Automated Random Question Paper Generation Based on Multiple Constraints

Introduction

Traditional approach to draw the question paper for any institute or university is to ask faculty to manually set the question paper. Although this approach is quite successful it has various drawbacks such as labour work, shortage of finding right faculty, time constraint, human errors, time to proof read and probability of asking the same question asked in previous errors. Standardization of question paper is a long debated issue and major concern for examination department. Current era of technological advancements and reforms has forced Universities and Institutes to shift from paper based systems to computer based system. Using the automation one can achieve the standardization to enhance the quality of question paper based on various parameters, reduction in human errors such as duplicate questions etc. Questions stored in database will be useful for generating test paper in future exams as well. Questions such as MCQ, True/False and Fill in the blanks can be stored with answers which will help to generate the answer keys as well. Taxonomy proposed by Bloom (1956), which categorizing level of learning to six different cognitive domains, namely

1. Knowledge

2. Comprehension

3. Application

4. Analysis

5. Synthesis

6. Evaluation

This taxonomy act as an enabler to set the question paper for assessing the learning ability of different students at different level based on the topics and its difficulty level. Meaning question can be selected starting from basic level to advanced level to check the analysis and synthesis.

Literature Review

Generate draft examinations by randomly or manually selecting questions from the central question databank. Sign-off and prepress. Print individualized exam papers and solution sheets. Maintain complete records of applicants (exam results, dates, etc.). Produce school, NAA and JAA pro forma reports. [1]

Admin will be provided with the login ID and password, after registering to the software. After the successful login admin can enter the question in database. Admin will decide the level of difficulty i.e. Easy, Moderate, Difficult. Random Paper. Questions are selected according to the level of difficulty. The question generated is converted into the format of question paper and then transformed into doc file. The above created doc file can be emailed to the admin. [2]

The core purpose of automatic generation systems is composing examination papers. Therefore, system functions are given query, update and maintenance. According to the general characteristics of the information management system, the system works in the user mode and the administrator mode. [3]

The database