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62
International Journal of Computing Academic Research (IJCAR)
ISSN 2305-9184 Volume 4, Number 2(April2015), pp.62-82
© MEACSE Publications
http://www.meacse.org/ijcar
Construction of an Online Examination System with Resumption and
Randomization Capabilities
Mohammed Issam Younis and Maysam Sameer Hussein
Computer Engineering Department, College of Engineering, University of Baghdad
Jadryah, Baghdad, Iraq
Abstract
Online Examination is an essential ingredient in electronic and interactive learning, however, in
educational environment most of examinations are done in the classical paper-based way due to the lack of
resumption capability when power/network/physical computer’s component failures. For this reason,
adopting and developing an online examination system acts as an active research area in recent years. This
paper reviews the state-of-the-art and the-art-of-the-practice for nine general-purpose online examination
systems found in the literature, as well as, some dedicated industrial systems based on seven elected
intertwined features; namely: secure login, resumption capability, multi-instructor, random question
selection, random questions distribution, random choice distribution, and portability implementation
method. Even though, the implementation of these systems is promising, however, these systems have some
bleeding points. For instance, by practicing the existing examinations system, some challenging features are
found and others are missing. Among these features; namely: the resumption capability and the combination
of randomization features are missing in the reviewed systems. Fix and build from earlier works, this paper
proposes an Online Examination System (OLES) that addresses all the elected features to facilitate adopting
online examination. OLES is based on spiral model and TCP-IP client/server networking and implemented
using Java programming language and Derby database. Finally, a comparison of the proposed OLES versus
other related works to distinguish its unique features, and some recommendations for future work are
provided.
Keywords: E-learning; distributed learning environments; architectures for educational technology
system; online examination system; software engineering; Resumption; cross-platform; client/server; TCP-
IP socket.
1. Introduction
In education, the concept of E-Learning (Electronic Learning) has grown rapidly from distance
learning to virtual classrooms towards the online courses and online examinations. Associations are trying to
move from a paper-based environment to a paperless environment. People today through big and small tests,
with test having become frequently faced issue. In addition, the testing system merits at being fair and open.
With the increasing of Internet applications scope, computer net-assisted teaching is becoming a focus of
current educational reform; online examination system because of its easy to use, time-intensive, forms and
other features has more attention [1-2]. Online exam can improve the standards of student’s examination
whereas in the traditional examination systems pen and paper are used which require more effort on the part
of students and instructors. Online examinations are considered an important source for university exams [3-
14]. Moreover, the development of network technologies has given the possibility to deliver the exams
online. Thus, education can benefit from these services [3]. There are many benefits for adopting online
examination system; some of essential, but not exhausted, involve: E-Learning remote exam [4] [5]; Digital
evolution [8] [12]; Utilize available resources [8] [5]; Supplementary and helpful for disabled people [7];
Ease of use and archive [8] [12]; Clarity and credibility of check and grading [12]; Time saving especially in
case of huge number of students [8] [11] [15]; and the beneficial effect of the E-Learning that made students
break the barriers of the distance learning and expensive courses [16-18].
International Journal of Computing Academic Research (IJCAR), Volume 4, Number 2, April 2015
63
The process of switching from paper based work to a fully computerized work is not without
difficulties. As a result, many systems have been developed in the recent years. The purpose of online
examination systems is to take online exams in an efficient manner and save time consuming in checking,
marking, return back the paper. The main objective of online examination systems is to efficiently evaluate
the candidate fairly through a fully automated system. This system is not only saves a lot of time, but also
gives swift results beside the trustiness and credibility that online examination system provides.
Even though, there are valuable online examination systems; however, these systems have vital
demerits, which a little bit attention is given in the literature for addressing the power failure and/or network
failure and/or physical computer component failure cases during the exam, and the randomness of the
questions and their corresponding choices. Addressing above mentioned problems is the main focus of this
paper. The remaining of this paper is organized as follows. Section 2 states and describes the features of
online examination systems. Section 3 reviews and examines the existed online examination systems and
analyzes the obtained results in a form of features requirements to facilitate further enhancements in a form
of tabular check list. Section 5 states the specification and the planning of the OLES. Section 6 gives the
design and implementation issues of the OLES. Section 6 evaluates the features of the OLES and compares
OLES against the existed systems. Finally, Section 7 states the conclusion and gives some recommendations
for future development.
