A secure online examination system

• Main Author: Lim, Jun Kai
• Other Authors: Chua Hock Chuan
• Format: Final Year Project
• Language: English
• Published: Nanyang Technological University 2022
• Subjects: Engineering::Electrical and electronic engineering::Computer hardware, software and systems
• Online Access: https://hdl.handle.net/10356/158282
• Institution: Nanyang Technological University

An online examination system is a software where a particular institution or organization can conduct and facilitate examinations through an online environment. This software is conducted via the Internet worldwide, Intranet in an environment, or a LAN environment. The purpose of this FYP is to provide an alternative to the usual way of a physical examination system, which poses some limitations such as, (1) the processing of results is too long, (2) filing difficulties due to storage, (3) filtering of records, (4) the need for manpower and lastly (5) the resources and location needed to host the examination. As such, these problems do cause much time and effort to facilitate. An online examination is an important development in the area of an online education system. Its efficiency, reliability, and speed edge over the former, and it also saves huge amounts of resource materials. The development of our examination system is developed using the web. Microsoft Visual Studio Code will be used for its flexibility to incorporate Python, HyperText Markup Language 5, Cascading Style Sheets and JavaScript files. Flask will be the framework for our web development incorporation while XAMPP will be used for Microsoft SQL database management system. Microsoft Excel will be used for the student and invigilator name lists to be uploaded via MySQL. Twilio API will be used for the building of the video conferencing functions that will livestream the students’ web camera, surrounding voices and the sharing of their screen. OpenCV is used to display the students’ web camera over the web application. Ngrok is used for providing a real-time introspecting of our Flask HTTP requests over the tunnels. This paper describes the principles revolving our system, presenting the main functions of our system and analyses the facial recognition of the students taking the examination and lastly monitoring the students via a video conferencing system. This project would be split up into 3 separate roles, namely, the Administrator, the Student, and the Invigilator. My part is focused on the Invigilator and the duties revolved around him. We will discuss the implications involved and how the online examination supersedes a physical examination system and the different methods of the security and effectiveness of the system.