Next Exams

A few minutes. Install the package, open Components → Next Exams, create a subject, add a handful of questions, then build an exam and publish a menu item pointing at it. Nothing else needs configuring first — every setting ships with a working default.

No. Next Exams installs with sensible defaults and enables its own plugins for you. There is no Joomla Options screen to fill in — all configuration lives inside the application itself, so you only visit Settings when you actually want to change something.

Yes. The Demo Data app installs a complete sample dataset — subjects, questions of every type, exams, attempts and certificates — so you can explore a populated system. It also switches on a demo mode that blocks writes, and removing it restores the site cleanly.

Both. Examinees always use the site. Authors and administrators can work in the Joomla administrator or, if you prefer, from a front-end menu item that runs the identical management application — no second interface to learn.

Nine: multiple choice with a single answer, multiple choice with several, true/false, short answer, essay, ordering, matching, extended matching (EMQ) and cloze. All except essay are graded automatically.

Yes. An exam can pin specific questions, draw a number of questions at random from a subject or tag pool, or mix the two. The set each examinee receives is frozen at the moment they start, so a mid-exam edit to the bank cannot change the paper under them.

Yes — CSV with your own column mapping, Aiken, GIFT, Moodle XML and QTI 2.1. Export runs the same formats, and a NextExams-to-NextExams QTI round trip is lossless because the native answer key travels inside the file.

Their answers are already saved. The runner autosaves as they work, so they can return and carry on — until the time limit, the exam's closing time, or the exam's inactivity period is reached.

If they never come back, the attempt closes itself rather than staying open forever. Each exam chooses whether the answers already saved are marked, or the attempt is voided so the examinee gets that attempt back.

Whenever you decide, per exam: immediately, after the exam closes, at a scheduled time, or only when you release it by hand. Revealing the correct answers is a separate switch, so you can show a score without giving away the paper.

Essays are scored by a grader, not the machine. The attempt is marked as needing grading, an optional email tells you so, and the examinee's review stays locked until marking is finished — so nobody sees a partial result.

Yes. Each certificate carries a QR code linking to a public verification page that shows the recipient, exam, number and dates, and reports revoked or expired certificates honestly. The link is keyed by a random token rather than the sequential certificate number, so the series cannot be enumerated.

That is what item analysis is for. It reports each question's difficulty alongside its item-total discrimination, which exposes questions that everybody gets right, everybody gets wrong, or that strong and weak candidates answer identically.

Yes. An exam can be opened to guests, optionally asking for a name and email so the attempt and any certificate are still attributable. You can also require a shared access code.

Build a cohort. A cohort can be a hand-picked list, a mirror of an existing Joomla user group, or a set of email invitations for people who have not registered yet — then restrict the exam to it.

Yes. Set a maximum number of attempts, a cooldown period between them, or both. Practice-mode attempts deliberately ignore both, so practice never eats into somebody's real allowance.

Yes, on the live monitoring board — progress, time remaining and who has gone quiet. You can extend time, allow a resume, pause, or force a submit, and you can invite an invigilator by link or PIN without giving them a Joomla account.

Yes. Next Exams is a full LTI 1.3 tool provider. Register the platform, launch an exam from Moodle, Canvas or anything else that speaks LTI 1.3, pick exams from the LMS with Deep Linking, and scores pass back to the gradebook automatically.

Yes. Webhooks fire on submission, grading and certificate issue, each request signed with HMAC-SHA256 so the receiver can verify it. Failed deliveries retry with backoff and every attempt is logged.

Yes. The JSON API accepts bearer tokens with per-scope permissions, so external automation can maintain the question bank or pull results with no browser session. Scopes are default-deny — a token can only reach what you explicitly granted.

Switch them off. The App Manager turns twenty-six capabilities on and off individually: the interface disappears and the endpoints refuse requests, but nothing is deleted, so turning a feature back on restores it exactly as it was.

Joomla 4.4, 5.x and 6.x, on PHP 8.1 or later. The bundled libraries set that PHP floor, and the codebase uses modern Joomla architecture throughout — namespaced MVC, dependency injection and the WebAssetManager — so one build serves all three releases. Joomla 4.4 is the oldest supported release because the mailer service Next Exams sends notifications through arrived in that version; the installer checks before it writes anything.

MySQL and MariaDB. Next Exams ships a MySQL schema only; PostgreSQL is not supported.

English (en-GB). Every string is translatable — add any language by creating standard Joomla .ini files, on both the administrator and site sides.

Yes. The whole exam-taking flow — access gate, runner and results — was remediated to WCAG 2.1 AA, including a skip link, screen-reader live regions, managed focus on paging, unique accessible names on every control, non-colour state cues and reduced-motion support.

Yes. Next Exams is licensed under the GNU General Public License v2 or later. You are free to read and modify the source.