Smartedu, an Integrated Exam System for Smarter Learning

BANDUNG, itb.ac.id – In order to support more effective and efficient teaching and learning activities, the Bandung Institute of Technology (ITB) created SmartEdu, which is an integrated computer-based examination system. This innovation is the result of collaboration between ITB, PT. INTI and Kemenristekdikti.

SmartEdu was developed by Ir Adi Indrayanto MSc, PhD. , (KK Elektronika) and Yusep Rosmansyah ST, MSc, PhD (Information Technology KK), as well as a team of lecturers and researchers at the School of Electrical & Informatics Engineering (STEI) and the Center for Microelectronics (PME) ITB. The hardware on SmartEdu was developed by Adi Indrayanto, while the software was developed by Yusep Rosmansyah.

When interviewed by ITB Public Relations Reporter, Adi Indrayanto explained, the SmartEdu system was originally created to help lecturers in choosing the material to be delivered in class. “So before the class starts, the lecturer does a pre-test first. From the student scores and the distribution of true and false for each question, it can be seen which material requires deeper explanation, so that learning becomes more efficient and on target, “he said.

According to him, what makes SmartEdu a smart system is that it is more concise, simple, and mobile than the existing computer-based exam systems. He added that the SmartEdu system consists of three main components.

The first is the gadget. This device is a smartphone that has been used and developed by Adi Indrayanto himself since 2016. The use of this smartphone is to replace a computer. Applications contained in the smartphone use a self-made operating system.

The second component is portable docking, which is a suitcase for charging as well as a place for smartphones arranged in 10 rows, where 1 row contains 5 smartphones. The sensor that has been installed on the suitcase will automatically detect each line whether there is a smartphone with less battery power or not, if the power is lacking then charging and stopping the power will be carried out automatically.

“The third component is the access point. The use of local access points aims to avoid cheating or any activities that are not related to learning activities, “said the lecturer from the ITB Electronics Expertise Group.

Simple Working System

Adi Indrayanto said that the application developed has a simple appearance. Participants only need to log in, after entering, they will be immediately directed to the question package, then simply choose the question package to be worked on. In question work, there is a feature to indicate if the selected answer is still in doubt, the question number will be given a different color, and question work can be done out of order.

“Then after completing the work, participants only need to submit the work results and log out of the application. The value of the work will come out immediately and can be seen by the question maker, “he continued.

As for the development process, the team faced many challenges. For example, when testing problems, bugs are often encountered, so it is necessary to reprogram them to solve these bugs. In addition, the operating system used is open source so that if there are changes to the operating system it is necessary to re-install (injection). This is a challenge for smartphones that experience problems due to frequent injection of the operating system, causing several components, especially the storage memory to become easily damaged and need to be replaced.

“In the future, we want to develop energy providers for charging. “Currently, to charge electricity, it still requires electricity, later the system will be integrated with portable solar cells so that this system can be used anywhere, including remote places in Indonesia that have not yet had electricity,” he said.

Adi Indrayanto hopes that in the future SmartEdu can be used for all types of computer-based exams. Not only for campuses, but the CPNS test and college entrance exams also use this system.

Reporter: Indah Lestari Madelin (Environmental Engineering, 2017)

This article has been published on the itb.ac.id site