Leveraging ICT for Employment and Growth (LICT) is a government project to train IT professionals of Bangladesh the knowledge and skills of Industry 4.0 solutions such as AI, IoT, Blockchain, Robotics, and Big Data.
Challenges
Since the world is moving fast-paced towards globalization, to compete in such a world the companies search for highly skilled professionals. The struggle to look for the right fit needs time and ample amounts of resources which most businesses can’t afford. The outcome for the same is either stagnant business growth or less productivity. The reason for the same is that there is no standardized assessment system that can validate the skills rightfully. To overcome this struggle, the industries need a reliable assessment system to help them get the right skills.
To ensure that the industries get what they are looking for, they need an assessment system that can help in measuring the skill-level of professionals. The assessment portal is one such platform that can help them accomplish the same.
This web-based application needed to be restricted so that it can be used in approved test centers where participants need to register and appear for the tests in-person on the prescribed date and time. The assessment portal authority should have the access to the content management system in this web application. An online certification which will be generated only after candidates passed the test and certificates need to be shareable and easy to download.
Solution
We have developed a web application using Moodle LMS platform where participants will be assessed through this application and can take the opportunity of automated class attendance using zoom. The Assessment Portal is cross browser compatible, responsive and graphically attractive. The solution architecture of the Assessment Portal is designed in a mode so that it can better perform. It provides flexibility, scalability, extendibility and multi tenancy of the system for future expansion.
This web-based application will only be available at approved test centers where applicants must register and take the tests in person on the scheduled date and time. The content management system of this online application is accessible to the assessment portal authority. A team of academic specialists, researchers, and industry professionals creates or develops the content, which includes the syllabus, question bank, and level of complexity.
The portal authority, on the other hand, is in charge of material uploading. A thorough method is followed to ensure that questions are unpredictable, secure, and intelligent enough for the assessment to gain the necessary industry trust. If the individual passes the test, they will receive an online certificate.
Also, we have implemented exam proctoring for ensuring academic integrity. It includes invigilation of students, while taking tests, examinations, or quizzes. This application is connected to the national data center to keep track of the IT professionals.
Below some of the attributes of the assessment portal are discussed-
- Question Bank & Question Set generator from Question Bank –
- System based on cloud to store question banks, which is updatable by authorized users.
- The Assessment Portal allows portal admin to create different types of questions like MCQ, True/False, Written and Code Test. Assessor can add marks on some questions.
- The system produces a unique question set on each exam on a particular subject and with enough mechanism to make the question set more appropriate to judge the assessment.
- The proposed Assessment Portal has a robust and secure mechanism to ensure question banks are unpredictable by participants and hack-safe.
- Assessment System / Process –
- The assessment system accommodates both pass / fail and grading result systems.
- The report hides the exam participant’s identity to assessors and assessor identity to exam participants.
- Exam participants can check their answers before final submission and there should be a scoring mechanism to penalize for multiple tries.
- Exams are on time constraint and each question is time bound with different scores.
- Data Exchange-
- Assessment Portal is able to exchange data through REST Api connected with another application for registration, profile and certificate publishing etc.
- Compatible for exchanging data with other platforms or modules.
- There is an export import mechanism for quizzes & participants.
- Authentication & Authorization-
- Ensure access control, application level security and on-demand support to Helpdesk (layer-2) for uninterrupted LIVE service.
- Design and develop role-wise credential system incorporation for better user role management.
- System provides the ability to encrypt user IDs and passwords and impose minimum password lengths along with the ability to reset passwords following a standard password strategy. User log management is recorded.
- There is a dashboard presenting dynamic data in reports in tabular and graphic presentations.
- The system has an e-communication module, which is used for sending email and sms the categorized users and relevant reports of e-communication should be produced.
- The system has provision for periodical & instant data backup & auto archiving system.
- It has a dynamic content management system (CMS) with support of question upload, tagging, searching and download features. A user level permission is set to control who can upload, publish contents.
- There is provision to integrate payment gateway integration in the system for the registration of tests by participants.
- The developed system support Bengali UNICODE enabled fonts so that Bengali content can be viewed properly from any machine, which support Unicode. The system facilitates showing the content both in English and Bengali Language.
- Vendor Company ensures the system to be tested at module integration and load level. All necessary security tests at application level architecture needs to be followed and conducted by the vendor.
- Certification Portal-
- The system publishes certificates in the cloud and it is sharable and downloadable by participants.
- The system has a Certificate Verification mechanism. Certificate verification process is secure and automated.
- Online Exam –
- This system supports taking online exams as well. And to reduce fraud risk in online exam, random screenshot, video capturing is available.
Impact
Such trustworthy assessment portal will benefit industries as well as professionals, intermediates and freshers. For industries, it helps them to validate the professionals and pick the candidates with the right skillset. On the other hand, for individuals, it acts as a guiding path related to the required skills they must adopt as standardized by the industry. Till now, more than 500 IT professionals have appeared for the exam, where 45 of these users have already been certified and hired by companies.