How Integrity Advocate reduces test anxiety during online proctored exams

You open your exam booklet and pick up your pen. Suddenly, your heart starts to race, thumping like a trapped bird against your ribcage. Butterflies swarm and collide in your stomach. Your palms sweat, your mouth is dry, and your mind has gone blank.

Does this sound familiar? If so, you’re not alone. Test anxiety is very real, and it affects learners everywhere, from primary and secondary school students to employees taking tests for career advancement or certification.

Learners work hard to prepare for assessments that often have real-life consequences, so some anxiety is normal and perfectly reasonable under the circumstances.

But, as more tests are administered online with remote proctoring software, learners are experiencing a brand-new — and ultimately preventable — form of test anxiety. Unclear expectations, the feeling of being watched by another person, and concerns about how their natural movements and behaviors may be misinterpreted and used against them all lead to a heightened sense of nervousness during online proctored exams.

Removing the unknown and creating familiarity with the proctoring environment are important steps in reducing anxiety for online learners. To address these concerns, we recommend that organizations:

1. Set rules and participation expectations that are intuitive and consistent with a classroom environment.
2. Clearly outline the rules and participation expectations to students prior to the exam.
3. Allow learners to try the proctoring technology prior to the testing event on an ungraded, sample assessment. This way, concerns about device compatibility and unfamiliar technology can be addressed well in advance.
4. Remove the specter of someone watching them. All Integrity Advocate reviews are completed post-assessment by a single reviewer. Other than a user image no other media will be shared so long as the learner has demonstrated compliance with event rules.
5. Remove obstacles related to ID verification. Integrity Advocate allows learners to proceed past this step, holding their results until they submit their ID via a post-event email.
6. Highlight to learners that the post-event review of their session will not be done by an impersonal, often biased computer algorithm but instead by a human who is trained to interpret their behavior just as they would in person.

Organizations may not be able to eliminate test anxiety entirely, but they can ease learners’ fears by selecting the most user-friendly, seamless remote proctoring solution on the market. Get in touch to learn more.

‍