The Research on Anti-Cheating Strategy of Online Examination System

Liu Siyao Gong Qianrang

School of Information Science and Technology, School of Information Science and Technology,
Northwest University Northwest University
XI'an,China XI'an,China
e-mail: [email protected] e-mail: [email protected]

Abstract—This article analyzes the characteristics and keep watch on everyone at the same time. And this approach
potential ways of cheating during the process of online also increases the cost of examination.
examination and the shortage of existing online examination
system‘s anti-cheating measures. Based on these two points, the On the problem of cheating over network, some online
article provides two solutions to prevent cheating. The first examination systems use socket programming skills to
solution is based on the automatic generating examination realize the function of monitoring proxy. By analyzing the
paper algorithm which takes advantage of the principle of data packet, source address and destination address even the
knapsack problem. And the other is based on the self- content of data packet can be gained. Based on a series of
developed ActiveX control. Accordingly, while reducing the pre-set packet filtrating rules, once the system find any
probability of examiners cheating, the fairness of online illegal data packet, the link will be cut and a warning
examination system will be enhanced. message will be sent to the examiner. Or the computer will
be isolated to reject any illegal link[4]. In this way, cheats can
Keywords—Online Examination System; Anti-cheating; be prevented to some extent. But on the other hand, it is very
Automatic generating examination paper; ActiveX control passive. Only when examiner implements the operation
which is not allowed, can illegal information be identified
INTRODUCTION and intercepted. Besides, if the rules are revised or changed
With the rapid development of information technology illegally, the examination will get out of control. According
and educational evaluation methods, the disadvantages of to these two negative factors, we know that using monitoring
traditional examination become clear. On the other hand, proxy to prevent cheating is not enough.
online examination system developed fast for convenience, For solving the above questions, this article provides two
efficiency and economy. But that doesn’t mean it is perfect. more efficient solutions.
We are enjoying the convenience of online examination
system[1]. At the same time, the negative factors existed in Firstly, online examination is different from traditional
traditional examination have been migrated to the online examination. The online examination paper doesn’t need to
examination. And the security in the online examination be printed. In other words, as online examination, it is
process is one of them. possible to generate examination paper automatically. We
can try to take measures of automatic generating
Currently, the existing examination system security is examination paper to make examination paper. That is to
more focused on the system’s own security, such as say, on the premise of the same difficulty, type and quantity
designing role-based access control module, preventing the of the question, each examiner can get different examination
system safe risk of ASP, SQL and operating system paper, and all the examination papers are automatically made
vulnerabilities, encrypt key information of database. And after the examination starts. Exactly, if your examination
these risks are generally reduced by updating timely security paper is different from others, in the limited how can you
patches, implementing security settings, etc[2]. In order to copy answer from them? It can not only eliminate the
ensure fairness and impartiality of the examination, the possibility of cheat but also prevent leakage of the
security research of online examination system needs to examination paper in advance[5].
focus on the anti-cheating strategies of the examination
process, which is what this article is to study. Secondly, in consideration of rampant cheating through
network, tool software and storage devices, our solution is to
develop an ActiveX control which can prevent these cheats.
I. THE STRATEGY OVERVIEW OF ANTI-CHEATING By embedding this control into the operating system, some
DURING ONLINE EXAMINATION specified operation will be disabled. The control can screen
Basically, when taking examination, examiners may use some functions of the operating system kernel. In this way,
the following ways to cheat: copying the answer from their the control can take the initiative to defend the illegal
neighbors and using network, software and storage device to operations on the client machines, rather than intercepting
gain the relative useful information[3]. after cheating occurred.
Enhancing monitor is usual practice to prevent
plagiarism among neighboring examiners. But, it is very
difficult to prevent copying, because monitor is not able to

