How Blockchain Could Solve Problems Related to Central Exams

Millions of students appear for centrally conducted exams or university exams to secure their high school/college degrees and indisputably, these exams play a significant role in every student’s life. Knowing the importance of such exams, it is unsettling to understand that the current method of creating, conducting and evaluating these exams is susceptible to errors and security threats.

A secure and efficient way of conducting exams is the need of the hour and using Blockchain could be the perfect solution to overcome the drawbacks in the current system.

How bad is the situation?

Before we delve into how using Blockchain can help, let me address the predicament in question.

Case in point: On April 1, 2018, the economics paper for the class 12 CBSE exam was leaked in Delhi & Haryana just 90 minutes before the actual exam (leaked at 8:15 am when the test was supposed to start at 9:45 am).

The result?

There was a re-exam conducted for everyone 25 days later. Many students & parents filed petitions saying a re-exam jeopardizes their career but the supreme court dismissed all petitions saying the final decision lay with the CBSE board.

While we may think this is a rare scenario and an extreme action, it is not so uncommon. Quite recently, an A-level mathematics paper in the UK was also alleged to be leaked online. These are the only instances that are reported. Many aren’t even caught or reported.

What are the core problems with such an examination system? Is there a solution to this?

Paper leaks, manipulation of exam marks, human biases and errors are only a subset of the problems. The root of the problem lies in the way administrative rights are given and revoked; exam content shared and distributed.

Solution?

A smart and automated way of configuring contracts such that access rights are shared and revoked at appropriate times i.e. a secure distributed way of storing & sharing all data pertaining to the exam

How can Blockchain solve the issue?

I have broken down centrally conducted exams into 3 main stages. The problems that can arise in each of these stages can be effectively addressed by using blockchain as a solution.

Creation

The examination questions are created by a handful of people (3-4) and they are validated and finalized by a set of moderators. Moderators try to ensure that all sets of question papers are comparable and are more or less of the same difficulty level.

Naturally, the associated problems are:

• Secure storage of questions. Possibility of leaks.
• Misuse of power/ access
• Identity of paper creators likely to be revealed

How can blockchain help?

1. Once the question paper is uploaded by the creator – an encrypted hash of the same is stored.
2. Access to relevant people is assigned or revoked basis their time and role. For example, the access for creators is immediately removed as soon as the paper is uploaded and thereby, moderators are given immediate access once the paper is uploaded for review.
3. Blockchain eases the process of keeping the creators’ identity hidden.

Distribution

In this stage, the most apparent challenges are:

• Secure storage of exam papers until exam day
• Securely sharing exam papers with regional centers and actual exam centers

How can blockchain help?

• Regional centers receive access to exam papers only the night before the exam to print the actual paper. These papers are then collected physically on the day of the exam, as is the process now.
• If the entire exam is digitized, regional centers could be eliminated totally. Students are given appropriate access only on the exam day and consequently, access is revoked immediately after the exam is over

Evaluation

Centralized evaluation is susceptible to score manipulation by students, external reachers or internal people with administrative access.

The associated challenges are:

• Since all the data is stored centrally and managed by a handful of database administrators, it is quite vulnerable to threats or bribery.
• Breaches or manipulations are possible during the re-evaluation phase.

How can blockchain help?

Case 1: Paper & Pen Exam

1. Evaluators are given access to upload marks for individual candidates on the blockchain network. This access is only given during a specified time period configured at the very beginning into the smart contract.
2. Once the marks are uploaded into the network, access to the evaluators is revoked. The smart contract automatically gives view access to students on result day.
3. Re-evaluation is done in a similar manner. However, the evaluator has to first request edit access into the network during the re-evaluation window. Access to upload revised marks is then granted for only a specific duration.

Case 2: Digital Exam

1. In the case of digital exams, all answers are stored into the blockchain network as soon as the exam is over, in an encrypted form.
2. Evaluation can work a little differently. Evaluators are allotted individual questions & answers randomly for evaluation rather than an entire exam paper. After the evaluation window is over, separate answers evaluated are combined and the final result for the paper is calculated with no human intervention.
3. Viewing results remains the same as in case 1.
4. Re-evaluation works in a similar manner as evaluation does in this case.

Closing thoughts

With an increasing number of students appearing for such exams conducted by universities or educational institutes, there is a dire need for a more reliable approach of managing and conducting these exams. A university or board has to rise to the occasion and take the responsibility of providing adequate security to the examination process.

Blockchain presents itself as an excellent solution across many facets of evaluation, from that of students- which we looked at extensively in the above article, to that of products, services and even professionals like designers and developers.