All you want to know about secure proctored exams, tests and assessments
Why Proctored Exams?
In an environment as highly globalized as today's world is, we seek to make appropriate
use
of technological resources that are available to humanity intending to significantly
optimize the processes carried out by it and thus obtain a better quality of life. The
educational field is not the exception because with the passage of time different tools
have
been implemented in order to facilitate the process of transmission of information and
the
interaction "Teacher-Student", taking that goal as a starting point (and thanks to the
tremendous technological advances) it has been possible to design a significant amount
of
resources that considerably facilitate the teaching process, although many of these
resources had the focus of significantly improving the existing environment in the
"classroom", many others focused on seeking the comfort of those people who could not
take
their studies "full time", because of external situations which limited their ability to
attend classes on a fixed schedule - either because of the fact they had jobs whose
schedules prevented them from taking classes in "office hours", or because their homes
were
located at a considerable distance from an institute that gave classes on a standard
schedule and even because they had different occupations which in some way or another
prevented them from being able to comply with a fixed class schedule - that is when what
we know today as distance education was born.
Although initially, distance education methods tended to be somewhat "rudimentary" (since
these basically consisted of sharing resources with the student and indicating a study
plan to be followed in order for the student to prepare to present a test at the
established
date and time) they were developed satisfactorily for many years, however, from the
middle of the 2000's it became necessary to
completely restructure the methodology used to carry out the process of "distance
instruction" and thus virtual classes were born.
The virtual classes basically seek to take advantage of the globalization process and the
full availability
of internet services to achieve in this way, establish a web page that basically works
as a classroom,
allowing those students enrolled in a specific class to be able to maintain a dynamic
communication process
with their teacher so that they can share ideas, approaches, resources and even opinions
with their students
in real time, comfortably and straightforwardly without the need for them to move from
one place to another and providing the "flexible" schedule they may need.
One of the significant problems associated with virtual education was the development of
a safe and efficient
method that would allow the development of tests and exams in a "safe" way, because
unlike conventional
distance education, it did not have an adequate method for the supervision of the
student while he developed
a test, since the curricula of conventional distance education were designed in such a
way that the student
should present his evidence by attending a specific place in which he would have a time
limit for the
development of the evaluation, such a process was supervised by a teacher or any other
agent
of the institution in order to verify that the student was not using support material or
receiving any external assistance while presenting the evidence; in virtual education
systems the thing was completely different,
because although it was possible to establish the different parameters that the student
had
to comply with (delivery time, deadline, desired format), it was not possible to verify
that it was, in fact, the student
who was developing the test or if he is using some support material, it was as a result
of this that we began to look for an adequate solution which would not only allow us to
monitor
the student visually but
also restrict the use that the student gave to his computer while carrying out the
tests,
all this in order
to avoid that the student had access to different resources that could be used as
support
material; From this need for supervision comes what is known today as online proctoring.
What is online proctoring?
As its name implies, online proctoring is a supervision service provided by different
platforms to all those institutes that have virtual class programs. The service aims to
assign a supervisor capable of analyzing the environment and behavior of a student (both in
real time and through the analysis of videos and audios) while it is being evaluated,
carrying out the supervision process, this basically will use different methods and
resources that allow you to study in detail the behavior and environment of the student in
question.
Once the test is finished and the resource used to carry out the supervision process has been
analyzed, the supervisor will proceed to dictate its consideration, which, if positive, will
allow the student to be evaluated in order to determine his/her grade based on the quality
and veracity of his/her answers; if the supervisor considers that the student used some
support resource during the development of his/her test, the student will be sanctioned
correspondingly with the statutes of each organization.
At first the method was considered as "extremely invasive", however, with the passage of
time, the same evolved to such an extent that it presents different advantages that surpass
even the traditional methods of supervision, which is why it represents one of the leading
and most efficient alternatives available to avoid cheating by those students who study on
different virtual platforms.
"Recording on webcam and using full screen lock are minimizing security concerns while
applying exams to thousands of people at the same time."
