A New Open-Source

Technological System for

Real-Time Assessment in the
Classroom
M. CRISTINA RODRIGUEZ-SANCHEZ, A

NGEL TORRADO-CARVAJAL, JOAQUIN VAQUERO,

SUSANA BORROMEO, J. ANTONIO HERNANDEZ-TAMAMES
Dpto. de Tecnologa Electronica, Universidad Rey Juan Carlos, C\Tulipan, s/n. Mostoles, Madrid, Spain
Received 13 January 2014; accepted 26 June 2014
ABSTRACT: Personalized feedback tools in learning is a powerful method that expert applies when helping
students to optimize their learning. We propose a new educational framework to optimize the continuous
evaluation process for large groups. In our system, a computer provides tests to the mobile devices of the students;
they then return the answers to be corrected. The framework provides real-time knowledge about the progress of
the class to the teacher and real-time feedback to the students, increasing the rate of student success. Our low-cost
implementation makes it unnecessary to incorporate additional resources or to modify the infrastructure. We have
tested it in several courses and conferences. We conclude with an evaluation and a discussion from different
stakeholders perspectives. 2014 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Comput Appl Eng Educ 9999:110, 2014; View this article
online at wileyonlinelibrary.com/journal/cae; DOI 10.1002/cae.21611
Keywords: educational technology, computer aided instruction; continuous assessment; wireless
communication; applications in subject areas; interactive learning environments; mobile computing
INTRODUCTION
The regulatory modications promulgated by the Bologna Process
result in the implementation of newuniversity degrees structures in
Spain and the adoption of the European Credit Transfer and
Accumulation System (ECTS) [1]. This implies a shift from a
traditional teachercentered process to a learnercentered process,
through a continuous assessment system. Although it would be
desirable to have a small ratio of students per teacher (<20), the
actual situation is different (>50). Therefore, a new approach to
the continuous assessment system is necessary [2] and to control
attendance of students. In this context, Information and Commu-
nication Technologies (ICTs) can help. Particularly, in the case of
Spain, Smartphones are widespread, and increasing to numbers
that point to the arrival of ubiquitous learning in a few years [3,4].
There are some commercial solutions that try to solve the
continuous assessment problem by means of realtime computer
assisted assessment systems, based on classroom needs [5].
Development of adapted environment for learning is a key issue in
computerbased education for the next decade [6]. According to
ref. [7] these technical has been recognized as a promising issue in
the eld of computerbased adaptive educational technologies.
However, the costs of most implementation are high. In this
work, a system without an extra cost, that allows to automate
the process of continuous assessment according to the ESHE
(European Space of Higher Education) guidelines is proposed. It
takes advantage of the infrastructure already available in many
classrooms and the mobile devices of the students. All the
components of the system are low cost, offtheshelf and
independent of any specic vendor. This system integrates current
and easily accessible wireless technologies and mobilebased
technologies, so it is not necessary to build new components.
Based on
The motivation of students could be increased combining
traditional learning with the use of new methodologies, informa-
tion and communication technologies [811]. Those devices
improve the learning and the development process for student
centered learning methodologies, offering realtime evaluation that
Correspondence to M.C. RodriguezSanchez
(cristina.rodriguez.sanchez@urjc.es).
2014 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
1
increases the effectiveness of the learning process. In ref. [12], the
authors present a tool to guide the students in their learning process
proposing the corresponding learning activities for each particular
student. Many solutions have integrated web tools to make real
time assessment [13]. Other solutions are oriented to data mining
on formative assessments such as [14] For real time evaluation, [15]
proposes a newapproach by presenting multiple forms of computer
programming questions such as statement llingin and algorithm
design. Over the last years, the rapid improvement of new
technologies is a considered to be a fast and accurate tool for the
assessment of students learning [16] based on computerbased
assessment. However, most solutions require a computer for each
student, therefore the cost of deployment could be a problem for
many universities. Besides, there is a problemto validate with these
kinds of solution the attendance control in a physical way of
students for test evaluations. Managing resources of computer
based assessment and attendance controls for large groups are
important issues.
