By Brendan White
The release of DCU’s examination results could be set for a huge change after ISS revealed that a new system could be rolled out in time for results this semester. ISS confirmed to The College View that they are currently testing a new system for the delivery of results, but stressed that no final decision had been made. Serious problems in the release of examination results in semester one led to calls for a change in the delivery system.
A motion, which was passed at last week’s Class Rep Council meeting, wanted a change in the delivery of the exam results, suggesting a move to a faculty-by-faculty release system.
During the motion at CRC, DCU- SU president Ed Leamy said that results would indeed be released on a faculty-by-faculty basis and would be staggered throughout the day to prevent the problems seen in semester one. Speaking to The College View, Leamy said that he was happy with the decision and that he believed that it was the right decision.
However, ISS have said that a final decision on how exam results will be delivered will only be made after all testing is complete.
Once testing is completed, ISS, Registry and Senior Management will review the results and make the final decision. ISS have said that they are working hard to ensure the smooth delivery of exam results for the summer and beyond.
Exam results were released for all DCU students at one particular time in February, causing a crash on the results page. A new system had been set up by Registry and ISS to deliver results in what it described as a secure and reliable manner. The reliable manner proved unsuccessful despite the introduction of captcha technology, a system also used by ticketmaster, which asks for words on screen to be entered into a logon box. The new system was put in place to ease congestion and ensure the page didn’t crash when results went live.
Despite the changes, the site crashed shortly after the release of results, which forced the site to be taken down for some time while the problem was rectified. While the system was down, angry students took to boards.ie and twitter to complain about the system, many of which suggested the release of results should be somehow staggered throughout the day.
The site was eventually put back online and students were able to retrieve results half an hour after the initial release. ISS are hoping to roll out the new system in time for the release of semester two results, if tests are successful. Semester two examinations begin on Monday May 14th and continue until Saturday May 26th. Results are available online from Thursday 28th June 2012.