LeoExam

Give exams in offline mode

Comment

Inspiration

Amid this coronavirus pandemic, all the education systems have switched to the online mode of examination, but many students live in areas that have a shaky internet connection. They have to travel a few kilometers to just attend the exam. Sometimes, even if students have a solid internet connection the college server is not simply capable of handling the load of thousands of students which also results in inconvenience for students. To solve such problems, we have built a intuitive web app that will allow students to attempt the exam in the complete offline mode.

What it does

The Admin / Examiner / Appropriate Authority will have the option to set the paper with flexible format (Time limit, number of questions, etc) on a web app. Then a download option will be available to each student. Now, whenever a student requests to download the exam paper, an encrypted file will be sent to the end-user. This file will be encrypted using the AES algorithm and the key will be a combination of some of the exam data and some randomly generated numbers. Once the exam paper is downloaded there is no need for an internet connection to attend the exam. Just before the exam time, a message that contains part of the key will be sent to the student using SMS which will be termed as exam password. This exam password and some of the exam data will act as keys and will decrypt the downloaded file at the start of exam. Now the student will be able to attend the exam in completely offline mode and will also be monitored during this time using functionalities like facial recognition, tab switching, etc. The answers given by the student will be saved in secured and encrypted format and whenever the user gets an internet connection, then his/her answers along with the results / report of facial recognition, tab switching, etc, will be sent to the server, and depending on that student will receive his grades.

How we built it

We built it using powerful MERN stack. We have used SMS API for sending SMS. Also used Material UI for styling frontend. All the tools, libraries, framework used by us are open sourced.

Challenges we ran into

Few challenges include 1) Designing encryption system that can decrypt exam at a particular time only. 2) Providing proctored mode which includes face recognition and detecting tab switching and all this in offline mode.

Accomplishments that we're proud of

1) Will even work in rural areas / areas with low internet / zero internet bandwidth.
2) Help in reducing the load on college server.
3) Security (as paper format will be encrypted and decrypted on individual devices).
4) Password of exam / Decryption key will be sent to each candidate over SMS as soon as admin creates an exam.
5) Facial and Tab Switching status of each candidate along final report of answers will be attached to answer sheet (offline) and sent to admin in presence of internet connectivity.
6) Candidate will be monitored the whole time during exam.
7) Admin will have extra privilege to set questions at individual level (as unique key will be associated with each candidate for decryption).
8) Exams at your home comfort.

What we learned

We learnt how computing can solve basic problems faced today in covid era. We learned some powerful technologies that enable us to build better apps.

What's next for LeoExam

1) More on proctored mode.
2) Facilitate different types of questions like subjective questions.
3) More on UI, making it more dynamic yet simple.
4) Hosting the platform on powerful server.
5) Exams for differently abled students.

Share this project:

Updates