Monitoring electronic exams

Abstract

Universities and other educational organizations are adopting computer-based assessment tools (herein called e-exams) to reach larger and ubiquitous audiences. While this makes examination tests more accessible, it exposes them to unprecedented threats not only from candidates but also from authorities, which organize exams and deliver marks. Thus, e-exams must be checked to detect potential irregularities. In this paper, we propose several monitors, expressed as Quantified Event Automata (QEA), to monitor the main properties of e-exams. Then, we implement the monitors using MarQ, a recent Java tool designed to support QEAs. Finally, we apply our monitors to logged data from real e-exams conducted by Université Joseph Fourier at pharmacy faculty, as a part of Epreuves Classantes Nationales informatisées, a pioneering project which aims to realize all french medicine exams electronically by 2016. Our monitors found discrepancies between the specification and the implementation.