7/143.3.9.4 Tests and Examinations
In addition to providing course material, tests can be provided online.
Students' answers can be submitted via HTML forms. Small multiple
choice tests can even be corrected automatically by the server using CGI
scripts, and again, with additional programs, students' success can be
logged and analysed. If students passed the test at the first attempt, they
probably cheated [DB96], and if they did not pass it after many
attempts, they probably had not studied the course material properly. In the
future, even final examinations could be conducted using this technique.
This, of course, will require user authentication which is not implemented
in ``first generation'' WWW servers![[*]](/Teaching/theses/1997/_idbde_/rpersche/images/foot_motif.gif)
.
Encrypted data transmission would provide the security, and to avoid fraud,
a camera could be placed on the computer to identify the student, or
alternatively, the student could have to go to a computer lab where a
supervisor checks each student's identity and ensures that there is no
cheating. For distance education, this method would ease the examination
process enormously. However, there is not doubt that students will do
everything within their power to develop new cheating methods.