1. INTRODUCTION
1.1 Background Online examinations, sometimes referred as e-examinations, are the examinations conducted through the internet or in an intranet (if within the Organization) for a remote candidate(s). Most of the examinations issue results as the candidate finish the examination, when there is an answer processing module also included within the system. These examinations are conducted as open-book type examinations. Candidate is given a limited time to answer the questions and after the time expiry the answer paper is disabled automatically and answers is sent to the examiner. The examiner will evaluate answers, either through automated process or manually and the results will be sent to the candidate through email or made available in the web site. Today many organizations are conducting online examinations worldwide successfully and issue results online. There are advantages and disadvantages in online examinations. The main advantage is that it can be conducted for remote candidates and evaluation of answers can be fully automated for MCQ questions and other essay type questions can be evaluated manually or through automated system, depending on the nature of the question s and the requirements. Also online examinations can be conducted at any time and does not incur higher cost as traditional exam scenario as there is no paper work involved(eg: printing exam papers, prepare paper admissions etc) , there is no invigilators, also no need of arrangement of exam centers. When comparing with traditional exam scenario the cost for an online examination will be almost zero after the online exam system is establishment and if maintenance cost is not considered. The disadvantage of the e-examination is the inability of invigilating. There are methodologies used in these examinations, when registering candidates and presentation of questions, so that to test candidates knowledge and skills. However with a limited time , candidate is not capable of totally depend on the reference materials or a supporting person.
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1.2 Objectives This Web Application provides facility to conduct online examinations worldwide. It saves time as it allows number of students to give the exam at a time and displays the results as the test gets over, so no need to wait for the result. It is automatically generated by the server. Administrator has a privilege to create, modify and delete the test papers and its particular questions. User can register, login and give the test with his specific id, and can see the results as well.
1.3 Purpose and Scope 1.3.1 Purpose
The purpose of on-line test system is to take online test in an efficient manner and no time wasting for checking the paper. The main objective of on-line test system is to efficiently evaluate the candidate thoroughly through a fully automated system that not only saves lot of time but also gives fast results.
1.3.2 Scope
Scope of this project is very broad in terms of other manually taking exams. Few of them are: This can be used in Educational Institutions like Schools, Colleges, and Private Institutes to conduct logic tests of their students on a regular basis. Can be used anywhere any time as it is a web based application (user Location doesn't matter). No restriction that examiner has to be present when the candidate takes the test.
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2. SURVEY OF TECHNOLOGIES This project is a web application that is developed in PHP having MYSQL as back end.
1. Database Design (MYSQL) MySQL is characterized as a free, fast, reliable open source relational database. It does lack some sophistication and facilities, but it has an active development team and, as it goes from release to release, more capabilities are added. At certain times there will be a trade-off between speed and capabilities, and the MySQL team intend to keep their database engine fast and reliable.
2. Input Design (DREAMWEAVER)
Ease and efficiency of use. The ability to create consistent looking web pages. Managing and updating websites effectively. Easy to upload using FTP.
3. Coding (PHP, JavaScript) PHP is one of the most popular server side scripting languages running today. It is used for creating dynamic web pages that interact with the user offering customized information. PHP offers many advantages; it is fast, stable, secure, easy to use and open source (free). PHP manages freeing all resources. Users does not required to free file handle resource, database resources, memory, etc, unless programmer need to free resource during script execution.(All resources are released after script execution). PHP code is inserted directly into the HTML that makes up a website. When a visitor comes to the website, the code is executed. Because PHP is a server side technology, the user does not need any special browser or plug-ins to see the PHP in action. JavaScript is a browser based programming language that actually runs client side. This means that any code that is written in JavaScript is delivered along with the web pages and the scripts that are written, actually run from within the users' browser rather than directly on the server that is serving the web pages. It can be interactive even when we are not connected to the Internet. Since the code is typed directly into your HTML files, we can create JavaScript with software as simple as a plain text editor. We can quickly test and modify JavaScript code. JavaScript functionality is built into most new web browsers since 1996, so there is no extra software for the viewer to download or install.
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3. REQUIREMENTS AND ANALYSIS 3.1 Problem Definition The System is based on the following key working areas 1) Candidate Registration 2) Setting question paper 3) Scheduling exams 4) Conducting exams 5) Checking answers 6) Preparing results
3.2 Requirements Specification Functional Requirements: 1. The candidate should be able to register online for the examination online after accepting the application. 2. The system should be capable of storing candidate’s records. 3. Examiners should be able to setup the papers without involvement of other technical personnel such as developers, system administrators. 4. Examiner should be able to issue exam index numbers to the candidates. 5. Examiner should be able to modify the system passwords and change the authentications if there is more than one user. 6. Examiner should be able to receive answers securely through the system. 7. System should be capable of presenting both MCQ and essay type questions. 8. The system should be capable of present questions at once or one by one according to the requirements of the examiner. 9. The system should be capable of generate statistical data for examiner, like a. Number of registered candidates. b. Number of Candidates on exam at the moment. c. Number of questions answered by the candidates etc. 10.The system should be synchronized with the server time and should be capable of disable answer sheet automatically after time out. 11.System should not allow one candidate to (one index number holder) to take the exam more than one time.
