CHAPTER ONE
1.1
INTRODUCTION
The
advent of web application into the computing technology has brought about a
significant revolution in our social life including the traditional system of
education and examination. Many institutions are beginning to re-evaluate their
traditional methods and have considered providing pedagogical materials through
the internet. Several studies have been carried out on distance education which
encompasses web classroom and web based online examination (Yuan, et al, 2003;
webet, yr, Jackson et al 1997 and sting et al; 2000) to mention a few one
important area of application of the web technology is in the development of
web based testing and assessment systems offer greater flexibility than the
traditional approach because test could be offered at different times by
students and in different locations (Jay, et al 2001). More importantly,
question could be shuffled having the same structure and level of different
contents. Basically the electronic examination system involves the conduct of
emanations through the web or the internet and it reduces the large proportion
of workload on examination, training grading and reviewing. The set of
questions often used in the e-examination system are multiple choice objective
tests and quizzes that can be formally and easily evaluated online.
1.2
BACKGROUND OF THE STUDY
The
credibility of institutions of learning, the level of skill displayed by
candidates, the respect and admiration commanded by examination agencies, as
well as the good will employed by the certificates that are issued depends on
the foundation upon which examination are conducted, i.e the credibility,
efficiency and effectiveness of the examinations system to protect itself and
its integrity from invasion by criminal and deviant elements, who besiege it
with different forms of examination fraud.
An
examination system must also be effective, efficient and full proof, in the
administration of examinations, which includes the setting of the paper to the
point where results are released and certificates issued where applicable. The
examination must be free and fair and the release of the result should be
timely, and devoid of every error originated by lapses in the human faculty,
like stress, influence or values and idiosyncrasies, as well as favoritism.
In
recent times though the traditional method of administering examinations has
fallen prey to the aforlisted facilities and shortcoming of any human dependent
examination system examination malpractices, leakage of examination question
papers, loss of scripts, inappropriate award of scores, high of administering
the examination etc. Infact the time it takes for results to be released or
published after marking the scripts passed is not encouraging especially in the
face of developments in the field of information technology which has made it
possible for information to be processed “real time online”.
The
research was birthed in an attempt to eliminate the many hydra headed monstrous
problems that invaded the traditional form of administering, by the application
of the techniques and processes originated by advancement in the field of ICT,
in order to reap the bountiful benefits that lies there on, and e-examination,
which is the administration electronically using the internet or intranet.
1.3
OBJECTIVES OF THE RESEARCH
1.
To develop a system of examination model that is devoid of irregularities and
generally fair to all applicants.
2. To
explore the possibility of conducting a national e-examination.
3. To
investigate the level of ICT literacy of applicants.
1.4
STATEMENT OF THE
PROBLEM
The
present problems associated with the conduct of JAMB and other examinations
like WASC and NECO examination are inadequate examination halls or classrooms
to check and control candidates during examinations, impersonation in the exam
hall leakages of examinations questions, mercenaries hired by registered
students to write the exams for them, bribing examination officials supervisors
and invigilators, desperation of parents to buy life question their wards
conspiracy and collaboration of security agents and officials of public
examination to compromise the integrity of the examination.
1.5
SIGNIFICANCE OF THE
STUDY
Being
a researcher that explored the virgin forest of e-examination vis-à-vis. The
traditional and tedious form of examination administration, this study is
significant in the following respects;
i.
It will open a door for other researchers to build their
research on the foundation provided by this research work.
ii.
This research work will be a good reference materials for
research students who intend to do research further on the subject matter of
examination as well as policy makers who will guide to frame viable and
evadible e-examination policies.
iii.
Schools and other examination administering bodies can
develop their e-examination system, using the protocol designed in this work to
develop or form the backbone of their initiative.
iv.
The fraud, stress, delay loss of resources and manpower, as
well as the risks attacked to be traditional forms of administering
examinations has been relegated to the archives of history by this research
work.
v.
The inadequacy of research materials in the field of
e-examination has been eliminated by this work.
1.6
SCOPE OF THE STUDY
The
case study of this study is computer science technology, which houses the
facilities needed to conclude this research, which is more or less practical
oriented. The post JAMB candidates form, the entire population from which the
survey sample was dawn.
1.7
LIMITATION OF THE STUDY
In
the course of conducting this research exercise, lack of finance, the
unavailability of much reference materials in respect of e-examination and the
short time frame that was required for the completion of this exercise were
factors that militated against this work, though this factor in no way limited
the scholarly background of this work.
1.8
RESEARCH QUESTIONS
This
study aims at answering the following research questions;
1. Are
most examination candidates computer literate?
2. Is
the use of deployment of e-examination prevalent in our examination system?
3. Is
the e-examination format easy to use by examination candidates?
4.
Should the e-examination platform or system be recommended for future entrance
examinations?
No comments:
Post a Comment