Network-based and encapsulated architecture for testing and assessment

Distance learning works very well; its main problem centers on the administration of examinations grading, and apprising the student on a timely basis, of his or her standing on the test. If general tests, outside course work, were easier to develop and to administer over a computer network, then it would be simple to require a potential user of a computer program or network to demonstrate sufficient knowledge or maturity to proceed into the material available on the network. To date, the people who might develop tests and the people who might automate such instruments for easy deployment, have come from different populations. By packaging the network and programming infrastructure into a website, the author hopes to facilitate the development of tests to be administered in this medium. This technology has immediate application to distance learning. Testing is typically the weakest point of distance learning courses, and is often omitted entirely, or requires the learner to travel to a testing center. Beyond the academic applications, tests of skill, alertness, and maturity that were easy to author and easy to attach to computer programs could be used in much the same way that passwords are used currently. Passing the test would signal the host program to unlock its enhanced features for the current session. Such authentication procedures would be helpful guardians of computer programs, preventing access to immature users or to persons whose performance might be temporarily impaired. This toolkit provides a flexible, predictable, and specific facility for authoring tests. It provides a facility for administering those tests to test-takers over the Internet. Detailed performance on each question, or summary grades for the complete test can be reported to the author. A means is also provided to package the test as a computer program component, to be used in conjunction with a host program. In the configuration of the test as a component, the test might be used to regulate access to a program or a network resource, depending on the abilities of the user.