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Abstract

Content

Introduction

Nowadays the society raises the question of the modern education informatization and the implantation of modern information development. Education is a multifaceted process and the knowledge control is one of its sides. However, computer technologies rose very high, and among them the interactive test systems occupy a leading position. In some countries, this type of testing displaced the traditional forms of knowledge control [1]. The benefits of the automated test systems are obvious, they can:

Thus, we determined the value of the knowledge test systems for educational institutions in general, and for the university in particular.

Nowadays there are a lot of interactive test systems. However, among this variety it is difficult to find a program that satisfies all the demands of the university or faculty. The solution of this problem is to create its own expert test system.

The database structure, necessary for the implementation of an interactive test system, depends on the architecture of the system, so lets consider the structure and main features in details.

1. General description of the interactive control system of students' knowledge

Interactive control system of students' knowledge is a set of software tools aimed at improving the quality of user testing [1].

Usually the testing process at the university looks like this (Figure 1.1).

Scheme of students testing
Figure 1.1 – Scheme of students testing
(the number of frames 15, 5 reps, weight 145 KB)

As we see all the work of the test organization and conduction lies with the teacher. Interactive test system radically changes the situation.

The main purpose of the system is to promote the educational process at the university and to facilitate the testing process of students' knowledge.

To achieve this goal, the interactive test system should include the following subsystems:

Before we examine all the subsystems, it must be noted that there are two types of access: the student and the administrator (i.e. teacher).

The test development subsystem. With its help you can create and edit questions. There are the correct answers in it, which can be edited or changed later. The questions can be of several types:

In our system we use only the first two types of questions. The rest can be used later if it is necessary. Further it is possible to use pictures, tables, animation etc.

All questions must be grouped by topic or subjects. As a result the test questions or tests will be formed. An access to the test development subsystem is allowed only for the administrator.

The users editing subsystem. All information about users (list of students, groups), and a list of teachers and disciplines will be exported directly from the environment and stored in the system.

Only the administrator can add or remove a student, edit a group or an object.

Access module and password generator is needed to make the system more secure. There are two types of passwords in accordance with the type of access. Login and password are automatically generated and assigned to a specific user. The method of generating passwords is given only by the administrator.

The teacher can view a list of passwords and change it if it is necessary. For example, if the student has passed login and password to a third party.

The testing subsystem generates tests and outputs them to the user. The test is being passed step by step. Each question is a separate page. Questions are numbered. There is a system of passing the current question. All the missed questions appear at the end of testing. At the moment there is not a time limit, but it can appear further.

The selection of questions in the test is accidental and it is taken from the entire set of existing ones.

The subsystem of evaluation and processing of results. Analysis of the control results is required for the formation of inferences about the dynamics of the student’s knowledge. The result of evaluation is the percentage of correct answers. After passing the test the date and time of evaluation, the results of the percentage and the number of attempts are recorded in the database. In the initial version of development all the questions have the same level of difficulty. Later, we can divide questions into the levels.

The module that views the results of testing. The page with the test results is created after each attempt. It displays all the questions. Correct answers are green, red ones are wrong. If the user has given wrong answers, the correct ones are displayed on the screen. The main result is given in percent. You can also view the results of previous attempts, if you have any, and the equated interest.

The teacher can view the test results of individual students or the overall group statistics.

The analysis of statistics subsystem. In this subsystem the general analysis of the results will be implemented. For example, the number of positive and negative attempts in the individual group.

Thus, the software allows the user to perform the following tasks:

  1. Creating and maintaining database of test items.
  2. Test development on the basis of educational tests, both: the most simple, task-oriented, usual control tests, and professional ones of the highest standards of quality.
  3. Testing, both individual and mass, with a high level of scalability and protection against falsification of the test results.
  4. Analytical processing of test results
  5. Standardization of the test and setting standards based on the interpretation of the data processing test results.
  6. Getting objective estimations of the knowledge level.
  7. Calculation of students’ marks based on the percentage of the correctly completed tasks and rules of the test.
  8. Obtaining various forms of reporting, analytical and graphical form, with the ability to export the result data of any reports.

After implantation of this system, the testing process becomes much easier (Figure 1.2).

Scheme of the test using the interactive control system
Figure 1.2 – Scheme of the test using the interactive control system

While using the test program the teacher needs only to write the questions on a subject and put them with the answers (single action) into a database, then if it is necessary, he/she can replace or edit the material. The system does all other procedures. It generates tests, processes and publishes the results and makes the statistics.