- Kubilay, CEO
Existing methods for carrying out the online proctoring process
As previously indicated, the online proctoring service has evolved considerably from its
origins and the companies in charge of providing such a service have developed different
methods that allow them to study the student in greater or less detail (everything will
depend on the method) and even limit the interaction that the student has with his
computer
while the test is under development, to give a better idea of what is being described,
then
proceed to explain the methods commonly used to carry out the online proctoring process.
Real-time Proctoring
This methodology basically consists of monitoring the student through his webcam or the
camera of his cell phone while the same develop the test in question, this method seeks
to study in real time, the actions and the environment of the student while he is
performing
the test, with the intention of making sure that such student is not using any resource
support; this methodology is usually used more frequently when the student must undergo
verbal evaluations (in which the supervisor will not only supervise but also carry out
the evaluation process) or written evaluations on paper (an event that is no longer very
common)
in which the student's gestures and facial expressions are supervised, as well as the
environment in which the student develops the test to ensure that he or she is not using
it, nor has access to support resources at the time of presenting.
Proctoring through the analysis of audio &
video recordings
This method consists of using a specific type of software which is capable of
"facilitating"
the supervision process. It is essential to point out that there is different software
for its application in the supervision area, and each one of them has different
characteristics that help the supervisor to achieve his objectives.
Proctoring through the use of specialized
software
This method consists of using a specific type of software which is capable of
"facilitating"
the supervision process. It is essential to point out that there is different software
for its application in the supervision area, and each one of them has different
characteristics that help the supervisor to achieve his objectives.
Software designed with the sole intention of facilitating the monitoring process
They are that software that have as the only objective "to facilitate a little" the
work
of the supervisor, these usually must be installed in the computer of the student,
and
basically they are supported in processes of proctoring in real time or proctoring
based on audio and video recordings, however, such software packages are also able
to limit
the use of specific applications that could be potential resources of support for a
student while the test is in
development. However, such software does not present the alternative of evaluating
the student through
its platform, which implies that these are designed solely and exclusively to carry
out a monitoring process. Hence its use is limited to those institutions capable of
evaluating through their platform.
Software designed to evaluate and carry out the supervision process
They are that software used by most institutions today, these not only have the
ability
to carry out the monitoring process both in real time and through recordings, but
also allow the
teacher of the subject to design an exam through its platform, so the student will
not require the
use of external applications during the evaluation process, so the program will
proceed to limit the
use of most applications in order to prevent the student from resorting to any of
them as a support
resource; Thanks to the options offered by this type of software, supervisors are
able to analyze in
detail the behavior of the student while they present the test and in some cases
assign the grade
immediately upon having a verdict regarding whether the student used a support
resource or not.
Although test results are published immediately upon obtaining a verdict, the
evaluation process can take anywhere from 1 to 5 days.
As mentioned above, there is a large amount of software that provides the service of
proctoring,
however, most of them operate based on the methodologies outlined above and are
selected by each
institution based on their preferences and needs, it should be noted that in most
cases
the different functionalities offered by a software significantly influence the
selection process carried out by the institutions.
How can online proctoring make the evaluation process more secure?
The origin of online proctoring is based on the need to verify that those students who were
studying through the virtual platforms of the different existing institutes were not using
any support resources during the development of their tests, because if you want to obtain a
degree
with a certain level of academic or professional relevance, it is necessary to use a system
capable of ensuring that the student has the necessary skills to achieve, at some point,
exercise the title obtained, as a result of the above it was necessary to develop an
alternative approach to verify in a very timely manner the results of the tests performed.
Based on the above and over the years, the different online proctoring methods currently
existing
were developed; This is basically due to the fact that online proctoring has managed to
overcome
several of the disadvantages associated with conventional proctoring provided by teachers in
classrooms, mainly due to the fact that it is oriented to be a service of "specialized
attention" in which the supervisor concentrates on studying only one individual in order to
determine through the study of his environment and facial expressions if he is using a
support resource.
