TCExam is a computer-based assessment (CBA) system designed to simplify the evaluation process for schools, universities, recruiting firms, and private and public companies. The server-based software allows professors, teachers, and examiners to create, distribute, and manage exams, tests, surveys, and quizzes. Teachers and students can access the software via a web browser, without the need to install any additional software or plugins. Its creator, Italian software engineer Nicola Asuni, says, “TCExam replaces traditional pen-and-paper testing and simplifies the whole process of evaluation, reducing costs and improving the quality and the reliability of exams.”
The software is most often used in universities and schools, but Asuni says some organizations’ human resources departments also use it in their recruiting process. TCExam is fully documented, and, as well as being open source, uses open standards for data interchange (XML, CSV, PDF) and free database management systems (MySQL, PostgreSQL) on the back end. The software conforms to the W3C guidelines on accessibility and usability, providing equal access and equal opportunity to people with disabilities; TCExam can be used by blind people, for instance.
The application is language-independent through the adoption of the UTF-8, Unicode, and TMX standards. It supports right-to-left mode and can be translated into any language; 23 translations are already included.
Asuni says TCExam uses a common mark-up language that enables users to add text formatting, images, multimedia objects (audio and video), and mathematical formulas (via LaTeX). “Generally speaking, any object that can be rendered with a web browser using a specific plugin can be added to TCExam questions, alternative answers, and general descriptions.”
TCExam allows the user to input their data through a variety of different devices using the keyboard standard protocol. A practical example would be the use of TCExam as a platform for tests that involve moving, if a suitable device that does motion capture were connected to the system.
Finally, TCExam can generate unique tests for each user by randomly selecting and ordering questions and alternative answers, making it almost impossible for a test-taker to cheat.
Asuni began code TCExam about six years ago, when he was a computer science student at University of Cagliari. “I grew tired of waiting more than a week for the results of a traditional pen-and-paper exam. I started thinking about a simple CBA system that could overcome this problem on a more general level and also run on very poor hardware configurations.” Asuni says once he announced the software on a few partner web sites, blogs, and social networks, it rapidly gained followers, mostly by word of mouth.
The software can be integrated with course management systems, such as Moodle. “As a matter of fact,” Asuni says, “a library I wrote, TCPDF, which is one of the working parts of TCExam, has already been embedded in Moodle.” For upcoming versions of TCExam Asuni is planning on developing better integration with major e-learning systems.
Asuni welcomes new ideas, comments, suggestions, translations, and improvements for the application. At the moment, the most urgent things are the completion of the user manual and the addition of a few more languages, he says. Anyone who wants to help can get in contact with Asuni through the SourceForge project’s forums and tracker.