EVAL

Eval is an educational platform designed to create and distribute training exercises and conduct exams across engineering and other disciplines. With a core focus on ease of use and simplicity, Eval ensures a seamless experience for educators and students.

Eval provides comprehensive insights into student engagement and understanding, enabling more effective assessments of student performance and comprehension.

Originally developed for HEIG-VD, EVAL is now available to the wider educational community, offering robust tools for creating and managing online evaluations.

Features

Questions

Eval sets itself apart with a specialized set of questions tailored for software engineering, offering unique capabilities.

Code Writing question enables students to write and execute code (JavaScript, Python, Java, C, C++, Golang, etc.) in a sand-boxed environment using an online editor powered by Monaco, similar to Visual Studio Code. This feature allows students to make sure their code meets the expected output, providing a more interactive and engaging experience.

Eval is also committed to expanding its offerings by tailoring question types adapted for a wide range of educational fields in science and beyond.

• True/False: Simple binary questions.
• Multiple Choice: Questions with multiple possible answers.
• Essay: Open-ended questions for detailed responses.
• Web: Questions related to CSS, HTML, and JavaScript.
• Code Reading: Understand the code and predict its output.
• Code Writing: Complete the code, run code checks, and test the output.
• Database: PostgreSQL-focused questions to complete queries and obtain expected results.

Evaluation Management

EVAL simplifies evaluation management through four distinct phases:

1. Draft Phase: Educators can create and customize evaluations by selecting a collection of questions, organizing their order, and assigning point values. Students register using an evaluation link, with optional access restrictions.

2. In Progress Phase: Educators monitor registered students and their progress in real-time, allowing or prohibiting access to the evaluation and gaining insights from the analytics page.

3. Grading Phase: EVAL streamlines grading with automation, allowing educators to review, adjust grades, provide comments, and sign off. Annotations can be added for specific question types, and overall results are visible as grading progresses.

4. Finished Phase: Students receive their grades and feedback, while educators have access to comprehensive results, with options to update grades and download reports in CSV and PDF formats.

Tech Stack

• Frontend: Next.js 14
• Backend: Prisma ORM
• Database: PostgreSQL

Development Setup

The current implementation of EVAL uses Keycloak as the Identity Provider (IDP).

However, the platform is built on Next.js and uses NextAuth, making it easy to configure with other IDPs or with your existing IDP.

To configure a different IDP, refer to the NextAuth configuration in the file located at ./web/pages/api/auth/[...nextauth].js and consult the NextAuth documentation. next-auth

Prerequisites

• Node.js V20+
• Docker
• Docker Compose

Dev Docker Composer

At /dev directory, you can find a docker-compose.yml file that will start the database and Keycloak server.

In this approach, your database and IDP will be running in docker while the next.js app will be running on your local machine.

cd dev
docker-compose up

Keycloak Setup

• Create a new realm called eval.
• Create a new client called eval-client in the realm eval.
  • Client Type OpenID Connect.
  • Client Authentication: On
  • Root Url: http://localhost:3000 (the url of your eval app on localhost)
• Create your first eval user in the realm eval.
  • Details
  • Username: eval-user
  • Email: eval-user@eval.com (email is mandatory as NextAuth uses email as uniq identifier)
  • First and Last name
  • Credentials
  • Set the password: eval-user
  • Temporary: off

Eval Environment Variables

You will find the client secret in the client eval-client settings in Keycloak under the tab Credentials.

Create a .env.local file in the web directory with the following content.

# NextAuth secret, this is a random 32 bytes string encoded in base64 (generate: openssl rand -base64 32)
NEXTAUTH_SECRET=<generate secret>

NEXTAUTH_KEYCLOAK_CLIENT_ID=eval-client
NEXTAUTH_KEYCLOAK_CLIENT_SECRET=<client secret>
NEXTAUTH_KEYCLOAK_ISSUER_BASE_URL=http://localhost:8080/realms/eval

The existing .env might needs to be adjusted to reflect your database config. It currently corresponds to the one proposed in the /dev/docker-compose.yml file.

Install the app dependencies

REMINDER: Make sure you use the node version 20+.

cd web
npm install

Run the database migrations

Make sure your database container is running. Then, run the following command to apply the migrations.

cd web
npx prisma migrate dev

You shall see in the output: Your database is now in sync with your schema.

Run the app in development mode

cd web
npm run dev

Setup your super admin user

Signin in eval

Open your browser and go to http://localhost:3000. Signin with your keycloak user.

When you signin in eval for the first time, a user will be created. It will have the role STUDENT by default.

After the signin has been done, you should see the following message: You are not authorized to view this page..

Propote to PROFESSOR and SUPER_ADMIN

To promote your user to a super admin, you need to update the role in the database.

docker exec -it eval-dev-infra-dev-db-1 psql -U eval -d eval -c "UPDATE \"User\" SET roles = '{STUDENT,PROFESSOR,SUPER_ADMIN}' WHERE email = 'eval-user@eval.com';"

Depending on your config, you might need to adjust the container name, user email and sql credentials.

You should see the following output: UPDATE 1

Create your first group

Now, you can refresh the page.

You will see the message has change to You are not a member of any groups. with the possibility to create a new group.

Fell free to create your first group and welcome to eval!