CamScanner ban may affect online assignments, DU’s open book exam

NEW DELHI: The popular document scanning mobile application, CamScanner, was among the 59 apps that were banned by the Government of India on Monday.

The ban on the widely-used free-for-download app that turns the mobile phone into a scanner will only add to the list of problems facing final-year Delhi University students who would have relied on CamScanner to complete their online open book exams. The online exams require students to scan the pages of their answer sheets and upload. Students and teachers were already protesting against the online open-book exams for final-year students for weeks. Their exams were to begin on July 1 but were postponed by 10 days on Saturday.

Rajesh Jha, a Delhi University teacher said on social media: “CamScanner- a major weapon in online #OBE has been banned. Even homes with computers, laptops generally don't have scanners. University Guidelines mentioned CamScanner to upload Ans. Now, how [will] most of the students… upload the answers?”

ES File Explorer, widely used for managing files between folders, and video-sharing app TikTok are also among the 59 banned.

Lockdown and phone apps

Teachers and students who would have been unbothered by the ban even a few months ago, are already casting about for their substitutes. The lockdown enforced from mid-March to control the coronavirus outbreak has forced schools and colleges to attempt teaching online.

Teachers say that the popularity of these file-sharing and scanning apps had risen during the lockdown. “I have been using this app aggressively,” said Shruti Verma, a student of Mata Sundri College for Women, Delhi University. “All my assignments have been scanned through this app. It will be difficult now.”

Meena Jha, a teacher of DAV Public School, Vikaspuri, is looking for a replacement. “We need a substitute for CamScanner. How will we get the work from the students and evaluate their assignments?” she said. “I did not know much about its use earlier, but during the lockdown, I used it.”

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