A SECURE ONLINE COMPUTER-BASED TEST SYSTEM USING FACIAL RECOGNITION BIOMETRIC AUTHENTICATION (CASE STUDY OF MOUNTAIN TOP UNIVERSITY)

Abstract

Computer Based Test (CBT) has grown to become recognized all over the world and is now being implemented by various institutions. With the evident growth in CBT, examination malpractice has found a way to nullify the advantages of CBT. Hence, there is a need to ensure that there are more secure CBT systems. In the recent rimes for instance, some students have been caught writing CBT examination for others despite the security measures. The above-mentioned prevailing challenge inspired the proposed study. This study aims to develop a web-based application using biometric facial recognition as a means of authentication to augment the regular username and password. In other words, it would prevent impersonation of examination through a secure authentication system. Facial recognition has demonstrated an enhance authentication in various domains. Adopting the same technology in a critical setting such as examination is therefore highly essential especially at the Mountain Top University. Html and CSS are used to develop the front-end part of the Computer Based Test system. While PHP was used to design the backend and MySQL was the database that was utilized. The performance of the system when compared to the current system in use was found to be satisfactory. The proposed study considered only Multiple-Choice question type. Thus, further improvement using various sorts of questions, such as theory-based could be considered in future work. Again, fingerprint biometric and facial recognition authentication could be combined to provide a more secure system.