Abstract
The quality of a teacher is the most important factor that affects students’ learning and achievement. The weak or incompetent teachers are a threat to the reputation of the profession and the quality of education that students receive. Recently, educators and policymakers are concerned on how to improve teacher quality. Many types of research have demonstrated that teacher evaluation could promote the teaching efficiency and teacher quality. In order to avoid fearing from the instructors, good teacher evaluation should have the following factors. (1) Authenticity: Participants in the teacher evaluation system cannot be impersonated and signatures cannot be forged. (2) Integrity: The results of teacher evaluation cannot be altered. (3) Security: The details of the process of teacher evaluation and information of participants should be kept as secure as possible. (4) Privacy: Sensitive information such as the participant's name must be protected. Based on the characteristics mentioned above, to design a high-quality evaluation system, this work proposes the teacher evaluation system by applying the cryptography, to develop a web-based system for STEM education. All the participants were those with the ability to operate the online evaluation system. Finally, the system could really provide a fair evaluation.
Introduction
Currently, STEM is used as an acronym for Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics education. Since 1990, the STEM discipline has been applied by the National Science Foundation (NSF) to any event, policy, or program. 1 For a broader and coordinated education, STEM strategy is used to train students to face the challenges of the 21st century. 2 However, a successful discipline has to include qualified educators. The teacher quality is leading a professional development to improve the teaching practices and student achievement.3 –5 Educators and policymakers are much concerned about how to improve teacher quality. Many types of research have proposed redefining teacher efficiency6,7 and teacher quality.8,9 In order to evaluate the teaching quality,10,11 the anticipants will receive the paper questionnaire anonymously. Furthermore, the evaluation results will guide the future education policy for educators (teacher and administrator). Recently, the web-based teacher evaluation system on the internet has improved the traditional evaluation method. The teacher evaluation system is a platform on the internet. All participants can access the web-based system from any place and anytime (In Taiwan, according to the governmental regulation, all students beginning with the 3rd grade should receive Information education. All students in the school could operate the online system by themselves without any difficulty. Hence, all the participants had the ability to operate the online evaluation system.). The web-based framework is more efficient, convenient, and saves time and labor to collect the data in the evaluation.
To help teachers and policymakers, the teacher evaluation is running after each semester. The traditional evaluation is made according to the students’ anonymous evaluation. The support of computer technology complemented the teacher evaluation activities such as collecting information and data processing. The web-based teacher evaluation system provides the students not only a convenient appraisal but also a quick evaluation result. It provides an economical way for teacher evaluation and reduces the error in the statistical analysis. However, the procedure of duplicating, deleting, and modifying might forge the user information. To fabricate the information is much easy in the system. Hence, designing a web-based teacher evaluation system on the internet could not only meet the requirement of the traditional evaluation model but also possibly solve the above-mentioned problem.
To design a web-based teacher evaluation system on the internet, the secret voting technology might be a solution. Combining the secret voting and computer network technology provided an efficient teacher evaluation. It can also extend the anonymity guarantee. However, there are some difficulties in the web-based teacher evaluation system. For example, the confirmation legitimate user cannot be known by the third party. The users must be able to respond to the result that they took. It is expected to improve and deal with the procedure and maintain the effect as that of the traditional evaluation. Literature reviews are given. The system architecture and processes are provided in section Architecture and Processes. In section Discussion and Analysis, the theoretical basis and analysis of the proposed system are shown. Finally, the conclusions and the suggested work for the future are given.
Approach discussion
Teacher evaluation was one policy to promote teaching quality. The “student ratings of instruction” refers to the standardization which the school administrative unit designs to investigate and realize the course from the student by the anonymous evaluation. Through this survey, students could reflect their cognition, suggestion, and teaching of teaching. Through evaluation, the performance of teachers can be improved, and the teaching evaluation results will become a reference for school administrators.