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 II. ANTI-CHEATING STRATEGY BASED ON THE number of questions in a paper module is seen as total mass,
AUTOMATIC GENERATING EXAMINATION PAPER and the questions in corresponding question module are all
ALGORITHM objects.
Now, most of the online examination systems which After analyze this process, we find that directly using
generate examination papers automatically are by extracting knapsack problem to generating examination paper may lead
items from question bank under pre-set constrained to a problem which is that picking up questions always is
conditions and random functions. Although this way with based on a fixed order. So this may cause different
simple structure is easy to implement, it may be possibly examiners get the same examination paper. In view of this
uncertain, inefficient, not intellectual, unable to be problem, our solution is, the first, choosing a random number
backtracked and easy to get into an endless loop[6]. In view as a start and make sure the next question is also chosen
of these defects, the article realizes a automatic generating beginning from a random start. The used questions will be
examination paper algorithm by the principle of knapsack deleted. Till the questions are used up, a new round will
problem. begin. In this way, a question will not be picked out in a
round. It avoids repetition as far as possible. According to
At the beginning, we shall know about what the knapsack
the above, the process of automatic generating examination
problem is. It could be described like this. Imaging there are
paper algorithm adopted by this system that is shown in
a knapsack that can contain objects that total mass is W and
Figure 1 is as follows:
some objects. The total quantity of these objects is expressed
by the letter “n”. The sizes of these objects are separately
W1, W2, ̖, Wn. And what we need to do is to pick up
some objects from all to fulfill the knapsack, in other words,
is to make that the sum of W1, W2, ̖, Wm is W. And a
solution to meet the above conditions is required to find.
Then we need to understand that so called automatic
generating examination paper actually is to make constrained
conditions combined and optimized to generate examination
papers. The constrained conditions generally include
question types, difficulties, knowledge points, score and time
etc. If each condition is partly constrained, the final
examination paper will be satisfied with a whole balanced
constrained condition to constitute global constrained
condition of the whole examination paper.
Actually, the constrained conditions of examination
paper are also the attributes of examination questions which
are: satisfying, adjustable and replaceable. All the questions
could be divided according to the attribute satisfying
conditions which include types or difficulties. Each
classification constitutes a paper module. Therefore, the
whole examination paper is divided into a number of
different modules. So automatic generating of the whole
examination paper actually is decomposed into automatic
generating of a lot of paper modules. At the same time, only
the attributes adjustable and replaceable are left to be used as
constrained conditions.
Inspired by the above, the experience on knapsack
problem could be used for reference to solve the problem of
automatic generating examination paper. Firstly, questions in Figure 1 The flow of automatic generating examination paper algorithm
the question bank will be sifted with satisfying constrained
conditions which include difficulties, knowledge points, 1) According to satisfying constrained conditions, pick
types and number of questions etc. The sifted questions are out the proper questions from question bank.
in keeping with the satisfying constrained conditions. Next,
2) Classify questions gained from the above step into
these questions will be classified into different questions
modules according to examination paper structure. different question modules, and they are waiting for being
Therefore, each paper module has a corresponding question extracted. The extraction process of each question module is
module. So this will reduce extraction range and improve as follow.
extraction efficiency. And all of paper modules are processed a) Use a random number as a starting point for each
in accordance with knapsack problem. That is to say, the solving, while using the circular queue thought is to

