In times of COVID-19 pandemic, technological innovations have proved to be life-savers, supporting governments, organisations and academics to provide possible essential services in the best possible manners.

The Sports Authority of India (SAI) is the latest to join the ranks of organisations to use technological innovations to continue doing their work. On June 14-15, the apex sports body of the country conducted online exams for aspiring coaches using artificial intelligence (AI) based systems. Almost 10,000 aspiring coaches appeared for the examination - 4,738 attendees gave discipline-specific exams, while 4,476 coaches gave the sports science exam which is generic across all disciplines.

The first of its’ kind test was devised due to the COVID-19 pandemic, and was conducted simultaneously across India, Nepal, Bangladesh and Malaysia after the conclusion of a 21-day course ‘Coach Education Programme’. “Developing the skill set of our coaches is a priority for SAI. But what makes this online Coach Education Programme and this exam unique is that an online course and exam of this magnitude has been organised by SAI for the very first time,” Sports Minister Kiren Rijiju said.

The AI-enabled security system ensured that insincerity of any kinds could be prevented whilst an attendee takes an exam. Attendees scanned IDs and clicked their photographs to identify themselves in addition to recording their audio and video samples. These samples were used to ensure that the room where the attendees were taking the exam was free of a second person. In case the protocol was not followed, the AI-enabled system could immediately issue a warning.

All hardware - laptops, phones and computers - that were being used to give exams has their internet tabs suspended. In addition, invigilators were also assigned to monitor the attendees via webcams manually. The test was held on behalf of SAI by the National Testing Agency (NTA), an autonomous body known to conduct nation-wide competitive exams.

“There were many firsts in this exam. It was the first exam of NTA after the outbreak of COVID-19. It was NTA’s first ‘completely online’ or Internet-Based assessment…The exams were for the first time proctored online with the help of Artificial Intelligence as well with human proctoring,” Director General, NTA, Vineet Joshi said.