electronic exams electronic exams: an idea whose time has come james harland school of computer...

Electronic Exams

Electronic Exams: An Idea Whose Time has Come

James Harland

School of Computer Science & IT

RMIT University

james.harland@rmit.edu.au

19th November, 2010

Melbourne Conventicle

Electronic Exams

Writing in the Jurassic Era …

Where were you on

Monday, 3rd September, 1984?

19th November, 2010

Melbourne Conventicle

CS335 Formal Semantics lecture by Michael Maher

Electronic Exams

21st Century student life

19th November, 2010

Melbourne Conventicle

Lecture Tutorial

Exam

Electronic Exams

What would this look like?

19th November, 2010

Melbourne Conventicle

Students bring laptops to exam room NOT remote or online

Boot from a special CD or memory stick Shut off access to Internet, hard disk, … Provide all necessary software on the CD or stick Adapt Ubuntu (or a similar Linux distribution) Submit answer

On memory stick Open a special port and upload to a server

Electronic Exams

Existing Software

19th November, 2010

Melbourne Conventicle

PJ Radcliffe & Heiko Rudolph, School of Electrical and Computer Engineering, RMIT

Bootable CD software Used for lab exams Submit via opening a port Develop some answer processing software as well

Electronic Exams

Existing Software

19th November, 2010

Melbourne Conventicle

Andrew Fluck, IT Lecturer, School of Education, University of Tasmania

Boots from a memory stick Answers recorded on the memory stick Used for exams in a variety of subjects (chemistry, music, history, law, …) Can download from http://www.eexaminations.org

Electronic Exams

So … ?

19th November, 2010

Melbourne Conventicle

Potential solutions seem to exist Trials in secondary schools taking place in NSW, Norway, and probably other places

“Some IT academic should do something about this” Applied for internal funding at RMIT Run three trials in 2011 with various software Prizes ($1000? iPad?) for anyone `cracking’ the system Get experience with design of electronic exams Make user interface `idiot proof’ Develop into an ALTC application in 2011 SO WHO WOULD LIKE TO JOIN IN?

Electronic Exams

Questions?

19th November, 2010

Melbourne Conventicle