Proctoring is only part of the solution

You will never create a testing event that cannot be compromised — that’s impossible. Whether you are protecting yourself on a trip abroad, your home from a break in, your computer files from destruction, or the president of a country from harm, the goal of any security expert is not to create a perfect barrier of protection but rather to “harden” or reduce its surface of vulnerability to an acceptable level.

The same principal applies to an online testing event. The best you can do is strive to create an environment where unethical efforts to gain an advantage are more difficult than proper preparation. 

While the internet may be a relatively new environment for academic testing, all in-person, high-stakes testing have common characteristics that can be applied to remote testing events: 

• Well-communicated expectations as to the rules
• Severe and well-communicated ramifications for not following the rules
• Participants cannot effectively communicate with others during the event
• Participants all write at the same time
• There are set time limits to the examination
• Exams are short enough for participants to complete without biological breaks
• Participants have no pre-knowledge of the specific exam questions selected for the writing. This does not mean the questions are secret — prep courses and the very curriculum being tested should have clearly indicated what would be tested. The best results will come from selecting questions from a question pool much larger than the number of questions to be served.
• The questions themselves are served one at a time in random order. If using multiple-choice, the choices should be randomized, and if possible include multiple wordings of correct and incorrect answers.
  

Adopting the same characteristics above for your online test cannot guarantee that your examination is free from the possibility of unethical behaviour. But it will harden your testing and make unethical behaviour more effort than just preparing for the examination as intended.

Integrity Advocate believes strongly that a balance can be found between the absolute need to ensure the integrity of online events with the individual privacy rights of each participant. 

Contact us today to find out how we provide an online proctoring service that maintains the highest level of security and privacy for participants.