Case Study: University of Alberta delivers secure MOOC exams with TAO from Open Assessment Technologies

University of Alberta Relies on TAO for Its Massive Open Online Course

The University of Alberta began working with Coursera in 2013 to support its massive open online courses, and with more than 1,000 students enrolled in MOOC programs, it needed a secure online exam system that would provide a good exam writing experience. The university first looked for an open source platform and compiled 33 function requirements, with a need for flexibility across low-stakes and high-stakes assessments and a short implementation timeline.

Open Assessment Technologies provided TAO, which met the open source requirement and supported the needed custom development, security, and implementation support. Using a rapid development framework and a dedicated hosting server, the university built authentication, automated Word-to-QTI upload, and administration interface changes, and the platform became fully operational in eight weeks. Over the last six months, more than 80 assessments were uploaded and administered to over 6,000 students, with new assessments set up within an hour and conditional assessments within a day.

University of Alberta

Janet Welch

Assistant Dean and Director of Technologies