Educational Innovation: New Assessment Platform for Universidad Siglo 21

Academic institutions are constantly adapting to technological changes to meet both business demands and the needs of their primary users—students. Alongside Universidad Siglo 21, we have been working intensively on various digital modernization projects aimed at enhancing service quality and the institution’s scalability.

The latest project, an online exam platform, involved designing and developing a system for online assessment and management. This project builds on previous initiatives, such as the Student Information System (SIS) and the migration of systems to the AWS cloud.

What was the initial need?

Universidad Siglo 21 sought a solution that would not only facilitate online exams but also integrate proctoring tools to verify student identity and ensure the authenticity of their academic work. Integration with the student information system was also crucial to manage curricula and student records. Scalability and adaptability to fluctuating student demand were key considerations.

Academic and Business Challenges

Curriculum Integration:

The platform needed to align seamlessly with courses (stored in the SIS) and take into account the required content units.

Exam Diversification:

To prevent fraud, the platform needed to generate exams with different questions in varied orders for students taking tests simultaneously.

Content Evaluation:

Prioritizing and assessing essential learning outcomes.

Dual-Dimension Assessment:

Creating exams that evaluate both knowledge and competencies.

Time Management:

Enforcing time limits for each exam.

Dynamic Content Updates:

The ability to update exam questions as course content evolves over time.

Technological Challenges

Elasticity:

The platform needed to scale with the demand during assessments, meaning servers had to adjust automatically to accommodate anywhere from 200 to 5,000 students taking exams simultaneously, leveraging AWS cloud elasticity.

High Availability and Fault Tolerance:

Ensuring services could recover automatically in case of failures, providing continuous assessment capabilities.

Software Architecture Solution

The platform was divided into two parts: the exam creation section, geared towards back-office staff with lower demand, and the assessment section, designed for students.

This division allowed the system to handle variable demand effectively. While fewer users worked on creating exams, the evaluation side required high elasticity and availability.

We focused heavily on UX design to ensure the platform was easy to navigate and accessible, with considerations for contrast and color.

Integration with proctoring tools, such as Klarway, and the student information system (SIS) was essential. Exam results needed to sync with the SIS to update student records, and consistency between course content in the SIS and the new platform’s management of exam questions had to be maintained.

Technological Solutions

Technologically, the implementation made extensive use of AWS services, employing containers to package the platform’s services. The use of ECS (Elastic Container Service) and AWS Lambda (serverless technology) allowed for hands-off server management.

To ensure content availability and fast delivery, we used Amazon S3 and CloudFront services. Security was bolstered with AWS WAF and Shield to protect the platform from potential denial-of-service attacks.

Results

The new platform is now live, handling over 30,000 exams daily, with up to 10,000 exams taken simultaneously. It provides secure and authentic assessments for more than 60,000 students, whether they’re taking exams from home or at one of the 300 University Support Centers (CAU) for midterms and finals.

If this project sparked your interest and you need something similar for your business or institution, feel free to reach out. Coffee’s on us! :)