-# qomet
+# qomet - WARNING: prototype stage
### Questions Ouvertes ou à options Multiples pour l'Évaluation des éTudiants
-Or "... pour Examens sur inTernet", in french.
+Or "... pour Examens sur inTernet", in french. In english, just revert the acronym:
-In english, just revert the acronym:
-"sTudents Evaluation with Multiple chOices or Open Questions (or ...inTernet Exams with).
+"sTudents Evaluation with Multiple choices or Open Questions (or ...inTernet Exams with).
+
+Source code of [qomet.auder.net](https://qomet.auder.net)
## Features
Allow teachers to create courses, containing assessments. Each of them can be public, or
restricted to a classroom (identification by student ID).
-Individual answers to an exam are monitored in real time, and feedback is sent
-to each participant in the end (answers, computing grade).
-Once a series of exam is over, the teacher can get all grades in CSV format from course page.
-
-*Note:* for now the monitoring + socket part is still unimplemented,
-and exams composition is limited to single question exercises.
+Individual answers to an exam are monitored in real time, and answers are sent
+to each participant in the end (allowing them to estimate their grade).
+Once a series of exam is over, the teacher can get all grades in CSV format
+(assuming all questions were either quiz-like or parameterized).
## Installation
## Usage
-TODO: write tutorial, maybe a demo video.
+As a teacher, first create an account from the upper-left "login" menu.
+Then create a course using the appropriate button in the middle of the screen.
+Finally, create some exams ("new assessment" button). The syntax for a series of questions is described by the following example:
+
+ Question 1 text or introduction (optional if there are subquestions)
+
+ Text for question 1.1 (index detected from indentation)
+ * Answer to 1.1
+
+ Question 1.2 (a text is optional since there are subquestions)
+
+ Question 1.2.1 text (mandatory); e.g. quiz-like:
+ + choice 1
+ - choice 2
+ - choice 3
+
+ Question 1.2.2 text (mandatory); e.g. open question:
+ * answer to 1.2.2 (can be on several lines)
+
+ Question 2 text ...
+ * An answer to question 2
+ ...
+
+All question texts (and open answers) can be on several lines.
+HTML markup (slightly limited) can be used, as well as [MathJax](https://www.mathjax.org/) with $ and $$ delimiters,
+and syntax highlighting using [prism](http://prismjs.com/): `<code class="language-xyz">` for language code `xyz`.
+The syntax for parameterized exercises (not working yet) is still undecided.
+
+Use the "exam" mode if browsing the web is allowed, and "watch" mode otherwise to monitor
+students actions like losing focus or resizing window.
+Finally the "secure" mode forbids all attempts to do anything else than focusing on the exam,
+but can be "a bit too much"; keep in mind next section if using it.
+All these modes restrict the access to a classroom. To open a series of question to the world,
+the "open" mode is for you.
*Note about exams:*
Once an assessment is started, it's impossible to quit and restart using another browser,
because a password stored in cookies need to be sent with every request.
So under normal circumstances it's also impossible for a student to continue the exam of another.
-(The password is destroyed when exam ends or when the teacher decide to finish assessment).
+(The password is destroyed when exam ends or when the teacher decides to finish assessment).
-## Limitations
+## Limitations & workarounds
+
+Version "standard classroom": some potential internet cheating ways even in 'secure' mode (in addition to
+the usual ones like using phones, talking, doing signs, using short memos...)
-Version "standard classroom": some potential cheating ways,
- headless browsers with renamed http-user-agent; difficult to counter with 100% confidence
- - block JS script using e.g. μblock, then re-inject the script cleaned of listeners
+ - block JS script using e.g. [uBlock Origin](https://github.com/gorhill/uBlock), then re-inject the script cleaned of listeners
- intercept HTTP response to "start quiz" signal, re-compose the page without listeners and run
-The only way to garanty 0 internet cheat is to use some SELinux configuration in kiosk mode
-with just one safe web browser enabled, e.g. [surf](https://surf.suckless.org/).
-Not that more traditional ways of cheating may still be used (phones, talking, signs, memos...)
+The easy way to prevent these cheating attempts would consist in installing qomet on a local server,
+and restricting exam rooms to the intranet while preventing users to access their account (where they could
+keep a copy of the courses). This also prevent internet-based students communication.
+
+Another option (which seems more complicated, but might be required if the intranet itself shouldn't be accessed)
+would be to force e.g. chromium in kiosk mode restricted to one domain (using SELinux on a special account maybe).
## Alternative softwares
Too big for my purpose; however qomet might be re-thought as a moodle plugin
(although [at least one](https://moodle.org/plugins/mod_exam) already exists for this task).
+ * [nbgrader](http://nbgrader.readthedocs.io/en/stable/)<br/>
+ Assignment module for Jupyter, auto-grading closed and coding questions while providing a feedback to the students.
+ It looks great, but at least for the moment lacks the real-time review (for the teacher).
+
* [evalbox](https://evalbox.com/)<br/>
The closest to my goals, but only for simple quizzes, and not actively developed anymore.
* [wims](http://wims.unice.fr/~wims/)<br/>
Full-featured (and open source) training center for students, with various types of exercises,
- possibly in exam mode too.
- The spirit, however, is more "enhanced homework" than "internet exams".
+ possibly in exam mode too. The spirit, however, is more "enhanced homework" than "internet exams".
* [socrative](https://socrative.com/)<br/>
Nice looking realtime feedback (lacking in evalbox), but thought for interactive classes.
projects / qomet.git / blobdiff