Here is another case of technological innovation in educational admissions succumbing to problems of execution. Nearly 16.000 applicants to the Institute of Management Technology (IMT), Ghaziabad’s PGDM program this year were required to appear for a computer-based video interview as the first step in the admission process. Termed ‘Virtual Interview’ by IMT, the innovation backfired because of major technical issues, disrupting interviews and leaving many applicants nervous and exasperated.

After trying to rectify the problems though with limited success, IMT claims that it has selected applicants for the next stage of their admission process using their CAT Scores without considering the Virtual Interview performance of the applicant. It still kept the Virtual Interview portal open on March 3 and 4 to enable the selected applicants to complete their Virtual Interviews.

Attempting a departure from the standard admission process involving shortlisting by CAT scores and academic record, IMT introduced the Virtual Interview as the first step for admissions to its PGDM programs. The Virtual Interview required an applicant to sit in front of a computer with a webcam from their homes, offices or cyber-cafes, log in to the Virtual Interview site that IMT had set up and answer five pre-recorded questions. The first question was mandatory, while the applicant had to choose the best two from the rest and answer all the three questions in five-minute chunks over a time window of 45 minutes.

The virtual interviews began on the February 25. Despite in-house testing by IMT and practice sessions for the applicants, the Virtual Interview immediately ran into technical issues. Some applicants who spoke to PaGaLGuY about these issues said that their webcams failed to start. For others, the questions did not load or their answers were not recorded. IMT had allowed practice sessions with the new system for the applicants before the actual interview, which had been glitch-free. These issues forced IMT to suspend the virtual interview process for the first two days.

When asked about the technical problems in the first two days. Nimesh Gupta, an IMT student and representative of IMT’s media committee claimed that the main reason for the problem was that the applicants’ computers did not have Java plugins installed. The interview applet, which was coded in Java, therefore did not load. As a workaround, IMT made provisions for the candidates to record the interview on their computers locally and upload the videos onto their websites.

The system was restored by February 28, but problems still persisted. One candidate said, “The applet showed the status as uploading for the best part of my interview, thus denying me the chance of answering the other questions. For other students, the link to report issues did not work. Still another applicant said that his computer got stuck after answering the first question while another student could only hear the audio clip of his responses while he was reviewing them.

When quizzed about the recurrence of the technical troubles Nimesh said, “Candidates had to use an Internet connection, with a minimum speed of 256 kbps to seamlessly upload the videos. Also the format of the videos used by applicants was sometimes incorrect. Though we had explicitly mentioned that the videos had to be less than 7 MB and in the ‘.flv’ or ‘.mp4’ formats, some students tried to upload videos in other formats that were far larger than the specified size.”

As a result of these issues, on March 3, IMT sent an email to all its applicants to take another shot at the virtual interview between March 5 and 6. On the same day, it also issued call letters for the next stage in its admission process, on the basis of their CAT scores and past academic scores. The glitch-ridden interview process was not considered.

Nimesh said, “A candidate who has been shortlisted can still appear for the virtual interview, as we will take the best score between the Virtual Interview and the Personal Interview. Those whose names do not figure in this list, can still take the Virtual Interview to be eligible for further rounds of selection as all Virtual Interviews will be evaluated.”

Update

We have the initial reactions from the applicants, who appeared for the Virtual Interview on March 5. From what we are told, technical problems still persist. Some applicants whom we spoke to, had updated the Java plugins on their computers and were able to go through the Interview without any glitches, but others have faced serious issues. Problems that were reported included slot timings being changed unexpectedly, questions not appearing on the screens, etc. One applicant told us that he contacted the IMT office to report the problems and was encouraged to skip the Virtual Interview and appear for his Personal Interview instead.

Why Virtual Interview?

According to IMT, the move to the Virtual Interview was introduced to make an initial pick based on an applicants’ communication skills and thinking process instead of traditional parameters like CAT scores or academic profiles. “We have observed that our candidates, who in spite of having good academic records do not do well in the group discussions and personal interviews. While others having good extra-curricular records and work experiences do not make it to the interviews because of inferior academic records, hence the Virtual Interview.”

The technology for the Virtual Interviews was provided by Vmock, an American Technology company.