EVALUATING THE SAME

This International Application claims priority from a complete patent application filed in India having Patent Application No. 201831026893, filed on July 18, 2018 and titled“SECURED ASSESSMENT SYSTEM FOR CONDUCTING

EXAMS AND EVALUATING THE SAME”

FIELD OF THE INVENTION

Embodiments of the present disclosure relate to anti-cheating systems in online examination, and more particularly, to a secured assessment system in real time. BACKGROUND

Online education has become a new norm, replacing a large percentage of conventional classroom education. The conventional teacher-student interaction has a superior education value compared to the online education, as it becomes difficult to apply such interactions due to wide geographical distribution of students, thereby costing high infrastructure and other parameters for organizing a class. Organizing a class also requires preparation of test questions and test papers, preparation of answer sheets, graders and grading, and publication of the results, all requiring personnel. Online education, combined with relevant technologies is a good alternative to conventional classroom education and issues associated with it, although there is a concern that the academic cheating might be more likely to happen in an online examination.

Few of the institutions use software that prevents students from opening other apps or web browsers, webcams remotely monitoring the students during online examinations. Some of the institutions use an automated plagiarism detection system. However, there are several issues that needs to be solved by implementing an efficient system monitoring students during an online examination. SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

In accordance with one embodiment of the disclosure, a secured assessment system in real time is provided. The system includes one or more electronic SAS device with one display screen registered with individual users, comprises at least one of an optical module, configured in the electronic SAS device, configured to provide at least one captured video for verification to the at least one user, a permission module configured to run only permitted one or more applications, a geo-location tracking module configured to track the geographical location of the user, a vigilance module configured to receive at least one video feed from camera of the electronic SAS devices, audio feed from microphone of the electronic SAS device, and the geographical location of the user, transmit the received video and audio feed, and real time geographical location of the user to a back-end user, wherein the vigilant module enables elimination of malpractices at least one of before, during and after exam by verifying conduct of the at least one user while using the electronic SAS device.

The system also includes a SAS Objective Response Recognition module configured to record response to objective type of questionnaire presented on the display screen, encrypt the recorded response and transmit to the back-end server, and a SAS Subjective Response Recognition module configured to record response to subjective type of questionnaire, encrypt the recorded response and transmit to the back-end server, wherein the subjective responses are scanned or directly sent to an evaluation module, wherein the evaluation module is configured to calculate marks and provide results based on the calculated marks, wherein the users comprises one of an examinee and an invigilator. The evaluation module configured to receive at least one response of the at least one user in at least one of subjective and objective form.

The back-end server communicatively coupled to the one or more electronic SAS devices, comprising a secure assessment system (SAS) central module configured to authenticate, register and administer the one or more electronic SAS devices to the individual user, a verification module configured to receive the at least one video fee, audio feed, and real time geographical location of the at least one user, verify the received one video feed, audio feed , and real time geographical location of the least one user for any anomaly, wherein the verification is done by at least one of SAS device and SAS escalation module.

To further clarify the advantages and features of the present disclosure, a more particular description of the disclosure will follow by reference to specific embodiments thereof, which are illustrated in the appended figures. It is to be appreciated that these figures depict only typical embodiments of the disclosure and are therefore not to be considered limiting in scope. The disclosure will be described and explained with additional specificity and detail with the appended figures.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS The disclosure will be described and explained with additional specificity and detail with the accompanying figures in which:

FIG. 1 is an illustration of system for a secured assessment system in real time in accordance with an embodiment of the present disclosure;

Further, those skilled in the art will appreciate that elements in the figures are illustrated for simplicity and may not have necessarily been drawn to scale. Furthermore, in terms of the construction of the device, one or more components of the device may have been represented in the figures by conventional symbols, and the figures may show only those specific details that are pertinent to understanding the embodiments of the present disclosure so as not to obscure the figures with details that will be readily apparent to those skilled in the art having the benefit of the description herein.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION For the purpose of promoting an understanding of the principles of the disclosure, reference will now be made to the embodiment illustrated in the figures and specific language will be used to describe them. It will nevertheless be understood that no limitation of the scope of the disclosure is thereby intended. Such alterations and further modifications in the illustrated system, and such further applications of the principles of the disclosure as would normally occur to those skilled in the art are to be construed as being within the scope of the present disclosure.

