There is no doubt that digital exams and the convenience that it offers students and educators is here to stay. What proved a convenient workaround during the Covid pandemic is fast becoming standard practice in higher education institutions around the world. But this surge in popularity brings with it a pressing concern: the imperative to ensure exam security and safeguard academic integrity in assessments.

Online proctoring plays a pivotal role in both addressing the challenges of exam integrity, security and maintaining the credibility of the assessment process. It therefore follows that alongside the growing number of online assessment platforms, sits a burgeoning range of online proctoring software designed to monitor and secure online exams.

With so many options out there, how do you know which proctoring solution will offer you the security you are after? Are you aware of the full extent of possibilities that proctoring technology offers – and if so, how do you identify what capabilities you actually need? These are the questions this blog looks to address.

Proctoring Solutions and Exam Security

Before you start looking at individual proctoring options, it’s important you have a full understanding of what online proctoring is actually designed to do; its capabilities, as well as its limitations.

At its most basic level, online proctoring uses a variety of technological features to replicate the security and invigilation that is offered with in-person exams. Specific functionalities vary across software, but the majority include video and audio monitoring, recording and screen sharing. Proctoring software is also capable of tracking movements made by the test-taker as well as their interaction with computer hardware e.g. keyboard and mouse. The way these interactions and behavior are monitored by the proctoring solution will vary.

The development of AI proctoring means irregular behavior can be detected, analyzed and flagged by the software. This allows a human proctor to investigate there and then during the exam or review post-exam to assess whether further action is needed.

A Note on How We Approach Academic Integrity

Inspera doesn’t believe in using “anti-cheating” rhetoric to promote its proctoring services. Much of the resistance in education to proctoring services stems from a misguided view that students are being spied on with a view to being “caught out.” Indeed, if we pitch proctoring as a service designed to detect cheating it is easy to see how students in particular could be wary of assessments under such conditions. In addition, the very nature of proctoring is designed to promote exam integrity while also flagging potential suspicious behavior. By definition it isn’t an anti-cheat solution, and any claims that AI can facilitate this should be treated with caution.

Finding the Best Online Proctoring Software For You

Naturally there are many steps involved in the process of migrating to an online assessment environment. But assuming you are at the stage of needing to procure a proctoring solution, it is crucial that you define your needs and choose the best software that suits them, as opposed to getting blinded by the level of innovation on offer.

We recommend that before you go shopping, you define your answers to these questions:

  • Do you need live or recorded proctoring (or both)?
  • Will the proctor be in-house, outsourced (or both)?
  • What level of digital literacy will the proctors possess?
  • Will devices used in assessment be provided by the institution, the students’ own or both?

This should give you a sense of the nature of proctoring software you require. When researching specific proctoring solutions, keep these questions at the forefront of your mind:

  • How scalable and easy to implement is the solution?
  • Is it compatible with various learning management systems (LMS)? What other software does it integrate with?
  • Are there customization options for specific institutional requirements?
  • Does it comply with the privacy and security standards you require?

Comparing Proctoring Solutions

Once you have defined your requirements, we then suggest researching the best online proctoring software available. Make sure you see the software in action so that you can gain a full understanding of the interface, capabilities and how it might function within your institution.

What you’ll find across almost all solutions are the following capabilities:

    • Monitoring through webcam, secondary camera, microphone and/or screen capture
    • Choice of whether to use a live proctor or record and review post-exam
    • Optional lockdown browser
    • Identity checks and room scan pre-exam
    • LTI 1.3 integration with the leading LMSs (Canvas, Blackboard, D2L & Moodle).

 Inspera Proctoring

Inspera Proctoring is a remote proctoring solution that has been expertly developed with a focus on empowering academics to make decisions by using AI to assist them rather than take control away from them. By this, we mean that AI technology is there to flag potential breaches, allowing you to view as much of each recording as you feel necessary to make an informed decision about whether suspicious behavior occurred during the assessment.

Inspera’s strengths come from the product’s flexibility. You can choose, per exam, between recorded and live proctoring, using either your institution’s proctors or Inspera’s own. This enables each educator to select what works for their subject or class, rather than a top-down institution-level one-size-fits-all solution. Additionally, live support is available 24 hours a day to help teams around the world when needed.

Ultimately, Inspera understands assessment, the best way to proctor in different scenarios and the level of service provided to customers.

 Honorlock

Honorlock is an online test proctoring service that combines AI software with live test proctors. Honorlock doesn’t have its own proprietary assessment platform but it does integrate with major LMSs such as Canvas, Blackboard, Moodle, D2L and Intellum. However, as with all integration, the ongoing success of this is dependent on how the integration works. What it does well is detecting other devices in the environment and searching for matches in online test banks. However the latter can also be done manually.

 Examity

Examity, which is part of Meazure Learning, is also designed to offer a variety of online proctoring services that can be scaled up or down depending on your needs. One of Examity’s strengths is the on-demand exam scheduling, so test-takers can schedule in when to take their exam. However, you have to access this through Google Chrome, which could cause an issue with exams taken on BYOD devices for any devotees to other browsers.

 ExamOnline

While ExamOnline shares similar functionality with other remote proctoring services we’ve discussed here, it does emphasize that its advanced AI proctoring technology “detects and prevents cheating in real-time”. However, its features work in much the same way as the other providers except for lip and eye movement detection, although we are starting to see that emerge across other platforms too.

 Proctorio

Proctorio is a remote proctoring software that prides itself on addressing privacy concerns while remaining a convenient way to deliver exams with integrity. Like the other providers, Proctorio offers live human proctoring and automated AI-only proctoring depending on your assessment needs. Proctorio also offers on-demand exam scheduling.

What to Ask a Proctoring Company

Now you’re ready to approach your chosen provider, you will undoubtedly have questions for them. We’ve compiled a short list below of things to cover with your potential new provider to make the process as smooth as possible:

        1. How flexible are your proctoring solutions?
        2. How do your proctoring solutions help us maintain academic integrity?
        3. What are your training and quality management processes for proctors?
        4. Am I able to choose between self-proctoring or your proctors?
        5. Who makes the decision as to whether academic integrity has been maintained and how do your proctoring solutions enable me to do this?
        6. How scalable and resilient is your proctoring?
        7. What happens if a candidate’s internet connection fails?
        8. What role does AI play in your proctoring solution?
        9. How do you ensure a smooth student journey when using proctoring?
        10. How do you ensure our staff are effectively trained to use your proctoring solutions?

Ready to Hear More? Book a Demo

With so many online proctoring tools out there, it can be confusing and time-consuming to know what solution is going to be the best fit for your institution. That’s why we highly recommend seeing Inspera Proctoring in action and learning more about how it can be customized to suit your needs.

Book a Demo

 

 

Written by Jo Bowden

April 26, 2024
Proctoring