The importance of teacher evaluation
The teacher evaluation is a way to encourage the teacher and to stimulate the potential of the teacher. This is important for the teacher. With collecting, organizing, analyzing the materials, and the course described, the teacher evaluation is judged. It is used to understand if the teacher performs fine or not. The purpose is to help the teacher to improve the teaching method and to decide the the rewards and the punishments to the employed teacher. Teacher evaluation is a continuous and systematic process. Generally, teacher evaluation includes the following four purposes:
Accountability, to ensure that the teacher has the ability to teach in the classroom, Professional growth, to promote the growth of current teachers, School improvement, to promote schools for the teaching quality and increasing the learning outcomes, Selection, to ensure the quality teachers.
The teacher evaluation has already been a long-term study. In the open and diverse environment, the independence and the specification of the teacher are the important factors to education. The role of the teacher could not be traditional, such as persuading the students. Teachers must set up their educational dignity with their specialty. Teacher evaluation could promote teacher’s professional development and teaching method, and improve the teaching performance. Hence, teacher evaluation is a trend in modern society.
Internet secret voting scheme
From 1981 until now, many e-voting schemes have been proposed.12 –17 Chaum 12 firstly proposed the secret e-voting scheme. His secret e-voting scheme is based on the anonymous mail and the digital pseudonyms. The digital pseudonyms are public keys. The voter registers to the controlling organization by using the digital pseudonyms.
There are two main concepts of digital pseudonym: (1) It is a random number; (2) It is a secret between communications. Most secret e-voting systems are based on the digital pseudonyms to have anonymous and privacy properties. In this article, the proposed scheme is also based on the digital pseudonyms to have both of these properties.
In 2013, Li and Hwang 15 defined a secret voting system model. In their model, they assume that all voters are able to operate the application software of computer or smartphone in the voting process. Since the voting process is monitored by the government, it is an important issue to protect the voting privacy.
In 2017, Yuan et al. 16 proposed seven requirements of secret voting schemes, including (1) only voters know their own voting content, (2) only legitimate voters can vote, (3) each voter can only have voting function, (4) voters can use the computer or smartphone to vote through the Internet, (5) the voter can correctly check whether his/her vote has been counted, and (6) the voter can vote again before the voting period. Due to the particularity of the Internet of Thing environment, Yuan et al. proposed new requirements for items 4–6. Prior to this, no scholars had extensively discussed the need for secret voting on the Internet. Therefore, Yuan et al. first discussed the secret voting requirements quite extensively.
Alam et al.
14
also collected seven requirements for the Internet secret voting system in 2018:
Completeness: Calculate all valid voters correctly; Soundness: Dishonest voters cannot disturb the election; Privacy: All voters must remain private; Un-reusability: Each voter can only vote once; Eligibility: Only legitimate voters can vote; Fairness: No event is allowed to affect the election results; Verifiability: No one can forge or tamper with the voting results.
Architecture and processes
In the East, with Feudal thought, the teachers are highly respected. Hence, students dare not express their opinions to the teachers. It will lose the original purpose of the evaluation system. The proposed system is built considering students’ concern including authenticity, integrity, privacy, and security. The system is proposed based on these characteristics.
The purpose of this study was to design a web-based instructional evaluation system. As stated in the introduction, the requirements of the system are (1) user authentication, (2) keeping the secret of the evaluation content, (3) responding to the evaluation results, and (4) checking the evaluation results.
Architecture
The system is divided into four phases: the user authentication phase, the evaluation phase, the response to the results phase, and the inspection results phase, as shown in Figure 1.
Four phases of the web-based teacher evaluation system.
We briefly describe the following stages:
User Authentication Phase: The teacher or assistant checks the identity of the student in the classroom. Then he/she gives each student a unique system code. Evaluation Phase: The student logs into the teaching evaluation system and enters his/her system code and selection code. The student then begins to fill out the evaluation comments for the course. Response to the Results Phase: For psychological reasons, the system will not announce the results immediately. After all the students have completed the evaluation, the system will respond to the individual's teaching evaluation results. Inspection Results Phase: If the student has any questions about the results of his/her teaching evaluation, he/she could enter his/her system code and selection code to query.