2. Features of Online Examination System
The existing online examination systems present a set of features [19-20]. These features are needed in order
to make the functionalities of each online examination system meet their requirements to serve their
purposes. The following subsections consider these features.
2.1 Secure Login
This feature means that login operation to access the system could not be done without authorization
check. Furthermore, users should be registered for have authorization access. The authorization data to be
checked are user name and password that specified for each user [6-14]. Some system uses another
authorization check such as test access restrictions by groups and Internet protocol (IP) addresses [6],
student name and ID [7], matriculation number and password [14]. In addition, other techniques are used to
identify the user and check if the person who is logging into the system is the right person or not; various
techniques are used like biometric authentication [10], fingerprint or face recognition via webcam.
2.2 Resumption Capability
As the answering exam’s questions is a critical operation, any interruption due to failures can cause
confusion and frustration for the student as it forces the student to take the exam again from its beginning
not just continue it. Coursera [21] is an online site for courses, which provides online free courses with
assessments, provides partial continuity to online exams. However, the tests answers are sent to the server to
be stored to continue answering after a failure but, only within the exam duration. After the exam duration
ended, the answers will be lost even if the examinee did not finish the exam. Furthermore, the student will
lose his/her answers when a network failure takes place. Despite of the existing systems did not shed a
spotlight on this important feature; this paper will address the resumption capability as an essential feature as
far as power and/or network failure and/or physical computer’s component failure are concerned. Like
Coursera, other certificate issuing system (e.g., CISCO, Oracle, Microsoft, etc) has the same criteria as far as
resumption capability is concerned.
2.3 Multi-Instructor
As the online examination system required being structurally solid, it should have multi-instructor
feature. Therefore, each instructor has his/her own privileges and tasks. In order to achieve that, the system
should consist of an administrator, question builder, and exam builder. The administrator manages and
controls the system, and registers the instructors. Question builder, and exam builder are responsible for
creating the questions, and exams respectively. The instructor or a Registrar is responsible for registering the
International Journal of Computing Academic Research (IJCAR), Volume 4, Number 2, April 2015
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students [8-10] [12-14]. It should be mentioned that according to the scale of the exam and organization,
these actors could be same or different entities without the loss of generality.
2.4 Combination of Randomization
The combination of randomization could be featured in online examination systems in three forms
namely: random question selection, random questions distribution, and random choices distribution. The
following subsections discuss each randomization feature individually.
2.4.1 Random Question Selection
During the build of an exam, questions are selected from the questions tier of a database, random
selection of questions is a feature performed for more secure and time saving exam building operation,
which randomize the pattern of the set of question selected for an exam [7] [13-14].
2.4.2 Random Questions Distribution
In examination phase, each student login to the system and request for exam’s questions, for more
secure and robust against cheating, random question distribution is required. In other words, this feature
means randomizing the order of questions for each student. Therefore, each student gets a randomly sorted
set of questions that differed from any other set of questions received by another student [9-10].
2.4.3 Random Choices Distribution
To ensure security and robustness against cheat attempts during the exam, random choice
distribution within each question must be performed. In other words, this feature means randomizing the
order of choices within the same question received by different student. Thus, if two students get the same
question, the choices of this question are randomly sorted and differed from each other in the order of
choices [9].
2.5 Portability
This feature means that the online examination system can run on cross platform fashion (i.e., in any
operating system and hardware). The online examination system consists of a server part and a client part.
The server part is where the exams are created and assigned. While the client part where the examinees take
the exam. These part of online examination system could be constructed as web-based [6-8] [13] or
application-based [9]. In some cases, a hybrid technique used to build the online examination system, for
example, the server part is application-based and the client part is web-based [10-12] [14], the following
subsections discuss portability in both of application-based and web-based.