2. Development of the database system structure

The basis of the knowledge control system is a database that contains a description of the main points, logical connections between them, information about users of the system, and also the basic elements involving questions of logical data integrity, access control, and formation of typical representations [2].

The developed system has to process large amounts of data, such as test data sets, data about groups, users, the test results, and secondary data. For this reason, the storage environment meets the strict requirements: ensuring the integrity and consistency of data storage, high-speed data processing, high degree of data protection from hackers’ attacks, multi-user data access support with functions of permission or exclusion of the conflict situations.

The basis of the database project is its information model, a means of providing an idea of the data and their use in the specific conditions [3].

During the project development the following external conceptions were identified:

Scheme of interaction of the external conceptions
Figure 2.1 – Scheme of interaction of the external conceptions

As we see from Figure 2.1, the client-server structure (Figure 2.2) is a basic element of the interaction scheme.

Client-server structure
Figure 2.2 – Client-server structure

It means that any number of students can pass the test simultaneously. There are the advantages of such architecture:

Also the main objects of the information model database were identified [3]:

Simplified information model of the database is shown in Figure 2.3.

Simplified information model of the database
Figure 2.3 – Simplified information model of the database

When creating a database, the most important task is to make the best structure.

The projected database consists of the interconnected conceptions, among which we can highlight two main groups [3]:

In further database developing some actions were made [3]:

Figure 2.4 shows the ER-model of the developed database.

ER-model of the developed database
Figure 2.4 – ER-model of the developed database

Let’s describe the database tables and their attributes [4,5].

Table Sections. There is information about the test sections (academic subject). Attributes are:

Table Groups. There is information about user groups. Attributes are:

Table Groupsections. There is information about compatibility of groups with the test sections. Attributes are:

Table Tests. There is information and settings for the test. Attributes are:

Table Questions. There are test questions. Attributes are:

Table Answers. There are possible answers to the questions. Attributes are:

Table Users. Tere is information about users. Attributes are:

Table User_results. There is a storage of test results. Attributes are:

Table User_answers. There is the log of the test and it can be displayed in the report. Attributes are:

Table Author. Tere is information about the author of the tests. Attributes are:

3. Selection of the database control system

We have already said that the internal storage is the basis of the project. Also the added to the database requirements were discussed. Thus, there is a question of choosing a data model and a database management system (DBMS).

All the requirements are described in the relational database. We selected MySQL as the target database. MySQL is one of the number of databases, supported by PHP. This is a very important criterion, because the main language of the project is PHP. In addition, the system MySQL is free and powerful enough to solve real problems.

SQL is an abbreviation of the words Structured Query Language, which means a structured query language. This language is a standard tool to access different databases. The MySQL system is a server that can connect remote users.

It is easier to work with the database if you use a special tool that came with the Web-Developer: Denwer phpMyAdmin. Here you can create a new database, a new table in the selected database, fill the table with data, and also add, delete, and edit data.

There are three basic types of data in MySQL: numeric type, date and time type and the row type. Each of these categories is subdivided into a great number of types. The main ones are listed in Figure 3.

MySQL basic data types
Figur 3 – MySQL basic data types

The main advantages of the MySQL package are [3]:

The flexibility of the MySQL database is provided by supporting many types of tables. Users can select tables of MyISAM type, that support full-text search and InnoDB tables, which support transactions at the level of individual records. Moreover, the MySQL database system comes with a special type of EXAMPLE tables, demonstrating the principles of creation of the new table types. Due to its open architecture and GPL-license, new types of tables always appear in the MySQL database.

All the above features will create an efficient and stable database for our project.

Conclusion

In this research it was considered a general description of the developing system that tests students' knowledge. We designed the structure of the database system and selected the database for the project.

Testing is being developed in all branches of our information society. It is used in the school exams, secondary education institutions and universities, psychological tests when applying for a job, etc., so we need the automation of this process. It solves a lot of problems and highlights a number of advantages of using the test, for example, the lack of influence of the human factor, significant saving of the teacher’s time, reducing the control time, etc.

There is nothing surprising in the fact that there are many analogues of this system. But in most cases they are individual and limited in their functionality.

The basis of the developed system includes such characteristics as:

References

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