Web-Based Testing with Active Server Pages
By Chuck McNichols
If you've taken a test recently -- in a training course, for certification, or to gain admission to a degree program -- chances are your exam was computer administered. Advantages of online tests over the pencil-and-paper variety include flexible administration, immediate student feedback, and the opportunity to easily gather statistics for evaluating student performance and test-item behavior.
In this article I'll show you how to implement Web-based software that generates and grades tests consisting of the following objective question types: true/false, multiple choice, multiple-multiple choice, and matching. I had embedded the original version of this application in a course Web page to provide review quizzes for students in a graduate MIS class, but online testing is useful at all educational levels and in both academic and industrial training environments. My course was for off-campus part-time students who used a variety of Web browsers and browser versions. As a result, the implementation makes few assumptions about the student's browser, requiring only support for forms and tables -- no client-side scripting is involved.
The application includes the following components: an HTML form that incorporates variables specifying which topics to include on the test, a test database (also referred to as test bank), and test generation and grading programs (BuildTest.asp and GradeTest.asp, respectively) written in Microsoft's VBScript to run with Active Server Pages (ASP) on Internet Information Server (IIS).