2.5.1 Application-Based Systems
As the online examination system works on an Operating System (OS) platform like: Windows,
Linux, UNIX, and Mac. Thus, the online examination system should be compatible with the platform that it
is running on. Therefore, the online examination system depends on the platform, and that determined by
what programming language and technology used in the concrete system implementation [22]. When the
development of client/server model is based directly on Transmission Control Protocol/IP (TCP/IP) protocol
stack, the server and the client parts build using programming languages like Java, Visual Basic, C, C++,
and C#. In this case, the developed system is called application-based network system. In application-based
systems, the developers are responsible for developing the client and the server sides. In addition, the
developer designs the protocol handlers on both sides.
For historical and security reasons, the client is not allowed to interact with a database server
directly. Instead, the user interacts with the client side, the client interacts with the server, and the server
interacts with the database server. This network architecture is called multi-tier architecture [23] as shown in
Fig. 1.
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Fig. 1 Multi-tier Architecture for Data Access.
When a system is implemented with Java programming language, it works on any platform,
otherwise, a compiler required to perform the compatibility [24]. Java compiler translates Java source code
into byte codes which represent the tasks to be executed in the execution phase [25]. Byte codes are platform
independent and executed by the Java Virtual Machine (JVM) a part of the Java Development Kit (JDK) and
the foundation of the Java platform. JVM is a software application that simulates a computer, but hides the
underlying operating system and hardware from the programs. Any applications that JVM executes can be
used in any platforms. The JVM becomes one of the most widely used virtual machines [25].
Unlike Java, if a system is built using the Microsoft’s .NET, it works perfectly on Windows, but
could not work on other platform, unless a specific compiler used to run the system, which implies the
availability of the source code, and the compilation on each host before running the client or server
application on the hosting machine [24]. Furthermore, the compiled code may be incompatible when
different hardware is used (e.g., 32-bits Central Processing Unit (CPU) or 64-bits CPU).
2.5.2 Web-Based Systems
When the server and client parts are built using any of the following technologies and frameworks:
Hypertext Markup Language (HTML), Extensible Markup Language (XML), Active Server Pages (ASP), P
Hypertext Preprocessor (PHP), Java Servlet, Java Server Page (JSP), and Java Server Face (JSF), this
system is called a web-based system. Normally, these frameworks and technologies are contained in a web-
server. In a web-based system, the user interacts with the server through dynamic web-pages. These web
pages work on web browsers. These frameworks support portability. However, it is based on HTTP over
TCP/IP protocol stack.
The HTML pages can contain a script language (like VBScript, JavaScript) or special compiled Java
class (Applet). The main difference between Scripting languages and Java is that they achieve portability in
different ways. Normally, the scripts are interpreted each time the code run by a browser or a web-server. In
Java the compiled code (byte codes) is interpreted by JVM to a native code by using Just in Time (JIT)
compilation technology. Thus, Java achieved the portability of scripting language and the performance of
native codes (i.e., hits the both side of the same coin).
In short, application-based examination systems are faster than web page, in addition, unlike the
web-based examination systems, the client side has more resource available at the client side, and thus, can
perform other functionalities like resource access, creation, update, manage temporary storage. On the other
hand, web-based systems are easy to deploy to the client under the restriction of sand-box permission.
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3. Literature Survey
This section examines the related works on the online examination systems. In order to judge the
desired features in practice, these systems are subjected to the elected features discussed in the previous
section. The following subsections contain a brief description and features for existing online examination
systems.
3.1 SIETTE
Guzman and Conejo (2005) proposed an online examination system called System of Intelligent Evaluation
using Tests for Tele-education (SIETTE) [6]. SIETTE is a web-based environment to generate and construct
adaptive tests. It can be used for instructional objectives, via combining adaptive student self-assessment test
questions with hints and feedback. SIETTE supports secure login and portability features. On the other hand,
the other features: resumption capability, multi-instructor, random question selection, random questions
distribution and random choices distribution are missing.
