Review: webinar online proctoring 3 April

Kick-off: the panel of experts

In response to the many questions that reach us, we started the webinar by addressing the most frequently asked questions with a panel of experts. The panel consisting of Ludo van Meeuwen (Eindhoven University of Technology, where they already started with the first exams and plans to scale up to 600 students per exam), Maud Pols (University of Amsterdam, where they start the first exams using online proctoring on April 6), Silvester Draaijer (VU Amsterdam, where they are in the second week of online proctoring; exams are taken by 160 students, divided into two groups), Gerard Folkerts (Wageningen University&Research, where they have been administering exams via small-scale online proctoring for years, and are now scaling up to groups of 100). The panel addressed the following questions.

• How do you ensure students can start an exam with online proctoring without obstacles?

Maud Pols makes it clear that it is important to inform your students well. Maud shared two documents: one about starting with the assessment software and the other about working with online proctoring. Her tips were: test properly in advance and check that all settings are correct. It is also important to ensure students always have access to help during an exam. In a proctoring programme, this is usually possible via the chat function. In this way, 80% of the problems can be handled.

• How do you ensure exams are ready in the software in a fast matter?

In general, this causes few problems. Especially if the test is administered in test software that lecturers and students are already familiar with. It is also important to use a good checklist which lists the various necessary settings. It also helps to explore the best solutions for each exam together with the lecturer. Choosing the simplest solution is usually a good idea. 

• How to deal with students' privacy? And what to do when a student doesn't t want to participate?

It is important to inform the students about the consequences for their privacy in advance. It is very important to communicate clearly about the way in which privacy is guaranteed (Privacy statement), where students can find more info (for example in a Q&A), and where they can ask their questions about privacy.

If a student refuses to participate in an online proctored exam, you can look for alternatives. If there aren't any, you may choose to postpone the exam for this student.

• To what extent is online proctoring fraud-proof?

The panel agrees it is an illusion to think you can make the security of an online exam 100% air-tight. This is generally no different to a written exam on paper in an examination room. However, with online proctoring, the use of a second camera is recommended to increase fraud detection. If a second camera isn't available, provide a 360-degree view of the student's environment in advance or use a mirror to get a better view of what is going on during the exam. In addition, the panel recommends as little effort as possible to be made on multiple-choice knowledge tests, which are by definition more susceptible to fraud.

In the spotlight: three proctor providers

We then gave the floor to three providers of proctoring systems that are currently of interest in The Netherlands. Below we have listed the main features of the different packages, to compare them, as well as a reference to more information. You can download the overview here.