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Non Functional Requirements: 1. The system should be designed in as a secured system applying security measures 2. Special exception handling mechanism should be in place to avoid system errors. 3. Should be capable of giving access to concurrent users without degrading the system performance and accept answers. 4. Sessions of each candidate should be synchronized with server and duration calculations should be done according to the server time.
3.3 Planning and Scheduling
Id
1 2
3 4 5 6 7 8 9
Task Name
Start Date (Yr2011)
Finish Date (Yr2011)
Duration (in Days)
3/5
3/7
2
3/8
3/10
3
3/9
3/15
7
3/13
3/15
3
DFD
3/16
3/19
4
Designing
3/20
4/17
29
Coding
3/25
4/24
31
Rework
4/25
5/8
14
Final Report
5/5
5/29
23
Project Definition System Overview And Analysis Requirement Gathering and SRS Tools and Technology
Mar 2011 3/6
3/13
3/20
Apr 2011 3/27
4/3
4/10
4/17
May 2011 4/24
5/1
5/8
5/15
5/22
5/29
G Gantt chart
Work in progress Work Completed
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3.4 Software And Hardware Requirements Software Requirements Client Side: Web Browser – Internet Explorer 6 or above O.S - Windows XP/2000/Vista7,Linux, Fedora, Solaris, Mac OS Web Server: Applications – PHP 5.3, Wamp Server 2 O.S – Windows Server 2003/2008, Linux Data Base Server: MYSQL
Hardware Requirements Client Side: Processor - Pentium IV 2.0 and above. RAM - 256 MB Server Side: Processor - Pentium IV 2.0 and above. RAM - 2 GB Disk space - Min 4GB
3.5 Preliminary Product Description The homepage for the has been created.
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Data Dictionary tbl_admin Table comments: administrator details Field
Type
Null
Default
Comments
admin_id
int(11)
No
Administrator ID
name
varchar(255)
No
Administrator Name
password
varchar(255)
No
Administrator password
privilege
enum('A', 'U')
No
login_time
timestamp
No
CURRENT_TIMESTAMP
remarks
varchar(255)
No
DACT
Admin or User Admin login time Activated or Deactivated
Indexes: Keyname
Type Unique Packed
Field
Cardinality Collation Null Comment
PRIMARY BTREE Yes
No
admin_id 2
A
BTREE Yes
No
name
A
2
tbl_user Table comments: Registered Users Field
Type
Null
Default
Comments
user_id
int(11)
No
Student registration ID
name
varchar(255)
No
Full name of student
gender
enum('M', 'F')
No
Gender of student
birth_date
date
No
Date ofBirthofstudent
address
text
No
Mailing address of student
pincode
varchar(7)
No
pincode
email
varchar(255)
No
Valid Email-ID of student as the Login ID
password
varchar(255)
No
contact
varchar(10)
No
Valid Phone Number of student
city
varchar(255)
No
present location of student
create_date
datetime
No
Date ofJoining
modify_date
timestamp
No
qualification
varchar(255)
No
course
varchar(255)
No
status
enum('N', 'Y')
No
N
Account activation status
pay_status
enum('Y', 'N')
No
N
Amount of course fees paid
image
varchar(255)
No
Pass@1234
0000-00-00 00:00:00
Login Password
Date ofModification Education Qualification of the student Course(s) registered
Passport picture of of student
Indexes: Keyname
Type Unique Packed Field
Cardinality Collation Null Comment
PRIMARY BTREE Yes
No
user_id 3
A
email
BTREE Yes
No
email
3
A
name
BTREE No
No
name
3
A
user_id
BTREE No
No
user_id 3
A
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tbl_examdetails Table comments: Details during the exam session Field
Type
Null
Default
Comments
id
int(11)
No
Question Number
exam_id
int(11)
No
Examinaton ID for the Examinee
user_id
int(11)
No
ID of the Examinee fromtbl_user
q_id
int(11)
Question ID from tbl_question
answer
varchar(255)
marks
int(11)
status
enum('Y', 'N')
No Ye s Ye s No
time_stamp
timestamp
No
NULL
Answer given by the Examinee
NULL
Marks for each questions marked
CURRENT_TIMESTAMP
Time Monitoring
Indexes: Keyname Type Unique Packed Field Cardinality Collation Null Comment PRIMARY BTREE Yes
No
id
0
A
BTREE Yes
No
q_id 0
A
d
tbl_question Table comments: Question Database Field
Type
Null
Default
Comments
course_id
