Abstract
Covid19 pandemic has affected many sectors including education. All types of schools (public and private) have started to provide online education systems to their students to prevent spreading the disease. The online education system has brought many advantages besides stopping the spread of the disease. The students have more time since the lectures are not in class, it reduces the cost for the students since they physically do not go to school, and it provides flexibility in the lectures that students decide their schedule to attend the classes. However, there are some challenges in the online education system. The system needs to be available for the students when they take exams, view their exam results, and upload their exams for assessment. Since the lectures and exams are taken online, the data is very crucial. The data contains sensitive information such as exams, answers, scores, name, date of birth, address, phone number, government identification number, etc. A traditional online education system has a centralized infrastructure governed and managed by a single entity. This results in the system having single-point-of-failure attacks. This paper proposes an online examination system based on a smart contract and a blockchain. The blockchain eliminates single-point-of-failure attacks. The teachers write questions and store them in the blockchain. Only authorized students retrieve the exams from the blockchain by using smart contracts. The students submit their completed exams at predefined times. Then, the teachers evaluate the students’ exams and put the results into the blockchain. Their exam scores are protected from any unauthorized entities by encryption. Students can freely see and view their scores at any time. Then, the students can show their results to any other third parties (once they apply for an internship or job) that they have completed the courses successfully. The system also uses a decentralized storage (off-chain) system to eliminate scalability problems. Off-chain storage (InterPlanetary File System) stores students’ exams, answers, and exam results while the corresponding content identifiers of the files are stored in the blockchain. The proposed system is resilient to malicious teachers who can manipulate the exam results. In addition, the proposed system also provides a method for dishonest students who can complain about their exam results. In other words, the proposed system solves any conflicts between entities.
References
- Abdelsalam, M., Shokry, M., & Idrees, A. M. (2024). A Proposed Model for Improving the Reliability of Online Exam Results Using Blockchain. IEEE Access, 12, 7719-7733. DOI: 10.1109/ACCESS.2023.330499
- Androulaki, E., Barger, A., Bortnikov, V., Cachin, C., Christidis, K., De Caro, A., et al. (2018). Hyperledger fabric: A distributed operating system for permissioned blockchains. Proceedings of the Thirteenth EuroSys Conference on - EuroSys ‘18 (pp. 1-15). New York, New York, USA: ACM Press. DOI: 10.1145/3190508.3190538
- Benet, J. (2014). IPFS - Content Addressed, Versioned, P2P File System. CoRR, vol. abs/1407.3561. Retrieved from http://arxiv.org/abs/1407.3561.
- Buterin, V. (2014). Ethereum. Retrieved 8 2023, from http://bitcoin.org/bitcoin.pdf
- Dwivedi, S., & Vig, S. (2023). Blockchain adoption in higher-education institutions in India: Identifying the main challenges. Cogent Education, 11(1). DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/2331186X.2023.2292887
- ElGamal, T. (1985). A public key cryptosystem and a signature scheme based on discrete logarithms. IEEE transactions on information theory, 31(4), 469-472. DOI: 10.1109/TIT.1985.1057074.
- HAM, D., MM, D., & RK, S. (2021). The future of university education: Examination, transcript, and certificate system using blockchain. Computer Applications in Engineering Education, 29, 1234-1256. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1002/cae.22381
- Jain, A., Tripathi, A. K., Chandra, N., & and Chinnasamy, P. (2021). Smart contract enabled online examination system based in blockchain network. 2021 International Conference on Computer Communication and Informatics (ICCCI). IEEE. DOI: 10.1109/ICCCI50826.2021.9402420
- Johnson, D. M. (2001). The Elliptic Curve Digital Signature Algorithm (ECDSA). International Journal of Information Security, 36(63). DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s102070100002
- Kapse, S., Umalkar, M., Gajbe, A., Vrudhula, K., & Gour, R. a. (2022). Blockchain Based Solution for Secured Transmission of Examination Paper. 2022 IEEE 2nd International Symposium on Sustainable Energy, Signal Processing and Cyber Security (iSSSC). IEEE. DOI: 10.1109/iSSSC56467.2022.10051340
- Kim, S. -K., & Huh, J. -H. (2020). Blockchain Agreement for Self-identification of Online Test Cheating: Improvement of Algorithm Performance. 2020 20th International Conference on Control, Automation and Systems (ICCAS), (pp. 1124-1133.). Busan, Korea (South). DOI: 10.23919/ICCAS50221.2020.9268400.
