Online Assessment System

Abstract

As a continuous effort to improve and increase the use of computers in students’ education, weimplemented an online assessment server. Its purpose is to ease the students’ examination processand to provide a transparent and objective evaluation. The solution we developed is a webapplication, written using PHP and Javascript. It uses MySQL as a database management systemand Apache for the web server, hosted on a Linux system. The site can be accessed through a webbrowser capable of handling AJAX queries (Asynchronous Javascript and XML). Using theadministration module, one can add or remove questions, question categories, can create tests andset its parameters (number of questions, time per question, IP addresses allowed to access the test).The administrator can also monitor the students during the test. The types of questions allowed aremultiple choices with a single or multiple correct answers. After a student finishes a test, the gradeis automatically displayed and there also is the possibility to review the questions and the correctanswers. The system has proven itself to be quite stable; it has been in used for two years. In thenearby future, we intend to develop a second version of the server, one with more capabilities andimproved functions.