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traverse all objects, instead of the traditional pattern which called by other applications. Besides you can use the Visual
always start form one to enumerate all combinations of the C + + ATL or MFC to develop the control[7].
solutions. After get the clear information about the ActiveX control,
b) In the solving process, acquiring the next question what we need to think of next is how to achieve these
and adding it to the corresponding paper module is not to functions and how to embed this control into the online
take directly the adjacent one, but to use a random number examination system.
as the next number to be taking the question. The question
Firstly, we need the help from following techniques:
which has been picked up from question module and has
calling the Application Program Interface(API) functions of
been added to the corresponding paper module will be
the operating system kernel, calling the hook functions,
deleted, so it will not be extracted repeatedly. reading and writing registry items, monitoring the running
Note: Due to the use of the above method, all processes.
possible solutions will be enumerated. In order to reduce the Here, the article takes MFC of Visual C++ as developing
number of solutions to increase the efficiency of the environment. Based on the functions that control needs to
algorithm, according to actual needs to set a threshold value achieve, two classes should be created. They are the
to limit the number of solutions, this system intends to set Lockkeys class and the AppControl class. The Lockkeys’
the value of 5. task is to provide methods which are related to the control’s
3) You can get the solution of the whole examination functions. The AppControl’ task is to encapsulate LockKeys’
paper by the solutions of all the paper modules. From the methods, and to provide public interfaces for online
solving process of knapsack problem, we can see that it will examination system to call.
have more than one solution. Any solution must meet The Lockkeys class mainly contains the following
satisfying conditions. And you can adjust the solution to methods:
meet adjustable conditions. Besides, from all solutions, you 1) LockTaskBar (BOOL blockFlag). It is used to enable
could find the solution which is closest to replaceable or disable the taskbar.
conditions. Taking the above factors, we will obtain the 2) LockTaskManager (BOOL blockFlag). It is used to
optimal solution. enable or disable the task manager.
3) LockKeys (BOOL blockFlag). It is used to enable or
III. ANTI-CHEATING STRATEGY BASED ON ACTIVEX disable the hotkeys.
CONTROL 4) TerminateExplorer( ). It means, in this way, users are
In order to prevent cheating through network or illegal not allowed to access local files of the operating system,
local operation, an ActiveX control is developed whose main desktop, taskbar and starts menu etc.
functions are as follows: 5) StartExplorer( ). It has a completely opposite
1) Before the examination starts, system monitors function with TerminateExplorer( ), and makes users regain
automatically whether there is forbidden process running in all the rights mentioned above.
the system. Normally, examination paper is shown through 6) IsTaskBarLocked( ). It is used to judge whether the
an IE process. If a examiner tries to search for internet to taskbar allows to accept access from external devices.
find answer, another IE process will exist. When there is 7) IsTaskManagerLocked( ). It is used to judge whether
more than one IE process or other browsers processes, this the task manager is being disabled.
control will end the examination. 8) IsOtherAppStarted( ). It is used to check whether the
2) When the examination starts, the process applications running in the system contain the applications
explorer.exe will be shut down till the examination ends. disabled by the control.
3) When this control running, switching over programs The methods mentioned above belong to the Lockkeys
through desktop, taskbar, hotkey, right mouse list and task class. Only having these methods is far from enough, the
manager will be not allowed. control also needs a relevant interface to be called by online
4) When the examination finishes, all the functions examination system. Therefore, the AppControl class
which are locked will resume. provides other four methods. They are Disable ( ), Enable ( ),
IsDisable ( ) and IsOtherAppStarted ( ). The four methods
The so-called ActiveX controls, refers to a reusable separately call the methods which Lockkeys provided. They
component. It can not only exist independently, but also are the public interface functions which are called by online
can be linked or embedded into other applications. Besides, examination system. They can lock (taskbar, hotkey, icon on
it supports a wide range of ActiveX functions, and also can desktop, right mouse menu, task manager), unlock (taskbar,
be customized according to specific needs of some hotkey, icon on desktop, right mouse menu, task manager),
special features. The very important point is that it can make inquire the lock state of client, check if there is disabled
some properties and methods public in order to get them application running.

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 Next, the control needs to be provided to caller, online IV. CONCLUSION
examination system. And the examination system operates Existing online examination systems have been in the
the client through calling API of the control. The flow that anti-cheating in the following shortcomings: Only
how these functions of this control work in this system is strengthening monitor can’t effectively stop the neighboring
shown in Figure 2. The detail information is to be as follows: examiners cheating; It is passive and easy to be attacked to
1) Packaging the ActiveX control and relevant DLL take the measure of monitoring proxy in preventing
files, configuration files into a CAB packet. Providing the examiners to cheat by network and the local illegal
packet to caller. And the caller puts this packet on the web operations. For these reasons, this article discusses the two
anti-cheating strategies of online examination system. They
server.
are anti-cheating strategy based on the automatic generating
Note: The configuration files mainly register the examination paper algorithm and anti-cheating strategy
applications that are not allowed to use during the process of based on ActiveX control. By combination of these two
examination. strategies in online examination system, they can prevent the
common cheating behavior for keeping examination process
2) Embedding the ActiveX into the web page through fair.
object tag of HTML. When examiners open the web page of
examination system, the ActiveX control and configuration ACKNOWLEDGMENT
files will be automatically downloaded to the local With the kind attention and guidance of my tutor Gong
computer. After install, the control starts to run. Qianrang, I complete this article. His serious scientific
3) The client needs to realize a JavaScript function attitude, the spirit of rigorous scholarship, excellence in work
which provides an interface that can check whether the style, deep infection and inspire me. From the selection of
control is properly installed. If not, the examination will not subjects to complete the final article, my tutor always gives
begin. my careful guidance and unwavering support.
4) Before the examination system starts, the ActiveX Here, I would like to express my sincere thanks to my
control will read the configuration files. Then it will get the tutor and other teachers, students and friends who have given
information of processes which are running in the system. care and help during the completion of the article. Without
Comparing the processes with those in the configuration your help and support, I can’t successfully complete the
files, if there is any process that is mentioned in the files, the article! Thank you!
examination will not begin.
5) When the examination begins, the examination REFERENCES
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Figure 2 The workflow of the ActiveX control

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