Offline-Testplayer for E-Exams

If you need any help in filling out this wiki page, please visit our ILIAS Community FAQ. And please complete the metadata information in the right column after having created the page.

1 Initial Problem

The most restricting factor of e-exam capacity is the limited availability of CIP-Pools which are big enough for processing e-exams on a grand scale. Therefore a lot of universities with established e-exam services are thinking about extending their CIP-Pools capacities by developing the wifi infrastructures for also using normal seminar rooms and auditoriums for e-exams. But a network connection in a wifi environment is not as stable as a wired connection.
For ensuring the required data security and availability of the web-based e-exam system we need a Testplayer which is able to cache the user test-data locally and dependent on the availability of the wireless network connection can synchronize the e-exam data with the online system.
If we want to perform e-exams totally without a network connection, a decoupled offline testplayer should also be able to perform an imported ILIAS test object and offers additional features for

1. assigning the user data to the e-exam
2. administration of local storage (SD Card, syncing data to ILIAS...)
3. security concept of offline data (data-protection, encryption etc.)

2 Conceptual Summary

There is a common level of offline experience we know for mobile apps, which are storing formula and navigational data locally to achieve an uninterrupted user experience in unstable network environments. First we have to elaborate a clear concept and interfaces for an implementation of "Offline Support for Test Questions" itself (https://docu.ilias.de/goto_docu_wiki_wpage_5723_1357.html).

Build on this requirement the Testplayer must be extended to consume and store the offline data for the questions and the test object. This would also improve the user experience in non-exam settings using the ILIAS test object for example with mobile devices in a limited network environment. This feature addresses standard HTML5 / webstorage interfaces, so it can be used in a wide range of modern browsers and devices.

Next to this we have to take a look into real e-exam settings. Normally e-exams are performed in CIP-Pools with controlled devices. In both settings (LAN and wifi) the offline processing will improve the user experience on any kind of network or system disorders. But there are some special e-exam issues:

• What about a crashed device in an exam session? The most significant advantage of online exam workflow is that in case of a device crash the user can just replace the device and can resume from the last position without loosing any data.
  If we want to perform 100% offline e-exams we also need a way to transfer the local data storage of a crashed device to a new one, possibly by replacing an additional SD-Card storage.
• We also need to offer a new self-assigning concept of user-data, because there is no way to authenticate against any online services.
• The new Offline-Testplayer requires additional administrative components for importing (offline) test objects, data syncing to the online-system and managing external storage devices like SD-Cards or USB-Sticks.
• Also we have to elaborate a security concept for the offline-data (data protection, encryption etc.)

1. Chromebooks
2. Linux Notebooks
3. optional: Windows Notebooks

Important Notice:
As decided in a workshop of SIG Client in Nov. 2019 we are planing the development of an Offline-Exam Component for the Test-Object in a slightly different way.
The financial resources needs to be addressed in the next few months but the development of a general Offline-Concept needs much more time because of the dependencies between some huge implementations and concepts that are currently work in progress (JavaScript, ASQ, API-Alignment...)
For this reason we are planing the development of a decoupled plugin which can be used early by special customers and clients but with an explicit commitment to core migration when the wip components and concepts are completed.
To avoid the risk of diverting from core concepts we bind the development process of the plugin tightly to the quality assurance of JF and TB. This should also lead to minimal efforts in case of core migration and facilitates the transfer of the offline concept to other ILIAS components.

3 User Interface Modifications

3.1 List of Affected Views

{Please list all views (screens) of ILIAS that should be modified, newly introduced or removed.}

3.2 User Interface Details

{For each of these views please list all user interface elements that should be modified, added or removed. Please provide the textual appearance of the UI elements and their interactive behaviour.}

3.3 New User Interface Concepts

{If the proposal introduces any completely new user interface elements, you might consult UI Kitchen Sink in order to find the necessary information to propose new UI-Concepts. Note that any maintainer might gladly assist you with this.}

4 Technical Information

{The maintainer has to provide necessary technical information, e.g. dependencies on other ILIAS components, necessary modifications in general services/architecture, potential security or performance issues.}

5 Privacy Information

{ Please list all personal data that will need to be stored or processed to implement this feature. For each date give a short explanation why it is necessary to use that date. }

6 Security Implications

A specialized security concept for data-protection of offline exam data on external media (SD-Card, USB-Stick) has to be elaborated.

7 Contact

• Author of the Request: Stefan Schneider
• Maintainer: {Please add your name before applying for an initial workshop or a Jour Fixe meeting.}
• Implementation of the feature is done by: {The maintainer must add the name of the implementing developer.}

8 Funding

If you are interest in funding this feature, please add your name and institution to this list.

• Uni Erlangen
• Uni Bonn

9 Discussion

10 Implementation

{The maintainer has to give a description of the final implementation and add screenshots if possible.}

Test Cases

Test cases completed at {date} by {user}

• {Test case number linked to Testrail} : {test case title}

Approval

Approved at {date} by {user}.