Eureka! Institutional Repository

The target of this thesis is the development of an exam application. Initially the thesis presents, the history of testing and exams, the use of testing and what tests offer in general. Various assessment types are presented, which define metrics like the performance stability and the test-content consistency. Furthermore, the theories of assessment, various testing principles and standards which have been drafted by international organizations are analyzed. The thesis presents some technical matters, such as the Learning Management Systems (L.M.S) and the issues and dangers that can be encountered by using such systems. In addition, the reasoning behind moving from paper to the web is explained and what this transition has to offer. Proceeding further into information technology, the various web architectures (3-tier, 2-tier and the Model-View-Controller) and programming languages (asp.net, java and php) which can be used on the aforementioned architectures, are presented. Furthermore, it is presented an overview of the tasks implemented by the web application, taking into consideration the three major user types, the administrator, the test creator and the test taker. Finally, the Zend framework is analyzed, as is the framework on which the current web application is implemented. In the final part, there is an analysis of the web application’s basic structure which follows the Model-View-Controller pattern and a presentation of various components like the controller, the model and the view objects.