Customized Digital Post-exam Review for Scanned Exams

Problem overview

The customer operates multiple educational facilities. As the 50,000 students and course participants produce hundreds of thousands of written examinations each semester, the company’s management has decided to implement a digital document archive built on archiving software (ELO Digital Office). This software is not, however, a tool that allows for a clearly defined and legally compliant process for students to view their exam papers to be implemented at the relevant locations. The customer has therefore engaged in an exercise to identify an experienced provider of well-proven software solutions in order to contract for a custom software tool to perform this function.

Solution

Based on the customer’s statement of work, IQUL has developed a complete, deployment-ready product in less than eight weeks from the contract start date, which will allow digital test papers to be viewed in computer rooms or via mobile laptops. The product includes a cockpit application, using which the examination invigilator can release test papers to be viewed by students, authorizing special computers for this purpose. The cockpit application makes use of interfaces to access all relevant data from the database and returns appropriate log files to the document server after the end of the viewing session. Viewing sessions can be paused using the cockpit application from a central location, and can also be reactivated or brought to a premature end if required. Multiple test papers can also be combined for a single student, saving valuable time for the end user. With the help of the client viewer, also developed by IQUL, students will receive access to their own papers during a clearly defined period and can therefore review their own submissions, as well as comments on the text by the marker. The computer used for viewing the papers is configured so that attempts to manipulate the paper (e.g., internet access, storing or downloading data) can effectively be prevented. This will ensure that written test papers and their content remain private and exam assignments will continue to be available for future assessments.