- Koshiry, A. E., Eliwa, E., El-Hafeez, T. A., & Shams, M. Y. (2023). Unlocking the power of blockchain in education: An overview of innovations and outcomes. Blockchain: Research and Applications, 4(4), 100165. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.bcra.2023.100165
- Li, C., Guo, J., Zhang, G., Wang, Y., Sun, Y., & R. Bie. (2019). A Blockchain System for E-Learning Assessment and Certification. International Conference on Smart Internet of Things (SmartIoT) (pp. 212-219). Tianjin, China: IEEE. DOI: 10.1109/SmartIoT.2019.00040
- Manawar, A. (2023). An Innovative and Secure Platform for Leveraging the Blockchain Approach for Online Exams. Aptisi Transactions on Technopreneurship (ATT), 5(1), 99-108. DOI: https://doi.org/10.34306/att.v5i1.314
- Mohammad, A., & Vargas, S. (2022). Barriers Affecting Higher Education Institutions’ Adoption of Blockchain Technology: A Qualitative Study. Informatics, 9(3). DOI: https://doi.org/10.3390/informatics9030064
- N, S., Sundaram, B. M., Kumar, V. N., & J, S. a. (2022). Face Recognition based Automated Remote Proctoring Platform. 2022 Second International Conference on Artificial Intelligence and Smart Energy (ICAIS), (pp. 1753-1760). Coimbatore, India. DOI: 10.1109/ICAIS53314.2022.9743134.
- Nakamoto, S. (2008). Bitcoin: A peer-to-peer electronic cash system. Retrieved 8 2023, from http://bitcoin.org/bitcoin.pdf
- Pee, S. J., Kang, E. S., Song, J. G., & Jang, J. W. (2019). Online test and management system using blockchain network. 2019 21st International Conference on Advanced Communication Technology (ICACT). IEEE. DOI: https://doi.org/10.23919/ICACT.2019.8701891
- Rivest, R., Shamir, A., & Adleman, L. (1978, February). A Method for Obtaining Digital Signatures and Public-Key Cryptosystems. Communications of the ACM., 21(2), 120–126. DOI: 10.1145/359340.359342
- Sattar, M. R. (2023). An advanced and secure framework for conducting Online examination using blockchain method. Cyber Security and Applications, 1. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.csa.2022.100005
- Swan, M., Raj, P., & Deka, G. C. (2018). Chapter Five - Blockchain for Business: Next-Generation Enterprise Artificial Intelligence Systems. In Advances in Computers (pp. 121-162). Elsevier. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/bs.adcom.2018.03.013
- Tentea, E.-C., & Ionescu, V. M. (2019). Online quiz implementation using blockchain technology for result tampering prevention. 2019 11th International Conference on Electronics, Computers and Artificial Intelligence (ECAI). IEEE. DOI: 10.1109/ECAI46879.2019.9041980
- Tsai, C.-T., Wu, J.-L., Lin, Y.-T., & Yeh, M. K.-C. (2022, July). Design and Development of a Blockchain-Based Secure Scoring Mechanism for Online Learning. Educational Technology & Society, 25(3), 105-121. DOI: https://www.jstor.org/stable/48673728
- Viriyasitavat, W., & Hoonsopon, D. (2019). Blockchain characteristics and consensus in modern business processes. Journal of Industrial Information Integration, 32-39. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jii.2018.07.004
- Zhu, X., & Cao, C. (2021). Secure Online Examination with Biometric Authentication and Blockchain-Based Framework. Mathematical Problems in Engineering. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1155/2021/5058780
Abstract
Kovid19 salgını eğitim başta olmak üzere birçok sektörü etkiledi. Hastalığın yayılmasını önlemek amacıyla tüm okul türleri (kamu ve özel), öğrencilerine çevrimiçi eğitim sistemleri sunmaya başladı. Online eğitim sistemi hastalığın yayılmasını durdurmanın yanı sıra birçok avantajı da beraberinde getirdi. Derslerin sınıfta olmaması nedeniyle öğrencilere daha fazla zaman kalıyor, fiziki olarak okula gitmedikleri için öğrenciler için maliyet düşüyor ve öğrencilerin derse katılım programlarını kendilerinin belirlemesi derslerde esneklik sağlıyor. Ancak çevrimiçi eğitim sisteminde bazı zorluklar var. Öğrencilerin sınava girmeleri, sınav sonuçlarını görüntülemeleri ve sınavlarını değerlendirmek üzere yüklemeleri sırasında sistemin kullanılabilir olması gerekmektedir. Dersler ve sınavlar online olarak yapıldığı için veriler çok önemlidir. Veriler sınavlar, cevaplar, puanlar, isim, doğum tarihi, adres, telefon