On-line Quizzes/Tests

Listserv/E-mail

Strengths

• E-mail nearly ubiquitous
• Can be restricted to list members only
• Passive on students' part, so delivery more guaranteed
• Responses can be directed back to faculty member alone as appropriate

Weaknesses

• Attachments may be difficult to impossible to send
• Responsibilities of list owner can be time-consuming
• Errors in response could lead to one student responding with answers to another student or the whole class
• Most appropriate for text-based quizz and test responses
• Secure e-mail has very limited deployment
• Server load can be severe

MOO

• Not a good solution

Netnews

• Not a good solution

WWW

Strengths

• Best support for multi-media material
• Relatively easy to author and post exam questions; good support in most schools
• Widespread use of WWW browsers, even moreso than netnews
• Little to no marginal server resource impact
• For a good example look at WebAssign from North Carolina State University

Weaknesses

• Additional coding and design required to support questions and answer format to collect responses in an automated way, though most schools provide good support
• Additional coding and design required to support a student response that spans more than one session, if required
• Not all faculty may have access to a secure Web server that they may determine is required for their quiz or exam
• Security may not be good enough to prevent cheating