DESIGN AND IMPLEMENTATION OF WEB BASED EXAMINATION SYSTEM FOR NOUN STAFF RECRUITMENT

Background of the Study
Nicholas et al (2015) stated that as a result of the development of Internet technology, online examination has become an effective complement to traditional examination. It is a common knowledge that students are extremely prone to cheating under the traditional method, which could affect the fairness of examination. The pen and paper method of writing examination, which has been ongoing for decades, may not be pleasing for use because of the problems usually associated including examination venue capacity constraints, lack of comfort for examination candidates, delay in the release of results, examination malpractices, cost implication of printing examination materials and human fault (Fagbola, Adigun & Oke, 2013). The shift of examination as well as examination administration procedures from paper-based to information technology based processes necessitates substantial reorganization processes at universities. Administrative staff, IT support staff, lecturers and examiners as well as students have to adapt to and familiarize themselves with new examination practices known as online examination (Bauer et al, 2008).

An online examination system is an application that allows an institution to conduct examination via the Internet (or intranet). Various companies, institutions and organizations have opted for this method of conducting examinations, because it is quicker, easier and convenient. This system makes it easier for examiners to conduct exams and collate results. The application provides facility to conduct online examination anywhere and at any time. Today, most institutions are conducting their exams online to eliminate the bottlenecks associated with pen and paper type of examination. Technology has supported online examinations successfully for a number of years, and has progressively enhanced the process over the years to have room for more students and ensure a smoother online examination. However, one of the biggest challenges to online examination is cheating using technology.

Several researches exist that are related to the work reported here. The study in Zahiru and Rahman (2013) developed an online examination system that allows for creating a test from the question bank of the system and conducting Academic and Non-Academic examinations in English as well as Bangla. Similarly, Fagbola et al, (2013) developed a web-based online examination system to address some drawbacks associated with pen and paper method of writing examinations. The study in Nascu and Jantschi (2004) explored the development of Multiple Choice Examination System and Online Quizzes for General Chemistry. The paper presents the main aspects and implementation of an online multiple choice examination system with general chemistry issues for student evaluation. Security issues were also examined by some studies. For instance, in a paper reported in Adebayo and Abdulhamid (2014), the impacts, associated challenges and security lapses of the existing electronic examination system with the aim of ameliorating and developing a new acceptable e-Exam system was reported.

The manual writing method of examination looks unappealing due to many reasons. The problems included are malpractices during examination, delay in result generation, wastage of printed resources and errors occurred due to human negligence. Thus the need for developing a flexible examination model which is devoid of the above mentioned drawbacks arises.