Numbas, an open-source e-assessment system for mathematics

Numbas

An open-source e-assessment system designed for mathematical subjects.

Developed at Newcastle University for ~10 years.

Free and open source.

Used around the world.

Key features

• Easy to use.
• Customisable everywhere.
• Delivered through VLE or standalone.
• Scalable, reliable and accessible to a broad range of users.

Use in Newcastle

At Newcastle, we use Numbas for:

• Formative use in a pre-entry course.
• Diagnostic tests.
• Banks of practice material to supplement lecture material.
• In-course assessment.
• Final exams.

Use outside Newcastle

• 1,000+ institutions in the UK and around the world.
• 5,000+ users registered on public editor.
• 8,000+ questions and exams released for free reuse under an open access licence.
• Translated into 15 languages.

(as of November 2020, as far as we can tell)

Use in Africa

I know of users in South Africa, Algeria, Kenya, Mauritius.

Project with University of Pretoria.

See Ione Loots' EAMS 2016 talk:

Overcoming challenges with e-assessment implementation in developing countries: a case study from South Africa

What you need

For formative use: point students at Numbas exams. It all runs in their browser.

For summative use: LTI tool, locked browser (e.g. safeexambrowser.org)

Workflow

• Write or reuse questions.
• Package into an exam and pick feedback settings.
• • Upload to VLE using SCORM or LTI.
  • Students access exam.
  • Data saved - review attempts, view stats.
  OR
  • Embed in a webpage
  • Students access exam.
  • No data stored.

The mathcentre editor

• Open to everyone.
• Collect ready-made questions into a custom test
• Or write your own.

numbas.mathcentre.ac.uk

A demo

Numbas demo exam

Information

Numbas homepage:
numbas.org.uk

Documentation:
docs.numbas.org.uk

How Numbas can help during the COVID-19 crisis:
numbas.org.uk/blog

E-Assessment in Mathematical Sciences 2020:
eams.ncl.ac.uk