Forms distribution algorithm for online examination systems

Abstract

E-Learning became an essential method for learning and is widely used in universities and educational institutions as an alternative learning environment for traditional learning that uses face-to-face meetings and paper-based assessment. One of the main features of e-Learning systems is that they provide the ability for conducting online assessments. This feature can be implemented by allowing students to attend exams online instead of using traditional paper based assessments. It is important to reduce paper work, time and effort by using online examination/assessments. However, a major drawback of online examination systems is that there is no guarantee that exam forms may not be repeated between adjacent students' terminals in a lab. This fact directly affects the reliability of the online examination system. The current paper proposed a smart forms distribution algorithm for online examination systems. This algorithm can improve the reliability of online examination systems in terms of prohibiting repetition of questions' forms between the adjacent terminals and based on this, it provides a guarantee that adjacent students in a lab will not receive the same exam form during an online examination session.