The terms "comprises", "comprising", or any other variations thereof, are intended to cover a non-exclusive inclusion, such that a process or method that comprises a list of steps does not include only those steps but may include other steps not expressly listed or inherent to such a process or method. Similarly, one or more devices or sub-systems or elements or structures or components preceded by "comprises... a" does not, without more constraints, preclude the existence of other devices, sub-systems, elements, structures, components, additional devices, additional sub-systems, additional elements, additional structures or additional components. Appearances of the phrase "in an embodiment", "in another embodiment" and similar language throughout this specification may, but not necessarily do, all refer to the same embodiment.

Unless otherwise defined, all technical and scientific terms used herein have the same meaning as commonly understood by those skilled in the art to which this disclosure belongs. The system, methods, and examples provided herein are only illustrative and not intended to be limiting.

In the following specification and the claims, reference will be made to a number of terms, which shall be defined to have the following meanings. The singular forms“a”,“an”, and“the” include plural references unless the context clearly dictates otherwise.

FIG. 1 is a block diagram of a secured assessment system (SAS) in accordance with an embodiment of the present disclosure. The system (100) comprises an electronic secured assessment system (SAS) device (102) having one or more display screens and a back-end server (116), where the electronic SAS device (102) is communicatively coupled to the back-end server (116) via a network.

The SAS device (102) includes processor(s) (128), and memory (124) coupled to the processor(s) (128). The processor(s) (128), as used herein, means any type of computational circuit, such as, but not limited to, a microprocessor, a microcontroller, a complex instruction set computing microprocessor, a reduced instruction set computing microprocessor, a very long instruction word microprocessor, an explicitly parallel instruction computing microprocessor, a digital signal processor, or any other type of processing circuit, or a combination thereof.

Computer memory elements may include any suitable memory device(s) for storing data and executable program, such as read only memory, random access memory, erasable programmable read only memory, electrically erasable programmable read only memory, hard drive, removable media drive for handling memory cards and the like. Embodiments of the present subject matter may be implemented in conjunction with program modules, including functions, procedures, data structures, and application programs, for performing tasks, or defining abstract data types or low-level hardware contexts. Executable program stored on any of the above-mentioned storage media may be executable by the processor(s) (128). The memory (124) includes a plurality of modules stored in the form of executable program which instructs the processor (302) to perform designated steps. The memory (302) has following modules: permission module (106), GPS module (108), vigilant module (112), SAS objective response recognition (ORR) module (114), SAS subjective response recognition (SRR) module (116), evaluation module (122) and optical module (104).

The back-end server (116) comprises of a SAS central module (118) and a second verification module (120). A memory (130) configured in the back-end server (116) includes SAS central module (118) and a second verification module (120) stored in the form of executable program which instructs processor (134) to perform designated steps.

In an embodiment, the electronic SAS device (102) may be a preconfigured tablet which restricts the user, via the permission module (106), to use only SAS application, making it secure and tamper proof. The optical module (104) is configured to provide at least one captured video for verification to a user. The electronic SAS device (102) is remotely monitored by the SAS central module (118), wherein the SAS central module (118) authenticates and authorises the electronic SAS device (102) to function in a specific manner through a SAS device administrator. The SAS device administrator maps the electronic SAS device (102) to the user, such that the user may use the electronic SAS device (102) in a specific manner depending on role of the user. The user/device registration/status is stored and maintained using block-chain technology.

The SAS central module (118) further comprises of a SAS question publish module and a SAS result publish module, wherein the SAS question publish module is configured to publish questions using SAS cryptography in real time, thereby preventing a chance of question leakage. The SAS cryptography enhances the security of data by using private key and public key to encrypt and decrypt the information exchanged between two systems, wherein the private key is generated randomly by the source system to encrypt the data to be exchanged with destination system and destination system uses public key/machine key to decrypt the data. The question published may be a subjective and/or an objective type. The SAS result publish is configured to evaluate both subjective and objective type exams. The SAS result publish is configured to receive the responses for both subjective and objective type exams from one or more student. The student(s) are enabled to give the exam from anywhere, thereby tracking their location by the geo location tracking module (108). The response to objective type of questionnaire is recorded by SAS objective response recognition (SAS ORR) (112). The response to the subjective type questionnaire is recorded by SAS subjective response recognition (SAS SRR) (114) configured to scan the response, wherein the response, both in objective and subjective type, is encrypted and stored in the electronic SAS device (102) and sync the data with the SAS central module (118). The vigilant module (110) comprising the verification module (120) and the surveillance escalation module are enforced during the entire process.