numarası, resmi kimlik numarası vb. gibi hassas bilgileri içerir. Geleneksel bir çevrimiçi eğitim sistemi, tek bir kuruluş tarafından yönetilen ve idare edilen merkezi bir altyapıya sahiptir. Bu, sistemin tek hata noktası saldırılarına sahip olmasına neden olur. Bu makale akıllı sözleşmeye ve blokzincirine dayalı bir çevrimiçi sınav sistemi önermektedir. Blokzincir, tek nokta başarısızlık saldırılarını ortadan kaldırır. Öğretmenler sorular yazar ve bunları blokzincir'de saklar. Akıllı sözleşmeleri kullanarak sınavları yalnızca yetkili öğrenciler blokzincir'den alır. Öğrenciler tamamladıkları sınavları önceden belirlenen zamanlarda teslim ederler. Daha sonra öğretmenler öğrencilerin sınavlarını değerlendirir ve sonuçları blokzincir'e koyar. Sınav puanları her türlü yetkisiz kişiden şifreleme yoluyla korunur. Öğrenciler puanlarını istedikleri zaman özgürce görebilir ve görüntüleyebilirler. Daha sonra öğrenciler, dersleri başarıyla tamamladıklarını (staj veya işe başvurduklarında) sonuçlarını diğer üçüncü taraflara gösterebilirler. Sistem ayrıca ölçeklenebilirlik sorunlarını ortadan kaldırmak için merkezi olmayan bir depolama (zincir dışı) sistemi kullanıyor. Zincir dışı depolama (InterPlanetary Dosya Sistemi), öğrencilerin sınavlarını, cevaplarını ve sınav sonuçlarını saklarken, dosyaların karşılık gelen içerik tanımlayıcıları da blokzincirinde depolanır. Önerilen sistem, sınav sonuçlarını manipüle edebilecek kötü niyetli öğretmenlere karşı dayanıklıdır. Ayrıca önerilen sistem, sınav sonuçları hakkında şikâyette bulunabilecek dürüst olmayan öğrencilere de bir yöntem sunmaktadır. Başka bir deyişle, önerilen sistem varlıklar arasındaki her türlü çatışmayı çözmektedir.
References
- Abdelsalam, M., Shokry, M., & Idrees, A. M. (2024). A Proposed Model for Improving the Reliability of Online Exam Results Using Blockchain. IEEE Access, 12, 7719-7733. DOI: 10.1109/ACCESS.2023.330499
- Androulaki, E., Barger, A., Bortnikov, V., Cachin, C., Christidis, K., De Caro, A., et al. (2018). Hyperledger fabric: A distributed operating system for permissioned blockchains. Proceedings of the Thirteenth EuroSys Conference on - EuroSys ‘18 (pp. 1-15). New York, New York, USA: ACM Press. DOI: 10.1145/3190508.3190538
- Benet, J. (2014). IPFS - Content Addressed, Versioned, P2P File System. CoRR, vol. abs/1407.3561. Retrieved from http://arxiv.org/abs/1407.3561.
- Buterin, V. (2014). Ethereum. Retrieved 8 2023, from http://bitcoin.org/bitcoin.pdf
- Dwivedi, S., & Vig, S. (2023). Blockchain adoption in higher-education institutions in India: Identifying the main challenges. Cogent Education, 11(1). DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/2331186X.2023.2292887
- ElGamal, T. (1985). A public key cryptosystem and a signature scheme based on discrete logarithms. IEEE transactions on information theory, 31(4), 469-472. DOI: 10.1109/TIT.1985.1057074.
- HAM, D., MM, D., & RK, S. (2021). The future of university education: Examination, transcript, and certificate system using blockchain. Computer Applications in Engineering Education, 29, 1234-1256. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1002/cae.22381
- Jain, A., Tripathi, A. K., Chandra, N., & and Chinnasamy, P. (2021). Smart contract enabled online examination system based in blockchain network. 2021 International Conference on Computer Communication and Informatics (ICCCI). IEEE. DOI: 10.1109/ICCCI50826.2021.9402420
- Johnson, D. M. (2001). The Elliptic Curve Digital Signature Algorithm (ECDSA). International Journal of Information Security, 36(63). DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s102070100002
- Kapse, S., Umalkar, M., Gajbe, A., Vrudhula, K., & Gour, R. a. (2022). Blockchain Based Solution for Secured Transmission of Examination Paper. 2022 IEEE 2nd International Symposium on Sustainable Energy, Signal Processing and Cyber Security (iSSSC). IEEE. DOI: 10.1109/iSSSC56467.2022.10051340
- Kim, S. -K., & Huh, J. -H. (2020). Blockchain Agreement for Self-identification of Online Test Cheating: Improvement of Algorithm Performance. 2020 20th International Conference on Control, Automation and Systems (ICCAS), (pp. 1124-1133.). Busan, Korea (South). DOI: 10.23919/ICCAS50221.2020.9268400.
