An Interactive, Web-Based Testing System for an Introductory Computer Science Course

In order to simplify the process of testing the hundreds of students enrolled in the University of Virginia's Introduction to Computer Science class, I created an interactive, Web-based testing system using Macromedia Authorware. While Web-based education has become widespread over the past four or five years, on-line testing remains minimal. This system will be used beginning with the Fall, 1998 CS 101 class, where it will be used as a teaching tool as well as an evaluation mechanism. I created the system to be extendible as well as modular; the final design reads a text file from the Web server containing a pool of questions on a given topic, and randomly selects questions to present the student. The student's score is calculated, and the data is transferred back to the Web server for record keeping purposes. Single-question and raw score data is kept, as well as information on the times and number of logins and practice tests taken. Information about the software tools used, an explanation of the process followed to create this product, and a description of the final design constitute the body of this Technical Report. The system was originally implemented with the quiz templates available in Authorware. Once it was ported to the Web, I discovered several key faults in my design; the solutions to these problems are discussed in the body as well. Although the final success of this project will not be known until it used in the classroom in Fall 1998, this Technical Report has immediate importance because it documents the creation and implementation of a Web-based testing system.

Thesis originally deposited on 2011-12-28 in version 1.28 of Libra. This thesis was migrated to Libra2 on 2016-11-30 15:18:36.