The evaluation module (122) is configured to at least one response by the at least one user in at least one of subjective and objective form. In an embodiment, the evaluation module (122) is configured to evaluate the subjective response given by the user, wherein the user is a student. The evaluation module (122) enables an evaluator to evaluate the subjective form, whereas the objective form is automatically evaluated by the system. The scanned answer sheet is displayed on the electronic SAS device to the evaluator, wherein the evaluator selects response of a question on the image and provides marks against it. Once the evaluator provides marks against all the responses, the system does the totalling of the marks provided on the answer sheet by the evaluator. The evaluated sheet is synced with the SAS central module (118) for verification.

An optical unit coupled with optical module (104) included in the electronic SAS device (102) is configured to capture/record a surveillance video of the user.

The vigilant module (110) is configured to receive at least one of surveillance video, audio feed from microphone of the electronic SAS device, wherein the vigilant module (110) shares the captured/recorded video with the verification module (120), wherein the verification module (120) is configured to choose one or more first verifiers for the user by using a SAS verifier selection. The first verifiers check the conduct of the user during the use of the electronic SAS device (102). If the conduct of the user is genuine, the first verifier marks the user’ s conduct as genuine, else the user is escalated to the surveillance escalation module if the conduct of the user is found to be suspicious. The surveillance escalation module comprises one or more second verifiers, wherein the second verifier marks the conduct of the user to be either genuine or suspicious for final time. The verifier selection for the user is performed randomly among all the users available in the SAS central module except for the user whose surveillance data needs to be verified and/or the user is from the same geographical location and/or the user is assigned a specific role. The selected verifier does not know the user for whom they are verifying, thereby adopting a non-biased, transparent verification. The vigilance module (110) enables elimination of malpractices at least one of before, during and after exam by verifying conduct of the at least one user while using the electronic SAS devices.

In an embodiment, the user may be an examinee (give objective/subjective exam), an evaluator (evaluates the objective response), an admin (registers a user with the SAS Device), a verifier (verifies the surveillance data) and an invigilator (records the conduct of a room where the exam is conducted.

The optical unit (104) comprises of various modes to capture/record the video, including but not limited to, Raw video capture - captures everything while using a feature in SAS Device, Random video capture - captures a moment in certain interval periodically. If the Admin set the moment to be 10 sec and Interval is 1 min, it picks a start time randomly (1-50) and captures video for 5 secs in every 1 min. This reduces the video size to 1/12* and Smart video capture - uses smart technology to capture the video, such that the video size would be small and easy to find any wrong-doing. Face detection - capture the moment if any other face(s) detected except the user. Motion detection - captures the moment if detected motion by any object on the scene. Audio exception detection - captures the moment if there is change is audio and Defocus detection - captures the moment if camera angle changes or something placed close to camera. The system provides various advantages, including but not limited to, prevents malpractice before, during and after the examination, including but not limited to, question leak, cheating in the examination, wrong doing at the time of evaluation. The system improves efficiency of evaluation process and brings transparency to the examination system.

While specific language has been used to describe the disclosure, any limitations arising on account of the same are not intended. As would be apparent to a person skilled in the art, various working modifications may be made to the method in order to implement the inventive concept as taught herein. The figures and the foregoing description give examples of embodiments. Those skilled in the art will appreciate that one or more of the described elements may well be combined into a single functional element. Alternatively, certain elements may be split into multiple functional elements. Elements from one embodiment may be added to another embodiment. For example, order of processes described herein may be changed and are not limited to the manner described herein. Moreover, the actions of any flow diagram need not be implemented in the order shown; nor do all of the acts need to be necessarily performed. Also, those acts that are not dependant on other acts may be performed in parallel with the other acts. The scope of embodiments is by no means limited by these specific examples.