ASCILITE 2018: Do-it-yourself e-Exams (using spreadsheets)

Editor's Notes

• #2: ABSTRACT Electronic examination and assessment systems pose a challenge in both finding and/or creating a solution that is effective and practical from a real world and software engineering perspective. Any proposed solution must be flexible to allow for a range of assessments, taking into account the requirements and expectations of multiple stakeholders such as student, teachers, administrators and technical support. This includes being easy to use, open enough to prevent vendor lock-in, practical to implement, secure and efficient to support. In this presentation, we explore the current incarnation of an e-Exam platform, in particular its approach of using purely open source components, the mechanics of the system and design decisions taken in developing a modular and automated foundation for a systematic electronic learning and assessment approach. This, together with a Bring Your Own Device strategy for hardware provision demands a high level of common hardware compatibility in an ever-changing technology landscape. This talk describes general experiences with e-exams such as advantages, challenges, preparing a good e-exam and tips on the implementation
• #4: Puentedura, R. (2012). Thinking About Change in Learning and Technology. Presentation given September 25, 2012 at the 1st Global Mobile Learning Conference, Al Ain, UAE. http://www.hippasus.com/rrpweblog/archives/2012/04/10/iPad_Intro.pdf
• #5: Spare slide
• #6: Example of a question that requires a very complex response, which could not be posed without a computer
• #9: How your system works, in a nutshell. A diagram or photo to illustrate the critical element of the technological implementation
• #10: Illustration of the technological implementation of the workflow for running an e-exam on ‘robust’ Moodle infrastructure. Exam content resides on a server. USB sticks serve as a standardised operating and application suite. USBs are immediately reusable without manual processing*. System is resistant to network outages and uses secure browser with keys for access to server. Responses are auto saved every minute to server or in case of network outage saved to USB in an encrypted file. Once the exam starts the quiz content is cached to the browser, from then onwards the network is not required for successful exam continuance and completion. USBs can be used in a generic manner but can also be customised with additional software tools or to pre-load large media files. The above workflow was used successfully for e-Exam trials in two units in semester 1 2018. Each unit had a sequence of a practice session followed by two or three exams. Our trials used WIFI dongles to expand the range of compatible laptops as development of the system continued to integrate more drivers. The last trials in the sequence did not need the drivers because we had expanded the compatibility or students borrowed compatible laptops. e-Exam USBs are configurable for multiple use cases. This includes the use of local files in fully offline mode, the use of the robust online mode via SEB, or the use of online whitelisted internet based resources. The e-Exam USB can be used to provide a unified examination environment across BYO laptops, institution owned laptops and computers including computer labs provided boot from USB is enabled. * A full USB auto reset feature is still under development that will be applicable when response submission is entirely handled via Moodle where a live network connection exists at the end of the exam.