3.2 WETAS
Henke (2007) proposed a web-based Test, Examination and Assessment System (WETAS) [7]. WETAS is a
web-based system designed for integration into existing Learning Management Systems (LMS); this system
provides an examination environment and assignments as well to facilitate database supported e-Learning
Test, suitable for the pre- and post- tests of Reusable Learning Objects (RLO) as well as the remote lab entry
test. WETAS is implemented using Java Applet and PHP scripts for file handling. The Applet for
Knowledge Testing in Laboratory Courses (AKTLC), in contribution with a task assembler, provides tasks
from (a randomly selectable) text file and performs an evaluation of the student’s result, furthermore
WETAS built to make new types of tasks implemented perceptively by using simple and common available
text editors. It is also possible to place additional graphics inside the text of the tasks. WETAS supports
secure login, random question selection, and portability features. On the other hand, the other features:
resumption capability, multi-instructor, random questions distribution, and random choices distribution are
missing.
3.3 EMS
Rashad et. al. (2010) proposed a web-based online examination system called Exam Management System
(EMS) [8]. EMS manages the examination and auto-grading for students exams and supports conducting
exams, collects the answers, auto mark the submissions, and produce the reports for the test. EMS supports
secure login, multi-instructor, and portability features. However, the other features: resumption capability,
random question selection, random questions distribution, and random choices distribution are missing.
3.4 iEMS
Vasupongayya et. al. (2010) proposed an interactive Examination Management System (iEMS) [9]. iEMS is
a web-based application test management system, with ease of uses, rich features, flexibility, and
extensibility. The iEMS supports secure login, portability, multi-instructor, random questions distribution,
and random choices distribution features. However, the other features: resumption capability and random
question selection are missing.
3.5 WONES
Sheshadri et. al. (2011) proposed a web-based Online Non-choice-based Examination System (WONES)
[10]. WONES is an effective solution for massive education evaluation; it employs special authentication
protocols to ensure transactions between the examination server and the students. WONES supports secure
login, portability, multi-instructor, and random question distribution features. However, the other features
namely: resumption capability, random questions selection, and random choices distribution are missing.
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3.6 NOES
Raj et.al. (2012) developed National Online Examination System (NOES) [11]. NOES can handle a huge
number of students for administering questions on various subject, and offers dynamic paper generation.
Adobe Flex, Spring, and Hibernate frameworks are used for development of the system. NOES supports
secure login and portability features, the other features :multi-instructor, resumption capability, random
question selection, random questions distribution, and random choices distribution are missing.
3.7 SBPES
Satav et. al. (2012) proposed a Structure Query Language (SQL) Based Paperless Examination System
(SBPES) [12]. SBPES is a web-based system that can present a descriptive exam format for SQL and
Description Model Language (DML) statements. This application requires presenting a highly maintainable,
secure platform which provides high robustness, reliable, scalable, and updatable in order to acquire new
features to improve user acceptability. SBPES supports secure login, multi-instructor, and portability
features. On the other hand, the other features namely: resumption capability, random question selection,
random questions distribution and random choices distribution are missing.
3.8 OESBC
Islam et. al. (2013) proposed an Online Examination System in Bangladesh Context (OESBC) [13]. OESBC
is a web-based, efficient, flexible, and adaptable. OESBC can provide an open mode of examination meeting
the needs of various Academic and Non-Academic organizations. The examination contains different types
of multiple choice questions. The answers are checked and the marks obtained are stored in the database
while the examiner can get the results immediately from the system in various forms such as general mark
list and ranking of participants. OESBC supports secure login, multi-instructor, random question selection,
and portability features. However, the other features namely: resumption capability, random questions
distribution, and random choices distribution are missing.
3.9 CBTS
Fagbola et. al. (2013) developed a Computer Based Test System (CBTS) [14]. CBTS is a web-based online
examination system developed to address issues such as lack of timing flexibility for automation candidates
log-off upon expiration of allowed time, result integrity, guaranty, stand-alone deployment, need for
flexibility, robustness, designed to support the examination processes and overcome challenges framing the
conduct of examination, auto- marking, auto- submission , and generation report of examination result.