Evaluate content format
In the proposed teaching evaluation system architecture, the resulting evaluation results of the evaluation include two parts: response and tag information. The response message is for the user to fill out the own teaching evaluation and self-validation code. The tag information is provided by the teaching evaluation system to check whether the content of the teaching evaluation has been tampered with or forged. The response information consists of two parts: user response information and self-verification code. In addition, the tag information includes four parts, (1) teaching evaluation system code, (2) tag information creation time, (3) teaching evaluation questions, and (4) teaching evaluation system signature. The evaluation content format is as shown in Figure 2.
The evaluate content format.
The significance of each field in the evaluation content format of Figure 2 is as follows:
User Responses: The user fills in a personal teaching evaluation reply. Self-Verification Code: The users could use the self-verification code to check for self-replies. In the response result phase, the teaching evaluation system can publish the results of the teaching evaluation contents, and the user can use the self-verification code to correctly check whether the self-teaching content reply has been announced. The self-verification code is selected by the user to select a random number, together with the system code, through a secure hash function (H) with one-way and anti-collision characteristics to calculate a user-self-verification code with a unique value. System Code: A legal system code means evaluating the validity of the content. In order to prevent third parties from infiltrating the system code by forging legal evaluations, the system code must be unique, so the teaching evaluation system must be able to filter the duplicate data using the system code. Tag Creation Time: The time the system's tag was created. Evaluation Questions: Issue the teaching evaluation questions for this course to provide students with the opportunity to complete their teaching evaluations. System Signature: The system authenticates the signature of this tag as preventing the contents of this tag from being forged or tampered with. The system signature is the digital signature of the teaching evaluation system. It uses the system private key to sign the system code, mark the creation time, and the teaching evaluation question: the system private key (system code, tag creation time, evaluation question). In the teaching evaluation phase, the user obtains the evaluation content that can use the system public key to verify the legitimacy of this evaluation content.
Process
The teaching evaluation process, shown in Figure 3, is as follows:
Evaluation flow.
User Authentication Phase:
Step 1. The teacher or assistant checks the identity of the students in the classroom.
Step 2. The teacher or assistant gives each student a unique system code.
2. Evaluate Phase:
Step 3. The student logs-in the system and puts his/her system code.
Step 4. The system generates the teaching evaluation content (Esystemprivatekey (system code, tag created time, teaching evaluation questions)) and sends it to the student.
Step 5. The student uses the system public key to verify the legitimacy of this teaching evaluation content: Dsystempublickey (Esystemprivatekey (system code, tag created time, teaching evaluation questions)) and sends Esystempublickey {Euserprivatekey (DES secret key, teaching evaluation content)} to the System.
5–1: The student obtains (system code, tag created time, teaching evaluation questions) by Dsystempublickey (Esystemprivatekey (system code, tag created time, teaching evaluation questions)) = (system code, tag created time, evaluative questions).
5–2: The student selects a random number, along with the system code, and passes a secure hash function (H) with one-way and anti-collision characteristics to calculate a user-self-verification code with a unique value.
5–3: The student filled in individual teaching evaluation responses.
5–4: The student creates a random secret key for DES cryptosystem.
5–5: The student adds the DES key to teaching evaluation content.
5–6: The student uses the self-private key to encrypt the teaching evaluation content, Euserprivatekey (DES secret key, teaching evaluation content).
5–7: The student uses the system public key to encrypt the teaching evaluation content, Esystempublickey {Euserprivatekey (DES secret key, teaching evaluation content)}.
5–8: The student sent the teaching evaluation content, Esystempublickey {Euserprivatekey (DES secret key, teaching evaluation content)}, to the system.
3. The Response to the Results Phase:
Step 6. After the system receives the teaching evaluation content, the system signs the content of the user's teaching evaluation to confirm the validity of the teaching evaluation content. If the student does not receive a confirmation response, he/she can issue a self-certification code to the system to confirm that the published teaching evaluation is invalid, and then the student asks the system to resend the new teaching evaluation to complete the teaching evaluation.
Step 7. After receiving the content of the teaching evaluation, the system uses the student public key and the system private key to decrypt the teaching evaluation content.
7–1: The system logs the results to the database.
7–2: After the evaluation, the individual teaching evaluation results will be returned to the teacher.
4. Inspection Result Phase:
Step 8. If the student has any questions about his results, he/she can enter his system code and selection code to query.
