The problem Decentralized Assessment and Grading Platform solves

In traditional educational systems, managing assessments, student records, and grading across institutions can be tedious, prone to errors, and vulnerable to manipulation. Many existing platforms rely on centralized systems, where data can be altered, lost, or accessed without proper permissions. Teachers spend significant time manually grading assignments and quizzes, and there is often a lack of transparency in how grades are awarded. Additionally, storing and accessing student data securely across multiple institutions presents challenges in privacy and data management.

a) Decentralized Management of Assessments: Institutions can register themselves on the platform, creating a transparent and tamper-proof way to manage quizzes, exams, and other assessments. The use of blockchain ensures that once a quiz is created or a student is added, the data is immutable.

b) Automated Grading System: Teachers no longer have to spend hours grading quizzes manually. The platform automates the grading process based on pre-defined answers, reducing human error and speeding up the process.

c) Secure Student Registration and Data Storage: Students can register under their respective institutions without the need for an identifying address, ensuring their privacy. Their records are securely stored on the blockchain, protected from unauthorized access or tampering.

d) Tamper-proof and Transparent Records: Since all transactions (such as quiz creation, student registration, and grading) are recorded on the blockchain, the data is immutable and can be verified at any time. This ensures transparency for institutions, teachers, and students alike, minimizing disputes over grades or records.

e) Efficiency in Managing Student Information Across Institutions: The platform makes it easy for institutions to register students and manage their records in one decentralized location.

Challenges we ran into

One specific hurdle we encountered while building this project was related to removing addresses from both the StudentRegistry and InstituteRegistry contracts. Initially, the system was designed to track students and institutions using Ethereum addresses. However, we realized that this approach added unnecessary complexity, as institutions and students could simply be identified by their names and usernames. This shift would simplify the overall structure and make the system more user-friendly.

The challenge came when we had to refactor the contracts to remove the address dependencies while ensuring the integrity and security of the student and institute data. One key issue was maintaining unique identification without using addresses, as Ethereum's decentralized nature relies on these addresses for verification.

How we got Over It:

a) Redesigning the Data Structure: Wemodified the structure of both contracts to use

instituteName

and

username

as identifiers instead of addresses. This meant we had to rethink how the mappings would work since string comparison in Solidity can be more complex than address comparison.

b) Security and Uniqueness: To ensure the uniqueness of names and usernames, we added strict validation checks, ensuring that no two users could have the same username within the same institute. We also implemented

keccak256

hashing for string comparisons, making it easier to validate passwords and usernames securely.

c) Testing Iterations: Once the changes were made, the system required rigorous testing to ensure that removing addresses did not break any functionality or open up security loopholes. By iterating through different scenarios—such as student login, quiz attempts, and registration we were able to ensure everything worked smoothly without compromising the system’s efficiency or security.

In the end, this change simplified the user experience and made the system more intuitive.