We propose a modular system that allows the deployment of
two options: a basic and a complete system. The basic system
consists of mobile devices with an interactive software application
for mobile devices and a gateway to connect themwith the teachers
computer, which includes software consisting of a teaching
database with different kind of tests and automatic assessment
capabilities. Besides, this software allows to follow in a easy way a
attendance control. The complete system consists of the basic
system plus an Interactive Whiteboard (IWB) connected to the
teachers computer. Students may answer, in realtime, questions
projected on a screen or onto the IWB using wireless communica-
tion between their mobile devices and the gateway. When the host
receives the answers from the students it generates individual
assessments and several statistics related to the current test.
This system aims at decreasing timeconsuming tasks such as
grading many tests, allowing teachers to focus on measuring the
students progress. The teacher does not need to collect data since
the system does it automatically and in realtime.
SYSTEM ARCHITECTURE AND OPERATION
The automatic assessment system is illustrated in Figure 1. As
mentioned, the complete system consists of four basic elements: an
Interactive Whiteboard (IWB) or Digital Board (IDB), imple-
mented as a standard computer connected to a standard projector,
the automatic assessment application, installed in the same
computer, an interactive application installed on the students
mobile devices (such as personal Smartphones, laptops, tablets or
any other device with WiFi communication capability) and a
gateway, implemented as a standard WiFi router.
In the following sections, the different blocks of the system
will be described: the interactive whiteboard, the interactive
application for the mobile device, the WiFi gateway and the
integration of the complete system.
Interactive Whiteboard (IWB)
IWBs are ICTs resources that try to get students attention with
dynamic classes and rich content, capturing their attention by
Figure 1 Architecture and systemimplementation scenario, using WiFi as communication technology. [Color gure can
be viewed in the online issue, which is available at wileyonlinelibrary.com.]
2 RODRIGUEZ-SANCHEZ ET AL.
interacting with the board while introducing improvements offered
by ICTs in this area. The IWBcan be used as a teaching resource by
itself. Figure 2 shows an IWB consisting of a computer (typically a
laptop), a projector and a whiteboard. This conguration allows the
user to:
Write directly on the blackboard, underline, etc.
Control the software with a stylus (sometimes simply with
the ngers)
Interact with programs on the screen.
Other utilities associated with the PDI software.
In addition, most IWBs are supplied with software that
provides tools and features specically designed to maximize
interaction opportunities. These generally include the ability to
create virtual versions of paper ipcharts, pen and highlighter
options, and possibly even virtual instruments that would be used
in traditional.
Any previously existing IWB could be used, thus reducing
the cost of the system. If no IWBis available, it can be implemented
with a standard PC and free or open source software [17] installed
on it, any projector, and a Wiimote compatible device as the
pointing device. There is no need for a special screen, being even
possible to use any white wall as a projection surface. This system
has been developed by one the authors of this paper and a complete
description can be found in [18]. The computer requirements are
minimal, running on any operating system and requiring Bluetooth
communications. Either a desktop computer or a portable computer
such as a laptop or netbook would be ne. In this system
developed, we used the IWB to display the questions and, for
example, their multiplechoice answers.
Teacher Software Application
Interactive teaching table. This is a software application, installed
on a standard computer that displays the questions on the IWB. It
manages the database used for the automatic assessment system.
Note that a dedicated computer for this application is not needed, as
the same computer that controls the IWB could be used, thus
reducing size and cost of the system.
The Interactive Teaching Table (ITT) has been imple-
mented with several functionalities: generate new tests, view
tests, start test, stop test, view and record results and exit. Figure 3
shows an example of the automatic assessment application on the
teachers computer. It is a snapshot of the graphical user interface
(GUI) associated to the ITT. This easytouse interface allows
the teacher to start a test and the automatic assessment process,
besides recording the data of the tests in les.
When the teacher chooses the Generate New Test button,
she is able to store several question with their corresponding
answers. The teacher can introduce several answers, but only one is
correct. Once the teacher has lled in the form and chosen the
correct answer for each question, the system will generate the nal
Figure 2 Typical interactive whiteboard (IWB) classroom teaching.
[Color gure can be viewed in the online issue, which is available at
wileyonlinelibrary.com.]
Figure 3 Snapshot of the teachers software application (Interactive teaching table). [Color gure can be viewed in the
online issue, which is available at wileyonlinelibrary.com.]
AN OPEN-SOURCE TECHNOLOGICAL SYSTEM FOR REAL-TIME ASSESSMENT 3
template for the test. This template will be stored at the database of
the assessment system.