Discussion and analysis
In order to avoid fearing from the instructors, good teacher evaluation has to include authenticity, integrity, privacy, security, reliability, and validity requirements. In this section, we will introduce the theoretical basis and analyze the above requirements as follows:
Authenticity: Participants (teacher and student) in the teacher evaluation system cannot be impersonated and signatures cannot be forged. The theoretical basis of the system to achieve authenticity is based on the asymmetric cryptosystem and the self-verification technology. In the proposed scheme, the teaching evaluation content, Esystempublickey {Euserprivatekey (DES secret key, teaching evaluation content)}, is generated and sent to the system in step 5. Since the teacher and other students do not know the student private key, they are unable to forge Euserprivatekey (DES secret key, teaching evaluation content) and to impersonate the legal student. Furthermore, the legal student could check the response results by the unique self-verification code in step 8. Integrity: The results of teacher evaluation cannot be altered. The theoretical basis of the system to achieve integrity is based on the asymmetric cryptosystem and hash function. It is hard to alter the evaluation content by the teachers unless they know the legal student’s private key. Otherwise, they will be unable to generate the teaching evaluation content, Esystempublickey {Euserprivatekey (DES secret key, teaching evaluation content)}, in Step 5. Privacy: The details of the process of teacher evaluation and information of participants should be kept as secure as possible. The theoretical basis of the system to achieve privacy is based on the symmetric cryptosystems. All messages between user and system are encrypted by symmetric cryptosystem. Security: Sensitive information such as the participant's name must be protected. The theoretical basis of the system to achieve security is based on the concept of temporary identity. In the proposed scheme, we use the unique system code and system code as the user (legal student) temporary identity. We do not send the user’s (legal student’s) identity among the communications in the system. Reliability: The system is always in normal operation. There are four phases in the proposed system: User authentication, evaluation, response, and checking the results phases. All of these phases include some steps in less operation time. Validity: The system is correct to have the correct evaluation results. The theoretical basis of the system to achieve validity is based on self-verification technology. The legal students (users) could verify their correct evaluation contents.
Conclusion
Teacher evaluation can promote the growth of teachers and student learning. Every country is working hard to reform teacher evaluation to improve the quality of education as a whole. This teaching evaluation system has the following two limitations:
All participants must be able to use Internet on the computers and smartphones. The bandwidth of the evaluation system must be sufficient to meet the needs of all participants in all school curricula.
In Taiwan, there are 79% of families that could access the internet. Almost all students, 99%, have the experience of using the Internet. Therefore, this is the trend of sharing Internet services. However, the confidence and fairness of the participants is the main focus of guiding successful teacher evaluation. Without the privacy of the teaching evaluation system, participants may be afraid that their opinions on the teaching evaluation will be leaked. Therefore, this paper develops a web-based teacher evaluation system on the Internet based on secret voting. The web-based teacher evaluation system structure can introduce the inconvenience of traditional teaching evaluation and can achieve the purpose of anonymous evaluation. We expect that the evaluation method after digitalization and networking can improve the efficiency of traditional teacher evaluation. We also expect that this architecture will stimulate deeper research and further develop methods that combine Web technologies with teaching evaluation models.
Future work
The web-based teacher evaluation system not only uses computer network technology but also attempts to solve the psychological factors of users by using secret voting technology. In other words, it attempts to use secret voting techniques in the Internet environment to establish an anonymous evaluation environment that users are willing to trust, and then let users or students be willing to trust the results of the teaching evaluation. Therefore, in the future, our research direction will be (1) to investigate and understand users' attitudes and opinions on using the Web-based teacher evaluation system, (2) to observe which factors will affect users' confidence evaluation system using network teachers, and (3) to continue the study whether the teaching evaluation framework is applicable.
Footnotes
Declaration of conflicting interests
The author(s) declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.
Funding
The author(s) disclosed receipt of the following financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article: This work was partially supported by the Ministry of Science and Technology, Taiwan, under grant MOST 106-3114-E-005-001, MOST 107-2221-E-845-002-MY3, and MOST 107-2221-E-845-001-MY3.