Quiz Me Exponentially...and Successfully

In these unprecedented times when so many of us are working and learning remotely, one of the words on every educator's mind is "Online." And during the past couple of months we have seen a significant increase in the amount of use that our customers have been making of Open LMS—with workloads increasing by the hundreds of percent. As we move toward the summer, and the exam season, another word is appearing too: "Assessment." Many of our customers are now looking to make use of Open LMS not only just for learning materials and online classes, but also to replace the in-person examinations that they may have previously carried out—and the tool most likely to be used for this purpose is Open LMS’ Quiz module.

The Quiz module is a very versatile tool, with a great many different question types, and some useful analytical components. While it has been a standard module for many years, it puts a heavy load on the hosting platform when a large number of users are accessing a quiz simultaneously. Today, we are seeing more learners than ever before login to online learning platforms, and quizzing is a part of that experience. To that end, we decided to test our capabilities to see what we can handle and to ensure our customers that we can guarantee performance in spite of a spike in simultaneous users.

To do this, the Open LMS team built a testing system using the same design as our standard hosting platform to see just what could be achieved with an increase in the specification of those servers. To simulate the most realistic experience possible, the Open LMS team created a routine that simulated the login, navigation, and execution of a quiz within an Open LMS site.

To achieve this, we:

  • used JMETER as simulation software,
  • adapted a platform that had 8,000 users created and enrolled in a course where there was a quiz with two questions, and
  • monitored all the behavior of the test.

Specific test details:

  • Concurrent users: 8,000
  • login time ramp up: 30s
  • Steps to execute in the test: 7

At the end of the test, the Open LMS site respond to the suggested load, completing 100% of the quizzes with the following results:

  • Total test execution time: 3min 45sec
  • Total number of transactions: 56,000
  • Throughput: 250req/sec
  • Average exam resolution time: 1min
  • Quizzes answered: 8,000
  • Final result: Success

The Open LMS team is very pleased to be able to share these experiences with all of our clients with the peace of mind of saying that we are ready to support all challenges in their learning processes during these difficult times and beyond.

Thanks,

Sean Keogh, Senior Systems Administrator, and Juan Paez, Client Support Manager - LAC, from Open LMS Team

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