Worldwide digitalization, along with the COVID-19 pandemic, has significantly affected the studying process. Nowadays, students can take educational courses entirely online, enjoying the benefits of e-learning. This is one of the key reasons why online proctoring services are gaining in popularity.
Worldwide digitalization, along with the COVID-19 pandemic, has significantly affected the studying process. Nowadays, students can take educational courses entirely online, enjoying the benefits of e-learning. This is one of the key reasons why online proctoring services are gaining in popularity.
If you are still confused about the meaning of a proctored exam or want to dive deeper into remote proctoring technologies, their features, benefits, and requirements, read this article and find out everything you need to know about this integral element of the digital learning environment.
The meaning of proctored exam implies that the testing process is overseen by a proctor who ensures academic integrity and prevents students from cheating. In the context of e-learning, the role of the invigilator is taken by a special software solution, which runs on a test-taker’s device and has access to their web camera and microphone. As a result, educational institutions can supervise the examination process in real time, thus reducing undesirable student activities.
Online proctoring service serves a multifaceted role in the realm of academics:
In addition to these, online proctored exams can also help to:
At the heart of any online proctored examination lies a powerful software that empowers educational bodies to build assessments within their Learning Management Systems (LMS) or bespoke testing environments. The overall process of an exam session proctoring generally encompasses three critical stages: id verification, live supervision, and data archiving and evaluation. Let's delve into this process in more detail.
Once having decided to conduct an online proctored test, educational institutions have to choose among a big variety of features that they want to include in their online exam. Let’s consider the most popular of them.
Besides these common characteristics, online testing may involve some extra features, such as content-copy protection, noise detection, facial recognition, web-tab control, mobile phone lock, locking browser, and others.
Online proctoring solutions are usually divided into three categories: live remote, recorded, and automated (AI) proctoring. Let’s find out the difference between them.
Online proctoring is a robust tool that helps to establish the integrity and reliability of online exams. It comes with benefits for both students and educational institutions. Here are the most significant of them:
To take an online exam, students are required to have access to a particular technical infrastructure. They usually need a desktop computer or laptop that complies with the proctoring system requirements and has a web camera, microphone, and robust internet connection. Sometimes, students may also be asked to have a smartphone or other device that has a camera to provide a better view of the test-taking area.
Before beginning the exam session, students can utilize a special platform, such as OctoProctor , to verify whether their hardware meets the necessary requirements for online proctoring. This provides an extra layer of assurance and minimizes potential technical glitches during the examination.
Once all the requirements are met, students can commence the test. During an online proctored exam, it’s recommended not to talk or make other noises since they can be interpreted as fraudulent behavior. Moreover, remember that as a rule, the test cannot be interrupted, meaning that you cannot exit the room until the examination is finished.
Cheating is a serious concern of modern education. Students are continuously creating new more sophisticated ways to undermine academic integrity. There is a chance of cheating during an online exam with proctoring; however, it’s very slight. Modern advanced software solutions make it almost impossible for students to bypass proctoring frameworks.
Online proctoring is gaining overwhelming popularity worldwide, fostering the adoption of e-learning. It’s an advantageous tool for both students and educational institutions. While test-takers enjoy the flexibility and fairness of online exams, organizers can reduce administrative costs and protect their reputation in the digital setting.
Nowadays there is a great variety of software solutions that offer various types of proctoring and come with a wide choice of features. Thus, every institution can build an online test in compliance with their requirements and benefit from a friendlier, more secure and efficient educational process.
We’ve rebranded to reflect who we’ve become: a science-based, privacy-focused proctoring platform designed for modern education, certification, and workforce assessments. OctoProctor represents our commitment to smarter, more adaptable, and test-taker-friendly remote proctoring.
Try proctoringBefore an online test, students usually receive a list of requirements, where it is also mentioned whether the exam implies proctors or proctoring solutions. Moreover, test-takers can’t commence an online invigilated examination without giving permission to be proctored and going through the authentication and verification processes.
During an online proctored test, students are usually asked to enable their web cameras and microphones. Live remote proctoring suggests that there is a human instructor who is to watch students’ video and audio feeds to eliminate any undesirable activities. When it comes to recorded and automated proctoring, the role of the invigilator is taken by special software that runs on a test-taker’s device.
Numerous cutting-edge proctoring solutions have rendered it almost impossible to cheat during an online exam. They come with a big variety of features (e.g., noise and voice detection, control of browser tabs, mobile phone lock, etc.) that ensure an ethical academic environment and protect the reputations of educational institutions.
Proctored testing, often equated to online proctoring, implies that an exam is supervised in real time by a proctor via the students’ web cameras and microphones. Depending on the type of proctoring, the examination process can be monitored by either a live human instructor or special software, whose main goal is to ensure the integrity of online exams and deter cheating.