CBTS supports secure login, multi-instructor, and random question selection features, the other features
such as resumption capability, random questions distribution, random choices distribution, and portability
are missing.
Table 1 demonstrates a summary of comparison among the systems reviewed according to the
features discussed in the previous section.
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Table 1 A Comparison among the Existing Online Examination Systems.
Supported
Feature
Elected Features
Not Supported
Feature
Online Examination
Systems
Secure Login
Resumption Capability
Multi-Instructor
Combination of
Randomization
Portability
Web-Based/ Application-
Based/ Hybrid
Random Question
Selection
Random Questions
Distribution
Random Choices
Distribution
SIETTE [6]
Web-Based
WETAS [7]
Web-Based
EMS [8]
Web-Based
iEMS [9]
Application-Based
WONES [10]
Hybrid
NOES [11]
Hybrid
SBPES [12]
Hybrid
OESBC [13]
Web-Based
CBTS [14]
Hybrid
4. Specification and Planning of the OLES
In order to satisfy the elected features discussed in section 2, this section describes the OLES specification ,
and the planning phase for the OLES.
4.1 OLES Specification
The following list specifies what the OLES is supposed to do.
1. The instructor can enter the questions into the system through Question building phase.
2. The Instructor can set the exam through examination building phase. In addition, the OLES interacts
with the student automatically.
3. The OLES offers combination of randomization features.
4. The OLES should provide the resumption capability in case of network/power/components failures.
5. The OLES supports multi instructors, with privileges for each individual instructor.
6. The OLES manages the system to build the exams for general purpose regardless of the subject.
7. Database is used to store and retrieve the questions and exam’s information.
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8. Secure login to the system, by three parties: administrator, instructor and student; this system tend to
be used within educational facility, thus a superintendent required check student IDs of the students
before the exam.
9. The OLES should support cross-platform and scalability functionalities.
10. The OLES should be adaptable for any enhancement and requirments.
4.2 OLES Planning
Before going to the architectural design, it is necessary to plan the design and selection of modules to be
involved in the development. As the online examination requires software applied to works over a network
in order to serve the function of remote exam, the OLES consists of hardware and software pre-requisites.
4.2.1 Hardware Prerequisites
1. Server and clients computers: server computer is the central computer to be connected to the other
computers that act as clients.
2. Reliable network: the network connects the clients to the server needed to be active and to lower the
chances of network failure and ease detect and recovery from a network failure. This implies that the
organization should have a network infrastructure available.
4.2.2 Software Prerequisites
1. A server and clients OSs are required to work on the server side and client side respectively. In
addition, some administration setup is required to run the OLES in these machines.
2. Java programming language is proposed for concrete system implementation to realize the system.
Thus, each client and server machine has a per-requisite of Java Runtime Environment (JRE) to be
installed in the system. As such, the OLES supports cross-platform functionality [25-26]. In addition,
Derby distributed database management system is integrated with Java Oracles Netbeans IDE
version 8.0.2, which facilitates the development of the whole product using available free tools for
academic research using single development environment.
4.2.3 Development Approach
To establish a robust and an adaptable system, a development strategy must be taken which wrap up
the process. This strategy is often referred to as a process model [23]. A process model for OLES is chosen
based on the spiral model and socket TCP/IP protocol.
The spiral model is followed for the proposed OLES. The spiral model is a software process model
which combines the iterative nature of prototyping with the systematic and controlled aspects of the
waterfall model. It gives the potential for rapid development of increasingly more complete versions of
software. During early iterations, the release might be a model or prototype. Through later iterations,
gradually more complete versions of the system are realized [23] [27]. As the OLES is a network based
system, the development of OLES involved socket. Socket enable communications between the clients and
server, and could be either connection oriented which is TCP or connectionless which is Universal Datagram
Protocol (UDP). Since, the exam requires reliable data transfer, OLES will use TCP Socket.
5. OLES Design and Implementation
This section presents the architectural design, the actors, the networking protocol, failure toleration, and
randomization formula.
