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IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON EDUCATION, VOL. 52, NO. 3, AUGUST 2009
Enhanced Security for Online Exams
Using Group Cryptography
Im Y. Jung and Heon Y. Yeom
Abstract—While development of the Internet has contributed to
the spread of online education, online exams have not been widely
adopted. An online exam is defined here as one that takes place over
the insecure Internet, and where no proctor is in the same location
as the examinees. This paper proposes an enhanced secure online
exam management environment mediated by group cryptography
using remote monitoring and control of ports and input. The target
domain of this paper is that of online exams for math or English
contests in middle or high school, as well as exams in online uni-
versity courses with students in remote locations.
Index Terms—Cheating control, e-monitoring, group cryptog-
raphy, online exam, secure exam management.
I. INTRODUCTION
O NLINE education has expanded rapidly [1]–[3]. Even
so, the off-line test is usually chosen as the evaluation
method for both off-line education and online education. The se-
curity of online examinations remains a problem. In some cases,
the person writing the exam on a networked computer is moni-
tored by a proctor at some predetermined location [4], [5]. But,
the requirement for an exam location goes against the acces-
sibility, the major attraction of e-learning or distance learning.
The requirement may also negate the cost savings generated by
e-learning or pose obstacles for remote students.
Simplification and automation of educational processes are
other benefits of online education [6], [7], and online exams
inherit these advantages.
To remove the requirement for human intervention in secure
online exam management so as to capitalize on the advantages
of online processes, this paper proposes a solution to the issue of
security and cheating for online exams. This solution uses an en-
hanced Security Control system in the Online Exam (SeCOnE)
which is based on group cryptography with an e-monitoring
scheme. The cry