Secure e-Exam System
A Secure E-Exam Management System
Jordi Castell` -Roca† ,Jordi Herrera-Joancomarti‡ and Aleix Dorca-Josa§ a † Rovira i Virgili University of Tarragona, Dept. of Computer Engineering and Maths, Av. Paisos Catalans, 26, E-43007 Tarragona, Catalonia ‡ Universitat Oberta de Catalunya, Av. Tibidabo 39, 08035 Barcelona § Universitat d’Andorra, Placa de la Germandat, 7, AD600 Sant Juli` de L` ria, Principat d’Andorra ¸ a o E-mail: † jordi.castella@urv.net, ‡ jordiherrera@uoc.edu, § adorca@uda.ad
Abstract
Secure electronic exams are one of the most difficult challenges in e-learning security. The relevance of the examination process for any academic institution implies that different security mechanisms must be applied in order to preserve some security properties during different examination stages. In this paper, we present a secure e-exam management system where all exam related information is in digital format. We propose a cryptographic scheme that has to be executed in order to achieve the desired security levels at every exam stage. Keys words: e-learning security, electronic exams (eexam), cryptographic protocols.
1
Introduction
In e-learning environments, students and teachers use Internet on a regular basis in order to follow/receive lectures, ask/answer questions and send/receive assessments. However, e-learning (or in general distance learning) universities rely on an examination process in which students hold a face to face exam in a physical place determined by the university under supervised conditions. Such conditions ensure the correctness of the exam, a difficult task to achieve in a virtual exam model. Face to face exams allow to check students identity and ensure exam authoring using traditional means (checking an identity card and ensuring no one helps the student during the exam). Ensure student identity and authoring in a virtual or distance exam has been pointed out as a hard problem in the literature [14] with a difficult solution. Then,
Jordi Castell` -Roca† ,Jordi Herrera-Joancomarti‡ and Aleix Dorca-Josa§ a † Rovira i Virgili University of Tarragona, Dept. of Computer Engineering and Maths, Av. Paisos Catalans, 26, E-43007 Tarragona, Catalonia ‡ Universitat Oberta de Catalunya, Av. Tibidabo 39, 08035 Barcelona § Universitat d’Andorra, Placa de la Germandat, 7, AD600 Sant Juli` de L` ria, Principat d’Andorra ¸ a o E-mail: † jordi.castella@urv.net, ‡ jordiherrera@uoc.edu, § adorca@uda.ad
Abstract
Secure electronic exams are one of the most difficult challenges in e-learning security. The relevance of the examination process for any academic institution implies that different security mechanisms must be applied in order to preserve some security properties during different examination stages. In this paper, we present a secure e-exam management system where all exam related information is in digital format. We propose a cryptographic scheme that has to be executed in order to achieve the desired security levels at every exam stage. Keys words: e-learning security, electronic exams (eexam), cryptographic protocols.
1
Introduction
In e-learning environments, students and teachers use Internet on a regular basis in order to follow/receive lectures, ask/answer questions and send/receive assessments. However, e-learning (or in general distance learning) universities rely on an examination process in which students hold a face to face exam in a physical place determined by the university under supervised conditions. Such conditions ensure the correctness of the exam, a difficult task to achieve in a virtual exam model. Face to face exams allow to check students identity and ensure exam authoring using traditional means (checking an identity card and ensuring no one helps the student during the exam). Ensure student identity and authoring in a virtual or distance exam has been pointed out as a hard problem in the literature [14] with a difficult solution. Then,
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