The future of online assessment and proctoring

 Challenges and solution related to remote proctoring 

Many instructors use remote proctoring technology, such as lockdown browsers or webcam monitoring, to simulate the strictness of in-classroom proctoring. During COVID-19, as institutions had to shift to remote learning, the popularity of these tools grew: Inside Higher Ed reported that in April 2020, just a month after many campuses had to close, “54 percent of institutions were using online or remote proctoring services, while another 23 percent were considering or planning to use them.”

In this blog post, we’ll take a look at the pros and cons of using remote proctoring technologies, and we’ll briefly discuss some alternative strategies for making sure students’ work is their own.

Pros: Remote proctoring keeps students from cheating

Instructors at many institutions have adopted remote proctoring technologies in the hope that they will prevent students from cheating on assignments and exams. According to this 2017 article from Inside Higher Ed, administrators and remote proctoring companies have argued that when students know they are being monitored, they are less likely to cheat. A 2018 study in the Journal on Excellence in College Teaching appears to corroborate these claims. The authors found that in their analysis of 147 students’ exam results, “on average, students using proctoring software scored 17 points (out of 100) lower than students who did not use the software.”

Remote proctoring technologies can take a variety of forms, from verifying students’ identity when they sit down to take the test at their computer to directly monitoring students during exam sessions with a webcam and microphone. Lockdown browsers prevent students from doing anything else on their computer while they’re taking the exam—whether it’s looking up answers or messaging with classmates—thereby limiting students’ activity to the completion of their test. 

Observation software uses students’ cameras and microphones. Sometimes, a human proctor monitors test-takers, and sometimes, “suspicious activity” (usually movement or looking away from the screen) is flagged by an AI for review by the instructor.

In addition to helping instructors and institutions make sure that students are taking their own tests and not looking up information or communicating with other students, remote proctoring technology can also offer flexible exam scheduling—instead of having to take their test on one particular day at one particular time, many remote proctoring systems are designed so that students can sign up for a time slot that fits their schedule.