If the teacher wants to start a test exam, the teacher will click
on Start Test button. At this moment, the ITT send all entire
information to the students. For this issue, the student will have a
Mobile Device interactive application for students. This
information contains the test exams and parameters of time
assessment (time to start the exam, time to nish the exam).
When this Application for students receives this information,
the phone will process it in order to showa test examwith questions
and multiple choices for questions at the screen. The students
will answer this test exam using their phones (see Mobile Device
Interactive Application for Students) in a limited time. At the end of
the exam, the ITTcollects the answers received fromthe students at
the same time, identies the students, checks their answers with the
database and automatically marks each test individually. Once the
entire tests are marked, it computes the desired statistics, such as
number of students who participated and passed the test or number
of total right and wrong answers. The results can be graphically
displayed, giving fast visual information and a global view of the
general performance of the students in the test (Fig. 4).
Besides, the data can be exported in several formats, such as
an Excel worksheet. The functionality of this application can be
modied or adapted to evaluate any desired parameter or to follow
any evaluation guideline.
Attendance control application. We have developed a new
application to control the attendance of students every day in a
class automatically. This application facilitates the attendance
control process to the teacher in a laboratory, a class, or an exam.
The teacher can install this mobile application in an Android,
Blackberry, or iOS Smartphone.
The application consists of three choices: view students in a
class, validate and conguration. The view students choice is
used for knowing the registered students in a course by retrieving
data from a database. At the beginning of the course, every
student will receive a QRcode with his ID. The students can
paste the QRcode in his ID card of school. The validate choice
uses the camera of the phone to scan the QRcode of student.
Finally, the conguration choice allows to change the
background color of the application.
Figure 5 shows an example of the mobile application. When a
student arrives at a class, he needs to show the QRcode pasted on
his ID card to the teacher. The teacher only needs to open the
attendance control application and click on the Validate button.
After, the application sends this information of attendance to the
database.
Mobile Device Interactive Application for Students
This mobile application is the interactive software installed in
mobile devices of the students. This application allows students to
participate in the ongoing test being displayed on the IWB. The
application shows the multiplechoice answers in the Smartphones
display in a test form. These answers are shufed randomly for each
student, to prevent copying among them. The student chooses the
appropriate answers according their knowledge, which are sent, via
WiFi, to the teachers computer automatic assessment application
for further processing and evaluation.
In order to make the interactive application usable in most
mobile devices, it has been developed for different Smartphones
operating systems, such as Blackberry OS, Symbian, Android, and
iOS. The last two allows the software to be installed also in tablets
equipped with Android or iOS. Finally a Java version is also
available for laptops or netbooks, independent of their operating
system assuming that the appropriate Java Virtual Machine is
installed. If needed, a version for Windows Phone could also be
developed.
The mobile devices interactive application has been
primarily developed for Smartphones because of their predominant
Figure 4 Example of snapshot of graphical statistics of the test. [Color gure can be viewed in the online issue, which is
available at wileyonlinelibrary.com.]
4 RODRIGUEZ-SANCHEZ ET AL.
position in the Spanish market and its future projection [4]: 40% of
Spanish mobile users already have a Smartphone and 8% o them
have a tablet. Although there are Smartphone users of all ages, most
of them are young.
The application has to be available to be downloaded by the
students. This can be done directly from the teachers computer
automatic assessment application, via WiFi, from a website, from
an elearning platform, such as Moodle, or from an online
software store, such as Android Market or Apple Store. The
application has the same formats and functionalities for all
platforms. It consists of an empty template, which will be lled
with questions and answers chosen by the teachers.
One key issue is that there is only one application for all the
tests to be carried during the course. All the questions, the answers
and the assessment capabilities are in the teachers computer
automatic assessment application.
Figure 6 shows an example of the application developed for
an iPhone. The snapshot shows three screens of the interface. The
rst one is the login screen; the student will use an IDto login in the
application. The second are the possible choices of the answers
related to the current question. The third is the validation of the
choice. As can be seen, the interface is very easy to use and
intuitive.
Wi-Fi Gateway
In order to allow communication between the students mobile
devices and the teachers computer automatic assessment applica-
tion, a gateway is required. This is implemented by means of a
standard WiFi router. The system automatically congures the
teachers computer and the WiFi router in order to make a Wireless
Local Area Network (WLAN). Thus, all information coming from
Figure 6 Smartphone application. This snapshot shows three screens of the interface. [Color gure can be viewed in the
online issue, which is available at wileyonlinelibrary.com.]