5.1 Architectural Design of OLES
The main portions of OLES are the server side and the client side. Server side consists of server
agent, database, Graphical User Interface (GUI), and network. Client side consists of client agent, temporary
storage, GUI, and network.
Server agent controls the OLES operation phases in the server side. Similarly, the client agent
controls the OLES operation phases in the client side. The client and server agents play the protocol handlers
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of the system and connected via the network. Fig. 2 shows the system portions and interprets the control of
both server agent and client agent.
Fig. 2 Block Diagram of the OLES.
5.2 Actors in OLES
The proposed OLES performs different functions, these functions are executed by specific actors.
The actors in OLES are Administrator, Instructors, Server agent, Client agent, Students, Superintendent,
Database, and Temporary storage. The Administrator and the Student interact with the Client Agent through
a GUI. Similarly, the Administrator and the Instructor interact with the Server Agent through a GUI.
5.2.1 The Administrator can perform privileged tasks in a system in both server and client sides. The tasks
of the administrator are to organize the operations of the OLES. In the server side these operations are:
register the instructors, and set server’s IP address, port number if the organization needs to change. The
administrator in client side responsible of setting IP address of the server and the corresponding port’s
number.
5.2.2 The Instructor can perform the following activities: choose the type of the questions; enter the
question and the choices; choose an image for the question and for the choices (if needed) and set the
question mark if desired; build the exam by choosing the questions and set the total mark of the exam; set
the date and time of the exam, and set the allowed exam duration; and register candidate that will take the
exam.
5.2.3 The Server Agent is a piece of program that controls every operation in the server side. It responds to
all commands and events in the server end-user program and performs several operations; each operation
has its own classes. These operations are: Login, Question Building, Exam Building, and Examination
Handling in corporation with the client agent. It should be mentioned that the Server Agent can be installed
on the same server machine or different machine according to the organization roles. Fig. 3 shows the state
diagram of the server agent that summarizes its operation phases. The Server Agent is a state-full; which
means it can recover its state in the case of failure.
5.2.4 The Student can perform the following activities: Enter his/her username and password to login; Take
the exam by answering the questions; Submit the answers; and Get the grade.
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5.2.5 Client Agent
The client agent is a piece of program that controls every operation on the client side. It responds to the
commands and events in the student’s GUI and performs four main operations: Communicate with the
server for student login and getting started phase; Manage the Examination Phase; Send the answers to the
Server Agent for grading, Receive the grading, and display it to the student; and Tolerates
power/network/components failure conditions. The state diagram of the Client Agent that summarizes its
operation phases is shown in Fig. 4. In addition, the Client Agent is responsible for saving the student’s
credentials, answers, and examination state in the temporary storage to facilitate the resumption capability in
the case of failure.
5.2.6 The Superintendent is responsible for students ID checking and superintendence during the exam.
5.2.7 Database
The database is used to store the questions, questions’ marks, selected questions for exam, exam mark, date
and time of the exam, exam duration, and the candidates’ registrations. The database contains group of
tables that used in the operation phases of server side these tables are Login, MCMA Questions, MCSA
Questions, True/ False Questions, MCMA Exam Questions, MCSA Exam Questions, True/ False Exam
Questions, startup Time and Time duration, Candidate, and Grade tables.
5.2.8 Temporary Storage
The temporary storage is a file created at the client side. The life cycle of the temporary storage file
can be in one of the following states: create, update, and remove. The client agent creates this file in getting
started phase automatically. The purpose of this file is to store exam’s information that received from the
server agent namely: the questions of the exam and exam’s duration. However, this file is updated during the
exam by the client agent to store the answers and time left of the exam. After the student finished the exam
or the client agent indicated exam timeout, the client agent terminates the examination phase and collects the
answers from the temporary storage file. When the client agent receives the grade, the client agent will
remove the temporary storage file as there is no use of it anymore.
