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Should Online Courses Film Students Taking Tests? (mypalmbeachpost.com)
Recently the Palm Beach Post noted that 20% of the academic credit awarded at Florida Atlantic University is for online courses. So how can they stop cheaters?
Where once it was enough for a professor to roam the aisles of a classroom, checking for cheat sheets and keeping an eye out for students signaling one another, proctoring today's tests often requires web cams and biometric IDs. A field of more than a dozen test-proctoring services has emerged in the past decade. Typically, the company gets some sort of visual on the test taker via a web cam and then asks the student to show the camera his or her ID. Other security layers can include software that recognizes faces or even keystroking patterns.
The next step is to monitor the student during the test. In the online proctoring world, that is done in one of three ways:
* A remote but live proctor who watches in real time.
* A record-and-review method in which a proctor watches the testing session, but not in real time.
* An automated system, in which the software is programmed to spot abnormalities and flag them.
Honorlock -- one of the record-and-review outfits -- expected to proctor roughly 100,000 tests in the 2017-2018 school year, and promises schools that their solution also searches the web for copies of the test and automatically files takedown notices for any leaked copies, according to a link shared by Slashdot reader Presto Vivace. Besides filming students during tests, it also includes patented technology that "detects and prevents searching for test answers online from any secondary device." And it even verifies the identity of test takers using "any government issued" i.d. (like a driver's license or passport) or student ID which includes a photo.
One student complained on Reddit that "This seems crazy invasive and should probably be illegal," adding "is there anything passive aggressive you want me to say into the mic?" But what do Slashdot readers think? Should professors be remotely detecting searches on handheld devices, using photo IDs to verify identities -- and filming students taking tests?
* A remote but live proctor who watches in real time.
* A record-and-review method in which a proctor watches the testing session, but not in real time.
* An automated system, in which the software is programmed to spot abnormalities and flag them.
Honorlock -- one of the record-and-review outfits -- expected to proctor roughly 100,000 tests in the 2017-2018 school year, and promises schools that their solution also searches the web for copies of the test and automatically files takedown notices for any leaked copies, according to a link shared by Slashdot reader Presto Vivace. Besides filming students during tests, it also includes patented technology that "detects and prevents searching for test answers online from any secondary device." And it even verifies the identity of test takers using "any government issued" i.d. (like a driver's license or passport) or student ID which includes a photo.
One student complained on Reddit that "This seems crazy invasive and should probably be illegal," adding "is there anything passive aggressive you want me to say into the mic?" But what do Slashdot readers think? Should professors be remotely detecting searches on handheld devices, using photo IDs to verify identities -- and filming students taking tests?
From students showing their student photo ID to enter an exam room and sitting down to do the exam in front of a person. Over a set time.
Domestic spying is now "Benign Information Gathering"
Professors and teachers and proctors get to watch people taking tests to make sure they aren't cheating. Remote? A video camera and microphone is to be expected.
When you grow up, you'll learn about video conferences and industry certifications you can only take at certain test centers. So quit whining about the monitoring; if you don't like it go find a city dumb enough to try UBI and live in a cardboard box under a bridge.
way to stand up and be heard, AC
You damn well better expect to have strict anti-cheating regulations.
Nobody would or should respect any course where the student can have their uncle take the test with nobody the wiser.
You shouldn't be concerned if you're among the 95% of generally honest folks. But there is a need to protect against the 5% of people who lie through their teeth and steal anything that's not bolted down.
For example:
Masters Level Nursing Courses via the University of Texas ( Arlington ) require that you have a webcam enabled where
you and your computer / desk are in full view at all times during any test. ( It is monitored in real time during the test )
Before the test even starts, you will show your StudentID to the camera so they can verify you are who you claim to be.
You must then pan the room with the webcam to show you are alone and that nothing is on or around your desk you can
use to cheat. You are not allowed to leave the room once the test starts and you cannot talk with anyone.
Even though you can do all of your coursework and testing remotely via the above method, the certification tests ( NCLEX )
will require you to test at one of their approved locations.
Such snooping is insulting and unfortunate but necessary. Large scale cheating is widespread at tier one universities. ( I can personally document.) Not to stop it is to disadvantage the honest student and enable the rot that now consumes business and politics.
I sure hope you didn't teach an online english course.
Offended? Find a safe space and cry yourself to sleep.
Should be easy enough.
http://www.lexicolatry.com/201...
Even easier - maybe she already has one!
Ezekiel 23:20
If people want to cheat, let them cheat. It's supposed to be about learning, not about entry into some sort of exclusive aristocratic order.
No one will value your institution's credential any higher if you take an extra step to foil cheaters. Most graduates of most institutions are mediocre anyway. You're not going to fool employers into accepting your credentials as the first and last word on someone's capabilities, regardless.
Cut a deal with one of those national "testing center" companies, and require students to sit for exams at one of their locations. They're not everywhere, but they're distributed widely enough that most students won't have a very long drive.
Where do you find a British Council in Yoknaphathawa County, Mississippi, USA?
Just make the tests really hard, and make it open book and take home. Hell, that’s the way my electromagnetics final was in grad school. Take it home for three days, and team up with a partner. It was only 4 problems, and they were TOUGH.
I'm the Canvas admin (course management system) and the guy that integrates HonorLock, ProctorU and all the other LTIs we use - off hand, TurnItIn is the only other one we have designed to catch "cheating".
We have an agreement with the other 28 non-research state colleges in Florida for in-person proctoring at on-campus testing centers. We offer proctoring on campus, and our online instructors can schedule entire sections or have students come in by appointment.
I help faculty design courses. I encourage project based grading when it is appropriate. Some things really do come down to multiple choice testing. In that case, we encourage shorter time limits, like 45 seconds to a minute per question with a couple of extra minutes added. A second exam with a separate time limit for a few short essay questions and you have something workable if not ideal.
I teach classes - both face to face and online. Again, I use project based grading, and exams are done online, un proctored, and come to 20-35% of the final grade depending on which class. Exam scores average out to 85% if you take out the 0s from students who forgot to take the exam...
I'm taking online classes, and most of the major grades have been project based or written papers, not multiple choice exams. Most of the "traditional" type exams I've taken in online courses have been small quizzes designed to make sure we are doing the textbook reading. Often graded discussion is used for this as well.
As for using services like this, I'm of two minds. Plenty of other options for having an exam proctored - if I had to take a proctored exam I would use a testing center. And I understand how some may not be able to do so. However, I would like to see more effort made to inform students of exactly what the software does, and how to totally disable it and remove it and reset any other settings it tweaked when it is no longer needed. Even to set up the LTIs I had to install a chrome extension that did some pretty serious spying - did it on a lab machine with Deep Freeze on it so I could reboot and be sure it was all removed.
Don't blame me, I voted for Kodos
It's much more "natural" to take a test in a room in front of a human proctor than staring in front of a camera. It would be nice to be able to go to a proctored center and take the test -- probably cheaper as well, since one proctor can watch 40-50 students.
Some thing that requires more than selecting an option or regurtitating something. or replace tests with projects, reports, etc. that requires original input.
putting the 'B' in LGBTQ+
Students to take a test for another student. The face will not match the student ID.
Domestic spying is now "Benign Information Gathering"
Why not? There are lots of summer school programs.