Chennai: Students appearing for BE, BTech, and BA, BSc, BCom courses this academic year might have to think, analyse, and apply concepts in their internal and semester exams. State universities and colleges have decided to introduce up to 20% higher-order thinking skills (HOTS) based questions from this academic year.These questions will include different types of questions such as case studies, decision-making scenarios, infographics and data interpretation questions, advanced match the following questions and puzzle-type questions.A recent study by the State Planning Commission revealed that 80% of questions in semester exams were memory-based or low-order thinking-based questions. Based on the direction from Tamil Nadu State Council for Higher Education (TANSCHE), state universities such as Bharathidasan University, Tiruvalluvar University and Mother Teresa University have submitted a roadmap to include such questions in their exams in the next few years.“We plan to introduce analytical questions in the internal assessments in this academic year. Based on the experience, we plan to introduce such questions in the semester exams later,” said C Prahalathan, director in charge, Council for College and Curriculum Development, Bharathidasan University.The faculty members were trained in setting higher-order thinking-based questions while setting the question papers.Other universities, such as Anna University and the University of Madras, are in the process of preparing such a roadmap for revamping their question papers.As a pilot study, a few engineering colleges, including Govt College of Technology, Coimbatore, Alagappa Chettiar Govt College of Engineering and Technology in Karaikudi have started introducing HOTS-based questions in semester exams.“Colleges were allowed to design their own question papers. We are introducing analytical questions and design-oriented questions. These questions are based on ‘apply’, ‘analyse’ and ‘design’ concepts,” said A Sivanantha Raja, principal, Alagappa Chettiar Govt College of Engineering and Technology in Karaikudi.“The results were encouraging, and students are adapting to such questions better. We are also introducing activity-based learning by encouraging them to participate in hackathons, seminars, and to take value-added courses instead of assignments. They will be allowed to drop one or two assignments if they participate in these activities,” he added.These questions are expected to promote creativity and problem-solving ability among students.“For engineering courses, AICTE insists that memory-based questions should not exceed 40% of the question paper. HOTS questions will promote problem-solving ability and critical thinking among students. What is assessed alone will be taught and learnt,” said M P Vijayakumar, vice-chairman of TANSCHE.