5.3 Networking in OLES
OLES is a network based system. It runs on connected server with clients machines over a
network. When the student login, the client agent send the username and password to the server agent on
port number 8056 and handle each connection in a separate thread. The server agent checks the
authentication and sends back a reply (either a grant or denied). Next, if the reply was grant, the server agent
sends the exam duration and prepares the questions that assigned for the exam, randomizes the questions
pattern and choices and encapsulate them, then send them to the client agent on port number 8055. After the
student finishes answering exam’s questions, the client agent collects these answers and sends them to the
server agent for checking and grading. The server agent sends the grade of the exam to the client agent on
port number 8056. Finally, the client agent receives the grade, displays it to the student through the GUI, this
case is referred to as the happy day scenario. Fig. 5 illustrates the networking and data transfer between
client agent and server agent. The sequences diagrams for the OLES operation phases are depicted in
Figures 6, 7, 8, and 9.
5.4 Failure Toleration
The most important feature in the proposed OLES is the ability of recovery after a
power/network/component failure conditions. In doing so, the exam’s resumption capacity is done, when the
power and/or network connection is back, the client agent prepare the system to continue from it has left off.
Hence, the exam does not need to start all over again. The next subsections discuss the recovery procedures
in each case.
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5.4.1 Power Failure
The client agent manages the OLES phases to be ready for the power failure. The procedure that the
client agent takes for this management is after the login phase. The client agent checks the temporary storage
whether it is created or not and if not then this is the first login of this student onto the system. Otherwise,
there is a temporary storage file that means this login is happened after power failure situation.
Subsequently, the client agent accesses the temporary storage, load the stored answers in it and display them
within their questions on the end-user GUI. In addition, the time left of the exam is also stored in this
temporary storage. Thus, the client agent loads the duration of the exam and the time left is still fixed no
matter how long the power was off.
In the server side, the server agent manages the system phases to be ready for the power failure. All
of the server agent operation phases involve dealing with database. In each phase, the server agent updates
and/or stores data into database. The server agent can load any stored data of any operation phase after the
power gets back.
5.4.2 Network Failure
In case of network failure, the client agent and server tolerates it according to which phase this
failure is occurred.
If a network connection failure is occurred during the client agent sending the student’s username
and password and the login information lost as shown in Fig. 10, in this case, if this acknowledgement did
not received due to the network connection failure, the client agent will inform the user to this failure, login
information is kept with client agent until the failure repaired, then the client agent will reconnect and resend
data for login and resume the protocol operation.
If a network connection failure occurred during the server agent is sending the login reply to the
client agent or during the server agent is sending the questions and duration of the exam, as shown in Fig.
11a or the questions and duration of the exam are lost as shown in Fig. 11b. In these cases, both the client
agent and the server agent will indicate this failure, and the client agent informs the student about the failure,
and resends the login information when the connection is repaired, next, server agent will provide of the
reply and exam’s duration and questions after the repairing of the connection failure.
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Fig. 3 State Diagram of the Server Agent.
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Fig. 4 State Diagram of the Client Agent.
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Fig. 5 Networking between Client Agent and Server Agent.
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Fig. 6 Student Login Phase.
Fig. 7 Getting Start Phase.
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Fig. 8 The Examination Phase is Managed Locally by the Client Agent, all Questions, and Answers are
Stored in the Temporary and Redundant Storage to Facilitate the Resumption Capability.
Fig. 9 Answers Submitting and Getting Result Exchange Phases.
Fig. 10 Login Information is Lost.
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a. Login Reply is Lost.
b Exam’s Questions and Duration Segment is Lost.
Fig. 11
If a network connection failure occurred during the examination phase there is no data transmission
during this phase needed. Therefore, no affection to the OLES operation occurred until the exam ended. As
such, the student just answers the questions, and the client agent saves the answer in the temporary storage.
Thus, the client agent can retrieve the answers and resend them to the server agent after the failure repaired.
Finally, if a network connection failure occurred during the server agent is sending the grade to the
client agent as shown in Fig. 12. In this case, the server agent can retrieve the grade from database and
resend it after the failure repaired.
