open source exam software.. is their any

[PEO]

Hi gang, I was chating to one of the ICT teachers yeasterday about creating online in house exams. at present he has put something togeather using mixture of powerpoint, word, excel etc.

Thing is it still requires him to manually mark the exam.

I have seen one exam software called TCexam TCExam Features

only proble with this is dosent do 'Matching Answers'

here is what we require

•Matching
•SingleChoice
•MultipleChoice
•True/False
•FillInTheBlanks
•Math
•Freetext
•ShortAnswer

any ideas or suggestions would be fab

cheers

[Michael]

Not so sure about open source, but you should be able to create the interface on a web page relatively easily, but getting it to talk to a database is a little more complex. I'd look at a PHP and MySQL solution unlike an MS solution. The free versions of MS SQL are extremely limited.

[PEO]

cheers.... still open to more suggestions

[srochford]

. The free versions of MS SQL are extremely limited.

In what way? You can do some pretty major databases with SQL Express. There are limitations but I'm intrigued as to what you're particularly thinking would cause a problem.

[rh91uk]

The only limit I think of using SQL Express is that it can't do scheduled backups, but i'm sure that can be replicated some way else! In fact I know a local school that runs several apps using SQL Express!

[Michael]

1 CPU socket, 1GB memory, 4GB of user data per database. You'd be surprised how easy it is to reach these levels.

[dhicks]

any ideas or suggestions would be fab

Moodle, or pretty much any VLE/PLE/whatever should handle online tests/exams/quizzes to your heart's content.

--
David Hicks

[Michael]

Moodle, or pretty much any VLE/PLE/whatever should handle online tests/exams/quizzes to your heart's content.

That's a great idea actually. I agree that will be the easiest way

[f21970]

Yep. I would second Moodle. In fact the main open source qualifications (INGOTS) are already handled through Moodle. And all the course materials are freely availalbe. From memory it costs about £2 per pupil up to Gold level, but I may be wrong!

[PEO]

ok... can anyone point me in the right direction for this. Never bothered with moodle so not sure where to start.

[dhicks]

ok... can anyone point me in the right direction for this.

Just go and download Moodle, install it, hook it up to your AD/LDAP server, log in and start creating stuff.

--
David Hicks

[SteveBentley]

You might want to be aware that the online assessment side has some scalability issues with some VLEs.

With our Blackboard installation here, getting a whole class to take a test simultaneously is generally a disaster because. I'm told it's not possible to load balance the assessment components across several servers like it is with the rest of Blackboard (because of session integrity issues) and so tests have an embarrassing tendancy to grind to a halt.

[Ric_]

If you don't want full blown VLE capability, I seem to remember that Hot Potatoes does most of this too... Hot Potatoes Home Page

EDIT: BTW it's free as in beer, not as in speach (so not open source)

[strawberry]

If you don't want full blown VLE capability, I seem to remember that Hot Potatoes does most of this too... Hot Potatoes Home Page

EDIT: BTW it's free as in beer, not as in speach (so not open source)

seconded. very nice program, only free if your government sponsored though.

[SteveBentley]

seconded. very nice program, only free if your government sponsored though.

And if you're prepared to share the material you make with it

Hot Potatoes is free for use by state-funded educational institutions which are non-profit making, or individuals working for them, on the condition that the material you produce using the program is freely available to anyone via the WWW.

Which is a little... awkward for some things you might want to do with it, although it appears the licensing changes in September.