- Koshiry, A. E., Eliwa, E., El-Hafeez, T. A., & Shams, M. Y. (2023). Unlocking the power of blockchain in education: An overview of innovations and outcomes. Blockchain: Research and Applications, 4(4), 100165. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.bcra.2023.100165
- Li, C., Guo, J., Zhang, G., Wang, Y., Sun, Y., & R. Bie. (2019). A Blockchain System for E-Learning Assessment and Certification. International Conference on Smart Internet of Things (SmartIoT) (pp. 212-219). Tianjin, China: IEEE. DOI: 10.1109/SmartIoT.2019.00040
- Manawar, A. (2023). An Innovative and Secure Platform for Leveraging the Blockchain Approach for Online Exams. Aptisi Transactions on Technopreneurship (ATT), 5(1), 99-108. DOI: https://doi.org/10.34306/att.v5i1.314
- Mohammad, A., & Vargas, S. (2022). Barriers Affecting Higher Education Institutions’ Adoption of Blockchain Technology: A Qualitative Study. Informatics, 9(3). DOI: https://doi.org/10.3390/informatics9030064
- N, S., Sundaram, B. M., Kumar, V. N., & J, S. a. (2022). Face Recognition based Automated Remote Proctoring Platform. 2022 Second International Conference on Artificial Intelligence and Smart Energy (ICAIS), (pp. 1753-1760). Coimbatore, India. DOI: 10.1109/ICAIS53314.2022.9743134.
- Nakamoto, S. (2008). Bitcoin: A peer-to-peer electronic cash system. Retrieved 8 2023, from http://bitcoin.org/bitcoin.pdf
- Pee, S. J., Kang, E. S., Song, J. G., & Jang, J. W. (2019). Online test and management system using blockchain network. 2019 21st International Conference on Advanced Communication Technology (ICACT). IEEE. DOI: https://doi.org/10.23919/ICACT.2019.8701891
- Rivest, R., Shamir, A., & Adleman, L. (1978, February). A Method for Obtaining Digital Signatures and Public-Key Cryptosystems. Communications of the ACM., 21(2), 120–126. DOI: 10.1145/359340.359342
- Sattar, M. R. (2023). An advanced and secure framework for conducting Online examination using blockchain method. Cyber Security and Applications, 1. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.csa.2022.100005
- Swan, M., Raj, P., & Deka, G. C. (2018). Chapter Five - Blockchain for Business: Next-Generation Enterprise Artificial Intelligence Systems. In Advances in Computers (pp. 121-162). Elsevier. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/bs.adcom.2018.03.013
- Tentea, E.-C., & Ionescu, V. M. (2019). Online quiz implementation using blockchain technology for result tampering prevention. 2019 11th International Conference on Electronics, Computers and Artificial Intelligence (ECAI). IEEE. DOI: 10.1109/ECAI46879.2019.9041980
- Tsai, C.-T., Wu, J.-L., Lin, Y.-T., & Yeh, M. K.-C. (2022, July). Design and Development of a Blockchain-Based Secure Scoring Mechanism for Online Learning. Educational Technology & Society, 25(3), 105-121. DOI: https://www.jstor.org/stable/48673728
- Viriyasitavat, W., & Hoonsopon, D. (2019). Blockchain characteristics and consensus in modern business processes. Journal of Industrial Information Integration, 32-39. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jii.2018.07.004
- Zhu, X., & Cao, C. (2021). Secure Online Examination with Biometric Authentication and Blockchain-Based Framework. Mathematical Problems in Engineering. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1155/2021/5058780
Details
| Primary Language | English |
|---|---|
| Subjects | Cryptography |
| Journal Section | Computer Engineering |
| Authors | |
| Publication Date | December 3, 2024 |
| Submission Date | May 10, 2024 |
| Acceptance Date | July 31, 2024 |
| Published in Issue | Year 2024 |