Remote proctoring

Discussion in 'General Distance Learning Discussions' started by Kizmet, Aug 13, 2018.

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  1. Kizmet

    Kizmet Moderator

  2. Dustin

    Dustin Well-Known Member

    I took one final exam using ProctorU, and I wouldn't repeat the process. The cost was cheap, I think around $30 as compared to the $70 I paid through my local university. (Edit: Looking it up, that's $30.75 for a 3-hour exam with the fee differing depending on the length of the exam.)

    I was very uncomfortable with the procedure. ProctorU sources their proctors from the Philippines, and they watch you using a webcam. I can't remember how long their face appeared on my screen - maybe the whole exam. I think I would have been more comfortable if my face had appeared instead, even knowing that image was being sent to the proctor. Seeing the proctor's face and talking to them just weirded me out. They make you point a mirror at your webcam to see the space around your laptop - which is reasonable but feels weird.

    In the end, I was glad to get my exam done, but I felt like it took me out of my element to have this person watching while I completed my online exam. Stopping to think, instead of focusing on how to write a response, I was more acutely aware of the fact that someone might be looking at me.
     
  3. cookderosa

    cookderosa Resident Chef

    my sons have used Proctor U for probably 40 exams - the experience really depends on the specific proctor. Some are laid-back and just check you and you go. Others are very detailed and precise about the setting. I think proctoring, in general, is cheap enough that it is becoming the norm for distance learning.
     
  4. Kizmet

    Kizmet Moderator

  5. FTFaculty

    FTFaculty Well-Known Member

    I just make the exams tough and based on conceptual understanding rather than memorization (think Bar exam) so they can't just look things up quick like. Write almost all of the test questions also, so they can't just google them up on Chegg or Course Hero. Set up a test bank with typically two to three times the number of questions in the bank as are pulled for the exams and randomize the questions, so they can't cheat off of each other. I give them little time to think, the questions might take 45 seconds or so to read on average, and I give them 75 seconds per question. Then I just let them go, open book/note. I have not had anyone get a 100 on an exam in three years. Averages in the 50s and 60s, sometimes high-40s. I have to curve to keep from failing half the class, but that's the way it goes. Everyone gets a real challenge. Everyone has to fight for it. The crybabies just have to decide whether they're going to man/woman up and learn something and stop being lazy butts or whether they're going to drop or get dinged with a D or F. Their call. The only way someone could crack the code and thwart my little plans is if they bribe someone really smart to take the exam for them. They could get me there. But that's about it.
     
    Maniac Craniac likes this.
  6. cookderosa

    cookderosa Resident Chef

    OT, but I find the irony delicious that when teachers are lazy and turn to the canned publisher-developed content that their students (equally bright but considerably more tech-savvy) can find these answers on the internet. As a teacher that started in the pre-internet era, frankly, I think it's awesome and serves them right.
     
  7. Kizmet

    Kizmet Moderator

  8. Kizmet

    Kizmet Moderator

    I don't mind admitting that I get a funny feeling every time someone asks for a degree program that doesn't require proctored exams. It's not that I think proctoring is some flawless system or anything like that but you'd think you'd want to at least make a minimal effort to discourage online cheating. Anyway here's a story about 2 proctoring companies merging, or something like that

    https://apnews.com/Business%20Wire/12d72c247f3040858fe9a1accc8e8649
     
  9. Vonnegut

    Vonnegut Well-Known Member

    I had a handful of final exams that I had to take with a proctor while finishing my bachelors. Using the online proctors was a bit of a strange experience, but worked fairly well.
     

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