Online Examination System - Project

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

8

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

9

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

10

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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