DEVELOPMENT AND APPLICATION OF TEST ASSIGNMENT GENERATORS IN DISTANCE LEARNING SYSTEMS

Experience accumulated by Tomsk State University of Control Systems and Radioelectronics (TUSUR University) in employment of distance learning technologies for delivery of education shows that a system of knowledge assessment is a crucial component of such technologies. Ultimately, the quality of the assessment system determines the quality of graduates. The Faculty of Distance Learning of TUSUR University has created a rather well-established system of knowledge assessment that includes: various forms of midterm assessment - computer-aided review works, writing assignments, review papers, reports submitted in digital form; computer testing. Analysis of experience with examination has shown that: 1) hackers target the computer testing system; 2) cheat sheet are available for many computer tests; 3) cheat sheets and hacked computer tests are available at special websites. As a result, the following strategy has been developed in order to improve the assessment system: 1) to develop an access security system; 2) to organize anti-cheat sheet protection; 3) to organize website shutdown; 4) to develop the examination and review system. One potential way to address these problems is to integrate test assignment generators in the system of distance knowledge assessment. On the one hand, such generators ensure access security as they contain no ready-to-use answers, and on the other hand, virtually each student is given an individual assignment. That solves the problem of cheat sheets because the program generates the right answer during the testing, which means that instead of knowing the right answer, the student must know the right solution algorithm. While developing such generators, the team has: 1) developed the mathematical framework for algorithms of test assignment generation; 2) developed models and algorithms for test assignment generation. 3) developed and implemented an original generator technology; 4) developed a series of generators for various academic subjects and implemented them in distance learning practices.

Keywords

Authors

References