5.4.3 Computer’s Components Failure
There are some scenarios might occurred such as machine failure or hard disk failure. It is important to use
reliable warranted computers. These cases will rarely happen. However, if machine failure or hard disk
failure is occurred, The OLES enable the student to use a redundant storage (flash disk) to store a
redundant temporary storage on the OLES' client side. In doing so, the student can resume the examination
using another computer, within resumption from another computer. After the student choose this option, the
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temporary storage will be copied from flash disk to the hard disk of the new pc, and the student resumes the
exam from this pc. As a result, the OLES decreases the probability of examination failure duo to
components failure significantly.
Fig. 12 The Grade is Lost.
5.5 Combination of Randomization
The sequence of the distributed questions among the student and the choices in each question is
random. Let the probability of students get the same sequence of questions with the same sequence choices
denoted by P (R). Assume the number of exam’s question is Q, the number of their choices is Ci for Qi
(where i=1...Q) , the number of students is S , and total number of questions stored in the database for this
exam is N (where Q<=N). Then P (R) can be determined by Eq. 1.
6. OLES Evaluation
Unlike other existing systems, the OLES has two fold as an essential features. The first feature is the
resumption capability; which is considered as a novel feature, the OLES provides the resumption capability
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of the exam in the case of power and/or network and/or physical computer components failures, thus, the
student could resume his/her exam without affecting the remain examination time. In addition, this feature
saves the required connection and bandwidth of the network. The second feature is the combination of
randomization features (i.e., random question selection, random questions distribution, and random choice
distribution), which is also considered as a novel feature. In addition, an equation of the probability of
students getting the same questions in the same order for the same exam is derived. Also, the proposed
system is oriented for lecturers to build their exam for general purpose regardless the subject. Table 2
demonstrates the features of the OLES compared with the systems discussed in Section 3.
Table 2 The Comparison between OLES and the Existing Systems.
Supported Feature
Elected Features
Not Supported Feature
Online Examination Systems
Secure Login
Resumption Capability
Multi-Instructor
Combination of Randomization
Portability
Web-Based/ Application-
Based/ Hybrid
Random Question
Selection
Random Questions
Distribution
Random Choices
Distribution
SIETTE [6]
Web-Based
WETAS [7]
Web-Based
EMS [8]
Web-Based
iEMS [9]
Application-Based
WONES [10]
Hybrid
NOES [11]
Hybrid
SBPES [12]
Hybrid
OESBC [13]
Web-Based
CBTS [14]
Hybrid
OLES
Application -Based
7. Conclusion and Future Work
The following conclusions can be drawn from this paper.
1. Resumption capability in case of failure, that is overcome the power /network/ physical problems
thereby the students do not have to repeat the exam from the beginning and could resume his/her
exam without affecting the remaining examination time. As such, this feature increases the
satisfaction of the individuals.
2. Combination of randomness is important in order to ensure the robustness against cheating attempts.
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3. Bandwidth usage reduced. The OLES use the network with the clients only during student’s login,
question providing and grading. Thus, during other operation phases, the organization and server are
free to use the network connection for other tasks.
4. The entire network protocols can be distributed further in hierarchy fashion to address the scalability
issues. For instance, the database can be in different server that interacts with the server agent.
5. The OLES is a modular system, which can be extended horizontally (by adding new desired features)
and can be expanded vertically (by developing another version or variation of the current
implementation). As such, the OLES acts as a research vehicle and prototype for future work. From
industrial point of view, this is the point of changing OLES from in-house alpha version to
specialists’ beta version for further research and development as follows.
Adding ID checking and superintendence features implementation, beside the username and
password, (e.g., face recognition, webcam, or finger print) included as student’s registration
information that would be checked during student’s exam time.
Collecting the statistics about student results (e.g., degrees, gender, age) enables organization and
researchers to do some machine learning research to improve the method of teaching, exam, and
analyze the behavior of the student's learning curve, determining the standard deviation, percent of
attendance, class average, issuing certificate, etc.
Performing a feasibility study for adopting the OLES in both regional and international academies
and organizations.
8. Acknowledgements
The authors desire to express their gratitude and thanks to the Computer Center and Computer
Engineering Department at University of Baghdad for their support to do this research work.
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