Online proctoring refers to a digital form of exam day invigilation that allows you to take exams from any location. The current pandemic situations have forced institutions and colleges to opt for online assessments but concerns remain about their sanctity. This prompts the question whether online proctoring can actually help make online exams reliable and why it is necessary in today’s time?
Online proctoring / invigilation is a necessity if we want to ensure that students do not cheat or resort to unfair means in an online examination.
In numerous studies remote online tests conducted without proctoring have seen high percentage of cases of impersonation and cheating. Students either ask someone else to take the test on their behalf or use methods of cheating like referring to a textbook, using smartphones or other devices to search for answers online.
Online examination systems like UCanAssess offer numerous advantages of scalability, flexibility and analytics. But this is of little value if the exam reliability cannot be assured. This is where Online proctoring fits in. It allows us to remotely invigilate the candidates while they take the exam. UCanAssess allows for a variety of methods for online invigilation. These include photo, screen shots, locking of the browser movements and also capturing of video / audio of the candidate. All of this digital inputs are then subject to AI assisted invigilation. The AI algorithm highlights incidences of impersonation, use of banned objects (like mobile phones / ear phones etc) etc.
Know how online proctoring can help make online exams reliable?
Online Proctoring involves these main means to ensure fair exams.
First and foremost Image Capturing : The System captures images of the candidate appearing for the test in an interval of few seconds. It helps to identify and authorize exam candidates sitting at a remote location.
Live Video recording: Online Examination system can also record video of the person giving the test. These recordings can then be viewed by Invigilators remotely. Though bandwidth heavy it is one of the best ways to keep a check on students attempting exams from remote locations.
Screen Capturing: Many online examination systems also take periodic images of the screen of the device from which the candidate is taking the exam. This ensures to check and see the page the student is on to avoid any kind of misuse or unfair practices.
Online proctoring is no doubt an excellent way to significantly reduce the incidences of cheating or use of unfair means by students.
Advanced online examination systems like UCanAssess ensure that remote invigilators view all the suspicious cases of students on their dashboards. The dashboard automatically highlights those students who are suspected of using unfair means. The invigilator can then further evaluate and send warnings to the student or even pause her test.
The use of AI assisted online proctoring also ensures highlighting of such incidences automatically. In many instances the warnings are also automated. This makes the system fairly reliable for conducting high stake examinations without the hassle and risk of going to centres for taking the test.
About the organization
Learning Spiral understands assessments and applicant management like no other organization. We specialise in University Examination Systems with built in support for conducting online exams with all types of online proctoring. We routinely deliver more than a million assessments through different modes in a demanding and high stake environment.