Figure 5 Attendance control application for an Android. [Color gure can be viewed in the online issue, which is
available at wileyonlinelibrary.com.]
AN OPEN-SOURCE TECHNOLOGICAL SYSTEM FOR REAL-TIME ASSESSMENT 5
the students mobile devices is forwarded to the teachers
computer; after the automatic assessment, the application
processes the answers and stores the data in a database; nally it
generates evaluations and statistics automatically. Notice that an
Internet access is not needed, only a WiFi router connected to the
teachers computer. This adds exibility to the systemdeployment,
as no previous infrastructure in needed.
Communications between a students mobile device and the
automatic assessment application start with the connection of the
mobile device to the system WLAN (named WiQuestion in this
particular case) as a client. The teachers computer acts as the
server for this network. Once the mobile device is connected, a
communication protocol begins between client and server.
METHODOLOGY
A typical test process is described in this section. First of all, the
teacher creates a test and the students download and install
the Smartphone applications. Afterwards, the teacher displays the
questions on the IWB, using the automatic assessment application.
At this point, the system enables the protocol that sends questions
and multiplechoice answers to the mobile devices interactive
application. The multiplechoice answers are then inserted in the
interactive application and displayed on the mobile device screen.
As mentioned before, the answers are randomly organized in each
students mobile device.
The communication protocol has been designed in three
sequential steps: authentication, reply and session closing (see
Fig. 7). In the rst step, a rst screen is shown in the Smartphone
display. The student needs to login using an ID and a password.
Typically in Spain the National Identity Number (DNI) or the
student record are used as identication. These data are validated
with the student database stored at the teachers computer. If this ID
is correct, the system sends authorization to the student mobile. At
this point, the student can start the interactive test.
In the second step, the questions and choices are sent to the
mobile devices interactive application. The questions and answer
choices are displayed in random order. The student chooses the
answers. These answers are sent to the ITT to be evaluated. The
answers are sent in a special packet. Each answer related to a
question is labeled with the ID of the user.
In the last step, once the student has answered all the
questions, the session is closed. In this step, the packet has a logoff
notication labeled with the student identier. At this point, the
automatic assessment process begins. The system evaluated in real
time the answer of each student. For this evaluation, the system
uses the correct templates of a specic test stored at the database.
These results can be shown in class using the View results of the
Teachers Software Application (see Fig. 3). Also, the results can
be graphically displayed, giving fast visual information and a
global view of the general performance of the students in the test.
Moreover, the information for the feedback to the student is shown
in real time.
Finally, when the teacher has the results they can make
different groups of work for new evaluations. The teacher can use
the ITT to choose different evaluations according to results of
student in order to improve their learning process.
Security Aspects of the Interactive Test
While performing the tests, we must take into account the security
aspects of the system to avoid some problems: access to interactive
test without permission of the teacher, false identication, copying
among students or queries to access information sources, which are
not allowed.
Figure 7 Sequence diagram of the communication protocol used between the smartphones or mobile handsets and the
teachers computer in the evaluation system. [Color gure can be viewed in the online issue, which is available at
wileyonlinelibrary.com.]
6 RODRIGUEZ-SANCHEZ ET AL.
The interactive application has been designed with several
special requirements to avoid security problems. Students cannot
start the test until the teacher decides to start the test and the
duration of it. When the teacher chooses the Start Test from
the Teachers Software Application or ITT, the students will have
access to the interactive test. At any other time, the access to the
system of evaluation will be restricted.
Another requirement is that the students have to identify
with the system using their ID, which is an identication code
of each student. As mentioned above, if this ID does not
exist, the students will not have access to the interactive test.
Therefore, the application uses an authentication process at the
beginning of the test. We are working on issues to avoid
personality spoong. The students only can use one Smartphone
in the class. After the end of the exam, the system will not
let students make the test again during the following 30 min. The
teacher can congure or change this number. Thus, this
mechanism avoids the student to make different tests on behalf
of different students.
The problem of copying among students has been solved
using a random questions and answer system. All students have an
interactive application with the same template, however is lled
with questions and answers in random way. This random process
has been done in order to prevent students from having the same
order of questions and answers. This mechanism facilitates the
work of copy detection.
