education segment, is looking for an inorganic growth in the next five years and position itself as a domain leader in higher education market segment. “We understand the market needs. We know whom to sell to rather than firing in the dark. As long as we serve the market demands, sell a product that could be sold, and create a great social impact, I believe my goal is very much achievable. We are committed to work on this goal,” states Elangovan. When India is on its march to become a knowledge super power by 2020, the education segment also has to rejuvenate to make the knowledge representatives coming out of the universities more productive. Issues like examination malpractices and leakage of question papers may become hindrances for this progress. In fact, technologies like intelliEXAMS will aid the education sector as a great technology tool and help the universities face the challenges to show tangible benefits in terms of taking education to the masses and ultimately making the country’s human resources more productive. “Our vision is to become a major contributor as a technology enabler in building India as a knowledge super power by playing a key role in propelling the national economy through a knowledge based eco system,” signs off Elangovan with confidence. What VCs Say Anna University, Coimbatore achieves the distinction of becoming the first university to adopt and implement this radical Exam Management System (EMS) to conduct its both UG and PG exams. We congratulate Mindlogicx for their technology, client centric deliveries and excellent project management to put the project online in record time. —Dr. Radhakrishnan Vice-Chancellor, Anna University, Coimbatore, TN Managing the data manually was not a problem when there was less number of students. The number of students enrolling with us has increased now as we have recently introduced several new courses at our university. Hence we decided to allow technology to step in to tackle this challenge. We have implemented intelliEXAMS this year, from which we believe things will start benefiting us more and more in terms of minimizing the mammoth task of manual management of data, while saving the cost by at least 50 percent. —Dr. H R Nagendra Vice-Chancellor, SVYASA University, Bangalore, Karnataka Normally, the process of post examination activities takes about a month or two to complete and involves a lot of complexities and challenges. I believe that examination automation solutions like intelliEXAMS, which integrates the various stages of conducting examinations, will certainly bring down the time to perhaps just a few days, which puts all of us in a win-win situation. —Prof. Srinath Baruah Vice-Chancellor, Krishna Kanta Handique State Open University, Guwahati, Assam Every year, a university conducts examinations for students in hundreds of affiliated colleges. Today the number of exams and the number of students attending the exams have gone up, but there is inadequate infrastructure to meet these demands. Managing the data in such huge volumes manually is also a big challenge. Hence I think, as we move forward we must adopt modern technologies like these to remain efficient. Definitely, examination automation solutions like intelliEXAMS, which integrate the various stages of conducting examinations, have the potential to solve these issues. —Dr. Debendranath Mishra Controller of Examinations, Rashtrasant Tukadoji Maharaj Nagpur University, Maharastra Founded: 2003 Founder & CEO: Suresh Elangovan Headquarters: Bangalore Segment: Higher education Headcount: 327 Website: www.mindlogicx.com