J Educ Eval Health Prof.  2009;6:4.

Introduction to an Open Source Internet-Based Testing Program for Medical Student Examinations

• Lee YH

Abstract

The author developed a freely available open source internet-based testing program for medical examination. PHP and Java script were used as the programming language and postgreSQL as the database management system on an Apache web server and Linux operating system. The system approach was that a super user inputs the items, each school administrator inputs the examinees' information, and examinees access the system. The examinee's score is displayed immediately after examination with item analysis. The set-up of the system beginning with installation is described. This may help medical professors to easily adopt an internet-based testing system for medical education.

Keyword

Internet-Based Testing; Computer-Based Testing; Medical Examination; Open Source Program

MeSH Terms

Administrative Personnel
APACHE
Database Management Systems
Education, Medical
Humans
Indonesia
Programming Languages
Students, Medical

Figure

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  Fig. 1. Screenshot seen if properpy executed during configuration of open source internet-based testing program.

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  Fig. 2. Error message seen due to incomplete configuration of open source internet-based testing program.

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  Fig. 3. Solutions suggested to fix the error of configuration of open source internet-based testing program.

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  Fig. 4. Form format for superuser’s information of configuration of open source internet-based testing program.

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  Fig. 5. Screenshot after completing installation of configuration of open source internet-based testing program.

Reference

1. United States Medical Licensing Examination [Internet]. Philadelphia: Federation of State Medical Boards and National Board of Medical Examiners;c1996–2009. [cited 2009 Dec 5]. Available from: http://www.usmle.org.

2. Medical Council of Canada [Internet]. Ottawa (ON): Medical Council of Canada;2008–2009. [cited 2009 Dec 5]. Available from: http://www.mcc.ca.

3. IRT-Computerized Adaptive Testing [Internet]. Mountain View (CA): Geeknet Inc.;2009. [cited 2009 Dec 5]. Available from: http://sourceforge.net/projects/irt-cat/files.