Book Review: The Facebook Effect

The Facebook Effect

by DAVID KIRKPATRICK,
NEW YORK/RANDOM HOUSE/2010

From the title, it suggests on what is the book about, a familiar term "Facebook", the site we usually login at least once in a day.

The story-line revolves around how Facebook evolved from a Harvard dorm room experiment to a successful company having almost a billion of active users, the struggles of keeping the company stable, about its competitors, about its strategies, failures etc. It makes us realize that nothing is achieved without pure hardwork, determination and a focused way to reach your goal. It also shows Mark Zuckerberg's ability to handle the company well, make it financially viable without compromising on the quality of the product, to remain steady despite failures, believing in the concept of the company and make it so successful.

Also, it gives opinions of Facebook by its investors, stakeholders, management team etc. and gives an insight about the lives of people involved in making Facebook what it is today.

Reviewed by Manan Meghani - FE 6

UoP initiates new online MCQ exam

20-mark test to speed up evaluation

UoP initiates new online MCQ exam

Results of digital test will be made available immediately, ensuring more transparency

As part of a newly-introduced credit system, management students of University of Pune (UoP)-affiliated colleges will now have to take a multiple choice question-based (MCQ) online examination of 20 marks for every subject taught in their courses.  This move by the varsity is expected to increase evaluation speed and bring transparency into the proceedings. Students will be able to see their scores immediately after finishing the examination, and a student will also get a second attempt in the next semester, in case of failure.  Dr E B Khedkar, Dean, Faculty of Management, UoP and Director, D Y Patil Institute of Management, explained, “Twenty MCQ questions will be asked for 20 marks, which students will have 25 minutes to complete. Considering this year’s academic calendar, we will schedule the first such exam in October.”  Dr Parag Kalkar, Registrar at the Sinhagad Management Institute (SMI), said, “A special programme will be designed for this. Students will be asked random questions out of a question bank. A buffer time of five minutes will be given since some questions might need calculations to be done,” adding that different machines will have different sets of questions.  “The exam will be conducted on UoP’s server. While internal assessments are conducted by colleges, one part of the external assessment will be quick, since this online exam will give immediate results,” said Dr Apoorva Palkar, promoter, MERC Institute of Management. Meanwhile, students seem to have welcomed the decision. Vikram Gawde, a first year student of DYPIM, feels it will help in preparations for the semester examination.  “Although this will be just a 20-mark objective test, I will have to study for it before the final examination. It will give me a clear idea about where I stand and what is important,” he said. Another first year student, Amay Tambe of SMI, spoke about the transparency it will bring.  He said, “The immediate results will help me find where I went wrong and what I should take care of when I appear for the written examination. In case of the latter, no student is in the mood to go back and refer to the questions they get wrong when the results come out.” UoP’s new credit system has been designed to ensure continuous and comprehensive evaluation.  In an attempt to aim for international standards, UoP management students will be evaluated on online exams, projects, presentations, internships, journals, class participation etc. Every semester, six subjects will be credited with 100 marks each, out of which 50 marks are reserved for the regular written examination, 30 for the internal assessments and 20 for this online examination.   Taking it online   ►  20 multiple choice questions   ►  25 minutes to finish the test  ►  Questions to be randomly generated from a question bank  ►  Results to be out immediately after exam  ►  A student can re-appear for it in the next semester, if s/he fails in the exam Source: http://www.punemirror.in/article/2/201308192013081910493651290c72dc5/UoP-initiates-new-online-MCQ-exam.html