Design of an Online Examination Information System for Tertiary Education

Abstract

Over the last three decades, the introduction of Information and Communications Technology (ICT) into the education system at all levels has brought tremendous transformation leading to effective and efficient management, allocation of educational resources and evaluation of students' performances. Hence, Online Examination System (OES) is an effective solution for mass education evaluation thereby eliminating the cumbersome and fraud-pruned traditional paper-based examination. The OES designed in this paper is based on a browser/server framework which carries out the examination and auto-grading for multiple choice questions. It can be successfully applied to the distance evaluation in universities and the nationwide examination for the high school graduates. The OES has been developed to support adaptive as well as standard testing, along with automatic grading and record keeping, using the WAMP server as a delivery vehicle. In adherence with interactive learning and digital library in tertiary institutions, OES can be applied to help evaluating candidates in a large class. Preliminary testing has led to various improvements, and it appears that OES will be well received by both instructors and students. It adapts easily to a variety of environments and so could be widely used at other institutions as well.