Towards the Design and Deployment of an Item Bank: An Analysis of the Requirements Elicited

Assessments are an important phase in the learning process. Information and communication technologies advancements determined the development of e-learning software tools which support e-learning activities, including e-assessment. The increasing usage of summative and formative e-assessments led to the challenge of managing items. The concept of an item bank is meant to support teachers and students alike, to provide an overview when taking assessments or creating exams. This article presents an on-going R&D project towards the design and deployment of an item bank for computer-based tests, and discusses its role within a service-oriented system architecture which enables the execution of activities related to e-assessment, ranging from item design and test creation, to the analysis of event logs generated by test-takers. The research methodology followed for the requirements elicitation and main findings are presented, and directions for future work are discussed.