varchar(255)
No
Course ID
q_id
int(11)
No
Question ID
question
text
No
Questions
exhibit
varchar(255)
option1
text
No
MCQ Option 1
option2
text
No
MCQ Option 2
option3
text
No
MCQ Option 3
option4
text
No
option5
text
Yes
valid_answer
varchar(255)
No
Correct Option
marks
int(11)
No
Marks for the question
Yes
NULL
Question Releated Images
MCQ Option 4 NULL
MCQ Option 5
Indexes: Keyname Type Unique Packed
Field
Cardinality Collation Null Comment
PRIMARY BTREE Yes
No
q_id
0
A
course_id BTREE No
No
course_id 0
A
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tbl_examreg Table comments: Exam Registration Details Field
Type
Null
Default
Comments
reg_id
int(11)
No
Exam Registration Number
user_id
int(11)
No
Examinee ID fromtbl_user
course_id
int(11)
No
Course ID fromtbl_course
exam_date
date
No
status
enum('Y', 'N')
No
N
Exam status
remarks
text
Yes
NULL
Examinee eligible for the exam or not
Exam Booking date
Indexes: Keyname
Type Unique Packed
PRIMARY BTREE Yes
No
Field
Cardinality Collation Null Comment
reg_id
0
A
tbl_result Table comments: Final result of the examinee Field
Type
Null
Default
Comments
report_id
int(11)
No
Report Generation ID
user_id
int(11)
No
Examinee ID fromtbl_examdetails
course_id
varchar(255)
No
Course ID from tbl_question
total_marks
int(11)
No
Total marks obtained
issue_date
timestamp
No
status
enum('P', 'F')
No
CURRENT_TIMESTAMP
Report Issue Date Passed or Failed
Indexes: Keyname
Type Unique Packed
PRIMARY BTREE Yes user_id
BTREE No
Field
Cardinality Collation Null Comment
No
report_id 0
A
No
user_id
0
A
tbl_course Table comments: Details of each course Field
Type
Null
Default
Comments
id
int(11)
No
Index Number
course_id
varchar(255)
No
Course ID Manual Entry
name
varchar(255)
No
Name of the course
duration
varchar(255)
No
Duration ofthe course
amount
int(11)
No
Course Fees
total_marks
int(11)
No
pass_percent
int(11)
No
modify_date
timestamp
No
modified_by
varchar(255)
No
100
Total marks for the course certification Pass percentage required to get certified
CURRENT_TIMESTAMP
Date ofModification Modifications Made By
Indexes: Keyname
Type Unique Packed
Field
Cardinality Collation Null Comment
PRIMARY BTREE Yes
No
id
0
A
name
BTREE Yes
No
name
0
A
se_id
BTREE Yes
No
course_id 0
A
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Entity Relationship Diagram password
pincode
email
contact
birth_date
gender
image
city
pay_status
name
address
user_id
qualification
course
CANDIDATE create_date
status
modify_date Register
Register
modify_date
reg_id exam_date
course_id
user_id
duration
name
EXAM REGISTRATION
status COURSE
id
course_id
amount
remarks Receive
total_marks
pass_parcent
Perform issue_date
user_id modified_by
EXAM RESULT
report_id
time_stamp
id
status
status
exam_id total_marks
course_id
EXAM user_id
marks
Manage answer q_id
Issue Conduct
remarks
admin_id ADMINISTRATOR name
login_time
password
privilege
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CONTEXT FLOW DIAGRAM
CANDIDATE ACCEPT /REJECT
EDIT PROFILE BOOK EXAM
COURSE REGISTER
GET REPORT
ONLINE EXAMINATION
GENERATE REPORT
SYSTEM ACCEPT / REJECT
QUESTION MANAGEMENT
COURSE MANAGEMENT
ADMINISTRATOR
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DATA FLOW DIAGRAM LEVEL – 0 Login Details Existing User login
tbl_admin
Check
1.0 Login
Check
tbl_user
CANDIDATE New User Register
2.0 Registration
Update Fetch Course Details
tbl_course 3.0 Update/Modify Course Details
Course Management
Fetch / Update
tbl_question ADMINISTRATOR
4.0 Edit/ Update
Question Management
Fetch / Update Fetch Questions
tbl_examdetails 5.0
Conduct
Monitor Exam Session
Examination
Register/ Give Exam
Verify
tbl_user
Update
tbl_examreg View / Issue Report View Result
6.0 Report
Generate Fetch / Add
tbl_result 12
4. REFERENCES Books:1.JavaScript: A Beginner's Guide, Second Edition By John Pollock 2.Beginning PHP5, Apache, and MySQL Web Development By Naramore, Gerner, Le Scouarnec, Stolz and Glass Site: www.prometric.com
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