Finally, the access to external resources is not allowed. It was
necessary to implement some functionality to avoid that the
interactive application could run in background when the test has
started. When the exam has started for each student, the running
application cannot be stopped, and another applications cannot be
opened or launched in second plane. All the students have the
same time to answer all the questions; therefore, after this time,
the application will be closed for all entire students at the same
time. This requirement is important because in another web based
platforms such as Web CT or Moodle [19] students may have
access to all resources of Internet during the test.
RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
In this work, we have proposed a systemthat automates the process
of continuous assessment, according to the ESHE, with no extra
cost. It increases the students motivation, using the possibilities
and capabilities of combining traditional learning with the use
of mobile devices such as Smartphones. The system has been
developed to make multiplechoice tests.
Although this type of assessment is only partial, it could
provide information and help for the continuous learning process
and attendance control process. The system and interactive test are
very easy to use; therefore teachers can make weekly or monthly
assessment. Interactive tests could be about extra activities,
theoretical problems or laboratories. Thus, this mechanism allows
new ways of feedback in the learning process for the teacher and
the student. Teachers optimize their time in order to improve their
contents. Teachers can learn in real time what concepts are more
difcult, therefore returning to explain these concepts in more
detail. Moreover, students can also be aware of their own level
of learning, going through the results of tests. Students can
immediately know the correct answers after the end of the tests.
Besides, it can be an incentive for students, who can see their daily
progress.
Case Studies
The basic system has been tested and validated experimentally in
various contexts at Rey Juan Carlos University (URJC). It has been
validated in subjects of different Degrees with different links with
ICT, as the Environmental Engineering Degree or the Chemical
Engineering Degree to which ICTare merely tools. This has shown
that specic knowledge of ICT is not required, rather than user
level management system. Due to this, the system could be
implemented in other scenarios such as schools or colleges.
On the one hand, the system has been validated in several
seminars of the Department of Electronics during 2012 and 2013 in
Electronics Conferences in the URJC. There were an average of
98 students, similar to the existing number in most degreelevel
courses. First, the Attendance Control Application section has been
used in different slots to monitor the attendance of students to the
seminars and conference during this conference. Second, it was
testing the Interactive Teaching Table to make questions about
the conferences.
Related to Attendance Control Application, in contrast to
the conferences during 20102011, the average time to register and
monitor the attendance was decreased in 74%. Using traditional
methods to monitor this issue took 3060 min for 100 students
every slot of the conference; each conference has three slots of
time. Therefore, this control method is more efciency and more
autonomous.
In the test, students had to answer a series of questions about
the previous talks. Each question was associated with eight
answers, of which only one was correct. It was found that the
system takes little time to gather the questions/answers. The results
of this test can are shown in the Interactive Teaching Table and
on the IWB (see in Fig. 4).
In addition to the functional testing of the system, an opinion
poll was carried out by using the system, in which students had
to answer questions about the organization, the talks and the
usability of the system. An evaluation of the opinions could be
obtained in real time thanks to the graphical statistics generated by
the system.
On the other hand, another implementation of the platform
was successfully tested in different degrees for weekly and
monthly evaluation. The rst implementation was in three
Telecommunication Engineering Degree; over a total of 2068
students there were 93%of students with Smartphones. The second
academic test was for Environmental Engineering Degree, where
52 of 72 students had a Smartphone. Whereas traditional test
marking may take 12 h, the interactive tests took an average of
17 min. Results were automatically stored in a database. A third
implementation of the platform was successfully tested in three not
Engineering Degree; an average of 2089 students there were 98%
of students with Smartphones. The second academic test was for
Environmental Engineering Degree, where 52 of 72 students had a
Smartphone. The interactive tests took an average of 18 minutes.
Results were automatically stored in a database.
Further testing of the system will be held in the Degrees until
the end of this academic year in close collaboration with teachers of
our Department. Gathered results about the developed system will
be analyzed and evaluated. At the end of the year, students who
passed the exams were incremented in 30% in contrast to three
previous years.
Besides, there are two important things related to functionali-
ty of the system: security and publication of results. These aspects
are described bellow.
AN OPEN-SOURCE TECHNOLOGICAL SYSTEM FOR REAL-TIME ASSESSMENT 7
Collection, Evaluation and Publication of Results
Related to the security, as we described before, we implemented
mechanisms in the mobile application to avoid copies with
resources from Internet using the connectivity of mobiles. The
application was designed to avoid second plane or opening another
applications while the students are making the exams.
