🎓 Online Examination & AI Proctoring System

A production-grade, secure, and AI-enhanced Online Examination System designed to modernize the assessment lifecycle. This platform integrates advanced proctoring, anti-cheating mechanisms, and interactive question types to ensure academic integrity in digital learning environments.

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🔗 Quick Links

• 🌐 Live Demo
• 📚 Documentation
• 🛠️ Installation Guide
• 🛡️ Security Policy

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📖 Table of Contents

1. About the Project
2. Key Features
3. Interactive Question Types
4. Architecture
5. Tech Stack
6. Getting Started
7. Security
8. Contributing
9. Future Roadmap

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🎯 About the Project

Traditional examination processes often suffer from administrative overhead and security vulnerabilities. This project provides a robust solution by automating the entire examination lifecycle while maintaining high standards of integrity through AI-driven monitoring.

Originally developed to address challenges in South African education, it is designed for scalability, allowing institutions to manage thousands of students, diverse course structures, and complex assessment types within a single, unified dashboard.

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🚀 Key Features

🤖 AI-Powered Proctoring

• Face Detection & Verification: Real-time monitoring using face-api.js to ensure the candidate stays on screen.
• Identity Verification: Multi-stage identity check including face and ID card analysis powered by OpenAI models via OpenRouter.
• Environment Scanning: AI-driven detection of unauthorized objects and behavior monitoring.

🛡️ Advanced Anti-Cheating System

• Refresh Prevention: Blocks F5, Ctrl+R, and right-click menus during active exams.
• Tab/Window Switching Detection: Automatically tracks when a student leaves the exam window and initiates a warning/termination countdown.
• Navigation Blocking: Disables back/forward navigation to keep the user within the assessment environment.
• Violation Logging: Every suspicious activity is logged in the exam_violations table for post-exam auditing.

📊 Comprehensive Administration

• Role-Based Access Control (RBAC): Secure dashboards for Admins, Lecturers, and Students.
• Dynamic Question Bank: CRUD operations for multiple question types, including image support.
• Real-time Analytics: Instant grading and performance reports for both students and instructors.

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🧩 Interactive Question Types

The system supports a variety of assessment methods beyond standard Multiple Choice:

• Drag & Drop: Matching items to targets using a modern, intuitive interface.
• Rearrange: Sequential ordering questions where items must be placed in a specific order.
• True/False & Multi-Select: Flexible formats for diverse subject matter.

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🏗️ Architecture

The system follows a refined Model-View-Controller (MVC) pattern for Java Web Applications.

┌─────────────────┐      ┌─────────────────┐      ┌─────────────────┐
│     Client      │      │   Controller    │      │    Database     │
│ (JSP/JS/CSS)    │ ───▶ │ (controller.jsp)│ ───▶ │ (MySQL Server)  │
└─────────────────┘      └─────────────────┘      └─────────────────┘
         ▲                        │                        │
         └────────────────────────┴────────────────────────┘

Data Model

The system uses a robust relational schema:

• Users & Roles: Manages students, lecturers, and admins.
• Courses & Questions: Relational question bank with support for interactive types.
• Exams & Answers: Tracks attempts, saves progress in real-time, and stores detailed results.
• Proctoring Logs: Dedicated tables for identity verification and incident reporting.

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🛠️ Tech Stack

Category	Technology
Backend	Java (JSP), Servlet API
Database	MySQL 8.0+
AI/Vision	OpenAI (GPT-4o via OpenRouter), face-api.js
Frontend	HTML5, CSS3, JavaScript (ES6+)
Server	Apache Tomcat 8.5+
Security	jBCrypt Hashing, Session Management

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📦 Getting Started

Prerequisites

• JDK 8+
• MySQL 8.0+
• Apache Tomcat 8.5+
• Apache Ant (Build tool)

Installation

1. Clone the Repository

   git clone https://github.com/Siphelele-Maphumulo/Online-Test-Web-Application.git
   cd Online-Test-Web-Application

2. Database Configuration

   • Create a database named exam_system.
   • Import the schema from db script/. Run exam_system.sql first, followed by any specialized scripts like create_drag_drop_table.sql.
   • Configure credentials in src/java/myPackage/DatabaseClass.java (or via config/secrets.properties if using the updated security config).

3. API Keys (OpenRouter)

   • Copy openrouter.properties.example to openrouter.properties.
   • Add your OPENROUTER_API_KEY.

4. Build & Deploy

   • Use ant dist to generate the .war file.
   • Deploy the .war to your Tomcat webapps directory.

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🛡️ Security

Security is a core pillar of this application.

• No Secrets in Git: Sensitive data is managed via .properties and .env files ignored by version control.
• Password Protection: Industry-standard jBCrypt hashing.
• Session Integrity: Secure session handling to prevent hijacking.

See SECURITY.md for full configuration details.

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🤝 Contributing

Contributions are what make the open-source community such an amazing place to learn, inspire, and create. Any contributions you make are greatly appreciated.

1. Fork the Project
2. Create your Feature Branch (git checkout -b feature/AmazingFeature)
3. Commit your Changes (git commit -m 'Add some AmazingFeature')
4. Push to the Branch (git push origin feature/AmazingFeature)
5. Open a Pull Request

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🚀 Future Roadmap

• Mobile App: Native Android/iOS applications for remote testing.
• LMS Integration: LTI compliance for integration with Canvas/Moodle.
• Advanced Analytics: Predictive performance modeling.

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📄 License

Distributed under the MIT License.

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Maintained by Siphelele Maphumulo