As previously established, the efficiency of online proctoring lies in the fact that only one
individual is continuously monitored by a supervisor, which allows him to concentrate
entirely
on studying his gestures and expressions. Likewise, the different technologies used in the
area
allow even more punctual control of the actions taken by the student while he is developing
his
test, In order to reduce the level of fraud, some experts emphasized how an unsupervised
online
exam basically allowed students to resort to the different resources available and how such
an event was solved in the conventional classrooms through the supervision of teachers,
Fask, Englander, and Wang founded evidence that students taking an online unproctored test
cheated more so those taking the same test in a proctored face-to-face format, taking such a
statement as a starting point, it is possible to extrapolate the concept and establish that
those students
who take their virtual exams through online proctoring services have a significantly lower
chance of using support resources when taking their exams, which makes the results obtained
entirely accurate.
At a technical level it is possible to maintain a high level of security, given the quality
of the service and the methods used to provide it allow not only collect the data but keep
them free of any alteration or unsupervised modification, which ensures that the results
obtained are 100% reliable and that students or any other external agent to the organization
responsible for providing the service cannot have access to them (if they want to modify
them).
It is because of all the above that online proctoring is not only an excellent alternative to
significantly reduce the level of traps performed by students but also allows the proper
handling and efficient storage of reliable data which demonstrate the considerations of each
supervisor in terms of behavior and skills of the student.
Why would anyone need exam software that can provide online
proctoring services?
As mentioned above, different programs and methods allow us to carry out the online
proctoring
process. However, nowadays it is much more efficient to have a program that not only allows
us to carry out the proctoring process but also allows us to have a stable platform in which
to carry out the evaluation process, this is due to the significant change that the
educational
environment has undergone in recent years, because although initially it was "not bad" to
supervise a student while he was taking a written exam, such a practice has become
completely
inefficient due to how complicated it could be to carry out the process of proofreading
(since
it would be necessary for the student to digitalize the same to carry out the supervision
process), as a result of such situations a program capable of carrying out not only the
supervision process (which is considerably facilitated thanks to the restriction of specific
applications that these programs provide) but also the evaluation tends to be a much more
attractive and favorable option in part thanks to all the facilities it provides, as this
allows
the supervisor to focus specifically on detailing the behavior of the student while he is
developing his test, on the other hand, it is simpler for the teacher in charge of teaching
the subject to design an examination based on multiple choice questions, completion as well
as other options that allow simplifying the evaluation process considerably.
What kind of institutions requires a program that allows them to
carry
out evaluation tasks and online proctoring?
Definitely all those institutions that provide distance education services (especially those
that
provide professional instruction) should have a software that allows them to carry out safe
evaluations that can ensure the veracity of their results and the capacity of their
students,
because this will be what gives credibility to the degrees issued by such an institute, is
why universities, training centers, language schools and any other institute that provides
any virtual instruction should implement a system for the development of evaluations that
includes an online proctoring service.
Testinvite, the newest proposal when it comes to proctoring
With Testinvite, you can get access to a proctoring service that not only allows you to
carry
out monitoring processes but also allows you to conduct tests through the most modern
platform
for conducting virtual exams, such platform provides the ability to create very advanced
exams
incorporating different techniques such as multiple sections, the ability to establish a
random
pattern in the order in which questions appear, the integration of a bank of questions, the
ability to ask questions in audio and video formats, the ability to set time limits, the
much
needed restriction of applications and many more; on the other hand our cloud computing
service was built entirely from scratch based on the infrastructure used by Google, which
allows you to
store a countless number of exams and recordings simultaneously, it will also be possible to
carry out a monitoring process through the analysis of audio and video recorded while the
student presents or carry out a monitoring process in real time if desired. It is because of
all the above that Testinvite represents the best option for your institution as long as it
gives
virtual classes, or whether it wants to join such a teaching method, if you want to contact
our
services and implement our software you can find us on our website, remember that regarding
proctoring, Testinvite is your best alternative.
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