In the current systems of evaluation, the teacher invests long
time in the test collection, evaluation and publishes the results.
This system aims to decrease timeconsuming tasks such as
marking many tests, allowing the teachers to focus on measuring
the students progress. The teacher does not need to collect data
since the system does it automatically and in realtime. This is an
important change because using our solution, the main task for the
teacher is not the evaluation, but the improve of the contents,
activities, etc.
Figure 8 shows the average time to print, distribute, collect
and evaluate exams of students. In the rst case, all stages are taken
1 h and a half for an average of one hundred students. We need
more time to collect and to evaluate all the exams. In the second
case, all stages are taken 17 min the same number of students. The
system collects exams automatically.
As described above, the automatic generation of a statistics,
notes and the complete record of all results in a database minimize
timeconsuming tasks of teacher. The recorded data in a
database (results) can be graphically displayed, giving fast visual
information and a global view of the general performance of the
students.
DISCUSSION
We collected different data from students about the feedback of
this kind of evaluation with our system. We analyzed case
of students where theirs teachers usually use a traditional
method. We evaluated in four kinds of class according to number
of students in class (less 30 students or more than 30 students)
and engineering or not engineering. According to the Table 1,
the perception of students was successfully using our system.
The system is designed to operate in the same way regardless
the number of students per class. The maximumnumber of students
being assessed is limited by the specications of the WiFi router in
this class (each class should have the WiFi router and the ITT
system for the teacher). For example, using a standard router, the
system can work with up to 250 students.
Results show that two items characterize our system:
low cost and a better feedback for the teacher and the students.
On the one hand, the students usually use Smartphones or laptops
in their daily activities. Besides, the most institutions of
education provide WiFi connection in their class. Therefore,
it is not necessary to incorporate additional devices or modify the
existing infrastructures.
On the other hand, at the end of the year, the rate of students
who pass exams is better thanks to the motivation of knowing the
results in realtime (30% more than traditional systems). This is
because a formative feedback is an important issue of formative
assessment systems. The students do not need wait weeks or
months to know about their progress in the course. Results show
Figure 8 Results of the average time to assessment process using the present proposal. [Color gure can be viewed in the
online issue, which is available at wileyonlinelibrary.com.]
Table 1 Evaluation of the System in Different Class
Degree Easy of use Usefulness Satisfaction Learning feedback
Engineering (Group 1: less 30 students) 4.5 4.6 4.4 4.7
No engineering (Group 1: Less 30 students) 4.3 4.6 4.7 4.5
Engineering (Group 1: More 30 students) 4.6 4.7 4.5 4.9
No engineering (Group 1: More 30 students) 4.2 4.8 4.7 4.8
8 RODRIGUEZ-SANCHEZ ET AL.
that the students who have actively participated in the experiment
have obtained better academic performance.
We can conclude that mobile devices are a tool to improve the
educational resources and assessment. To sum up, this kind of
systems help students to resolve learning difculties related to
monitoring of their progress and optimizing the overall learning
process. Personalized feedback has been identied as a very
powerful method in different studies [20].
CONCLUSIONS AND FUTURE RESEARCH
This work proposes a new technique for automated and realtime
assessment suitable for large groups of students. Some problems
for assessment process have emerged since the adoption of the
ECTS. There are problems related to average time to monitor
attendance, prepare exams and to evaluate exams. In many cases in
Spain, the ratio of students per teacher is not adequate to follow the
new methodologies in education.
The proposed system is a complete solution that integrates
ICTs in education to solve these problems. This system has been
developed in order to provide both students and teachers with the
necessary tools for a good interaction between them. Results show
that there are considerable advantages using this system, especially
if we consider the problem associated with the number of students
per class, which is present in many courses. A sustainable and
economically viable solution has been presented, which also
encourages participation in class, allowing personalized, interac-
tive and realtime participation and evaluation of the students. It
also helps the teacher to meet the educational work that requires
continuous evaluation in the ESHE. It makes use of existing
infrastructure in typical classes (projectors, computer, etc.) and
the great expansion of Smartphones, so popular and widespread
among students.
