To Postpone or to Conduct?
Currently, with the spread of the coronavirus (COVID-19), governments, universities, and testing organizations around the world have had to think twice whether or not to administer high-stake examinations.
These exams are commonly used to make high-stake decisions, such as selecting students for the next education level or certifying students’ knowledge and skills as they enter the workforce. Thus, the results of these exams significantly affect students’ lives and futures. Hence the name “high stake exams”.
One approach being suggested as a solution is the conduction of these exams using a proctored online examination system. This option brings its own set of challenges. There are concerns regarding the ability to administer these exams free from any cheating or unfair practices. Positively to administer an online take-from-home exam, a number of factors need to be put in place to ensure that the exam produces valid, reliable, and fair results.
Online Examinations with Proctoring
Online proctoring is no doubt an excellent way to significantly reduce the incidences of cheating or use of unfair means by students. 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 comes in. It allows us to remotely invigilate the candidates while they take the exam.
Online Examination systems like UCanAssess allow for a variety of methods for online invigilation. These include real time capturing of candidate photos, screenshots, locking of the browser movements and also capturing of video/audio of the candidate.
Use of AI in Proctoring
Online proctoring creates a different problem. This is the problem of plenty. With data feeds coming against each candidate it soon becomes problematic to monitor them accurately. A single candidate’s exam duration would generate a video of 2 hours or photo snapshots in thousands which can be cumbersome to monitor accurately. Actually this is not a new problem. Even in physical exams the amount of data required to be monitored is huge and miscreants can get away with cheating if the invigilator is not alert and trained.
This is where AI plays a role. All of these digital inputs in an online examination system like UCanAssess are then subject to AI-assisted invigilation. The AI algorithm highlights incidences of impersonation, use of banned objects (like mobile phones/earphones etc) etc. in the photos. Thus, during the entire course of the exam, the candidates are monitored live by artificial intelligence and/ or human proctors placed at centralized and authorized locations. The AI raises red flags in case of suspicious activities, such as the candidate looking away from the test screen, identifying additional person/s, device detection, or an attempt to move away from the test screen, etc. These alarms can then be used as a trigger for intervention by trained human Invigilators or proctors.
This use of AI can thus reduce or even eliminate the need for actual proctors / Invigilators. This can make deployment far more scalable. One can even argue that it makes it more rigorous and stringent than human monitoring in a physical exam.
CONCLUSION
AI and Human-based Proctoring
Thus, AI enables monitoring of candidates’ behaviour and actions for suspicious activities. With cheating prediction abilities as high as 95%, our proctoring technologies combine the latest advances in AI-based and remote live proctoring to eliminate the risk of cheating.
We follow an agile development process. This helps us in delivering the desired features in the shortest possible time. Online Proctoring system allows students to take such exams from their homes without risking exposure to COVID-19. AI is changing how online examinations are conducted and making the Remote exams more secure safe and free from any unfair practices.
About the Organization
We have been managing high stake assessments using traditional Pen and Paper-based test or Online processes for nearly a decade or more. The scope of our services cover online examination system deployments, logistics, evaluation, compilation of results for various Recruitment Boards and Universities.
Our AI-enabled solutions support all means of modern evaluation techniques such as Computer Based Tests, Online Tests with AI-enabled remote/live proctoring, On-screen marking based on scanned answer scripts & entry of marks by evaluators.
Our Products like UCanApply, UCanAssess, Smart Exam can help meet your needs for a comprehensive Online Examination System, University Management System or University Examination System etc.
Thanks For Reading!