The system aims to decrease timeconsuming tasks for the
continuous assessment and the attendance control. The teacher
does not need to collect data since the system does it automatically
and in realtime. In addition, the teacher can concentrate on
preparing better the lessons, because evaluation work would be
reduced considerably.
The students do not need to wait many time for their marks.
They can know their marks immediately after the exam. The
motivation for the students is better than traditional systems. The
results can be graphically displayed, giving fast visual information
and a global view of the general performance of the students in the
test.
It concludes that mobile devices can help to improve the
access to education resources and new systems of attendance
control and evaluation. For example, in high schools could be
cheaper use Smartphones instead of deploying PCs in each student
in a high school. The platform is being improved in order to make
it more versatile. Despite its high penetration in society, it is
necessary to think about the possibility of students without a
Smartphone. The system is also designed for integration into a
portable desktop computer. This system could be installed in the
PCs of the university to incorporate this innovative solution for
teachers. Some other functionality are being developed, such as
showing the individual evaluation in the Smartphone once the test
is nished. Moreover, as mentioned in this paper, it is necessary
to include more anticopy capabilities.
The modularity of the system allows to change some
parameters of the system in order to offer new possibilities of
learning. With the current system, the application shows several
answers, choices, for the same question. Students can choose one.
Another possibility is that the templates could be changed to have a
textbox, where students could introduce their own answer with the
QWERTY of the Smartphone.
Establishing an adhoc network scheme in which the router is
eliminated could reduce the size of the system. Besides, thanks to
the modularity of the system, the Wiimote can be replaced with
a tablet PC, allowing full functionality over the digital board;
moreover, an implementation similar to a tablet PC can be
developed for the new tablet devices.
At the current time the database is being improved in order to
offer best functionality. In a future version, results might be
centralized so that everyone could access them from everywhere.
Furthermore, it will be interesting to implement interoperability
with other platforms like Moodle [19] in order to integrate
qualications into the common teaching framework. Finally,
another important key is to provide a specic adaptation for people
with disabilities. The system was successfully validated with
reading screen software and we would like to want to validate in
large groups of students with disabilities.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
We acknowledge URJC (Universidad Rey Juan Carlos for this
research), the Programs of Support for people with Disabilities in
the URJC and ONCE (National Organization for blind people)
volunteers of Mostoles (Madrid, Spain).
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BIOGRAPHIES
Mara Cristina RodrguezSnchez is a com-
puter scientist with an interest in HCI projects,
wireless system, mobile services, contextaware
services and bioengineering; she is assistant
professor in the Electronics Department of
Universidad Rey Juan Carlos. Currently, she is
CoIP in a project for accessibility services with
the Vodafone Spain Foundation ID since 2011.
The last two years, she is a responsible ID
of the Division of Industrial Electronics and
Applications Wireless in the Electronics Department of Universidad Rey
Juan Carlos.
Angel Torrado Carvajal is a computer engineer
with an interest in mobile and telecommunication
systems; he is a telecommunications engineer
working on mobile technology, biomedical and
bioengineering in the Electronics Department of
Universidad Rey Juan Carlos. He obtained his
Master thesis degree with High Honors in 2012.
Susana Borromeo is an electrical engineering
with an interest in electronics for HCI, context
aware services, digital and wireless systems,
mobile applications, accessibility applications,
mhealth applications, and bioengineering in the
Electronics Department of Universidad Rey Juan
Carlos; Currently, she is ahead of the Laboratory
of Digital Circuit Design and Electronic Tech-
nology of the Madrid R&D Network of
laboratories in the Electronics Department of
Universidad Rey Juan Carlos.
Joaqun Vaquero is an electrical engineering
with an interest in electronics for HCI, context
aware services, digital and wireless systems,
mobile applications, accessibility applications,
mhealth applications, and bioengineering in the
Electronics Department of Universidad Rey Juan
Carlos; Currently, he is assistant professor in the
Electronics Department of Universidad Rey Juan
Carlos.
Juan A. HernandezTamames is a bioengineer
and physics with an interest in electronics for
contextaware services, biomedical image and
signal processing, functional magneticreso-
nance image analysis, medical image manage-
ment, and electronics for bioengineering;
Currently, he is a Head of the Medical Image
Analysis Laboratory of the Madrid R&D
Network of laboratories in the Electronics
Department of Universidad Rey Juan Carlos.
10 RODRIGUEZ-SANCHEZ ET AL.