Shockingly the entire education sector went through a paradigm shift, considering the never-before-seen COVID pandemic. Institutes & students had to quickly adapt & evolve to justify & maintain the sanctity of learning and assessments during the situation. Surprisingly, the pandemic also opened entirely new avenues of learning & assessments for a more sustainable academic infrastructure. Online Proctoring is one such & probably the most essential functionality which supports this cause globally.
Online Proctoring
The online proctoring mechanism came handy as an essential tool for universities, colleges & schools to monitor & manage the student assessment process. This is a digitized tool. It ensures that the integrity of any exam is maintained at all times during an assessment.
Online Proctoring Aims to Achieve:
- Assessee Authentication
- Seamless Live Audio-Visual Streaming
- Uninterrupted Webcam Monitoring
- Restricted Browsing
- AI-enabled Suspicious Activity Detection
- Presence of Unauthorized Person Around
What does an Ideal Online Proctoring Solution provide?
In the current scenario, most institutions are trying to provide remote learning & assessment facilities to students. It gives them the liberty to maintain the pace & continuation of learning. Obviously, by looking at the demand level of remote proctoring requirements, several solution providers have come up with their products in the market. However, an institution should always evaluate their alternatives carefully before procuring and introducing any such solution in their infrastructure. The remote proctoring solution should not compromise on these imperative deliverables at any cost.
1. Inclusive of essential parameters:
Any competent online proctoring system should offer end to end assessment solutions. The entire infrastructure should address each & every roadblock in the middle of conducting a fair assessment in a remote scenario. Critical aspects such as biometric authentication & further physical movement of the candidate should be captured immaculately.
2. Comprehensive & integration-friendly:
Any education institute should lookout for an online proctoring solution which can merge well with their existing academic infrastructure. The functionalities of the solution should have optimum compatibility with most digital academic systems. Any hick-ups in such integration would have a catastrophic effect on the entire examination process & will affect the candidate in a tense situation.
3. Offers scalability
A perfect online proctoring software should have the capability to work at different scales. Irrespective of the number of candidates attempting remotely proctored exams simultaneously or otherwise, the system should have the capability to accommodate volumes with functional accuracy. Institutes & candidates should not experience time lag owing to the incapability of the software & should serve the purpose perfectly.
4. Equipped for customization
Just like any other product, an online proctoring solution should also be able to operate with specially tailored functions. Various institutions & courses would have varied kinds of prerequisites. Some would want utmost functional ease for the massive geographical spread of candidates & some would want enhanced security features. Depending upon the level of stakes associated with the assessment, requirements would vary. Hence, customization would be a great feature for a competent online proctoring solution.
5. Integrated reporting mechanism
Reporting is an integral & critical part of any online remote proctoring. Any online proctoring services which don’t support this function do incomplete work for the institutions. Any advanced proctoring solution should have a real-time report generation feature. It forms a transparent environment for the institute & candidate both to have faith & sanctity of the assessment process.
6. Cost-sensitive
Online proctors are the need of the hour for most educational institutes. However, it is not at all necessary to have a mammoth portion of your digital infrastructure expenditure budget. Various service & product providers are present in the market such as Proctortrack to offer best in class solutions with competitive pricing.
7. Appropriate Proctoring Method
Online proctored exams would have different needs. The geographical scale, the number of candidates & level of associated stakes should match with an appropriate proctoring method. At a very macro level typically three main methods are being used currently.
- Auto proctoring
This method uses the AI support mechanism. It helps to achieve optimum vigilance during any assessment. It is equipped with features & functionalities to track & highlight inappropriate physiological movements of the candidate.
- Live proctoring
Live proctoring tries to achieve the best of both worlds. It helps the invigilator track & monitor every candidate with the support of AI integrated with the system. It helps in real-time interventions & corrections.
- Record & review proctoring
For assessments where the scale of the exam is too high & may need to support various time zones across the geography, this feature comes in handy. This proctoring method shares the audio-visual & screen activities of the candidate. This method offers flexibility for both parties without compromising on quality.
Proctortrack:
Advanced online proctoring technology such as Proctortrack further enhances the robustness of the entire mechanism with the utmost ease of utilisation by the end-users. Proctortrack uses state of art technology solutions to deliver best in class online exam proctoring. The best part about it is that it offers a plethora of features & utmost customization to match the institution’s exact requirements. Some of the key features which make this proctoring solution one of a kind:
Online proctoring solutions available on five levels
Customization to match with high & law stake exams
Optimum use of AI for maintaining seamless security
DIY solutions for high scale low price combinations
Complete integration with Blackboard
Scalable & comprehensive solutions
Benefits of Online Proctoring
- Mutual Confidence
For a very obvious reason, online proctoring brings to the table a very critical element to running a successful & trusted education institute. It gives the examiner & candidate conviction that the entire process was conducted fairly.
- Convenience of Access
Needless to say, having the benefit of anywhere & anytime access to an examination does break the barriers of logistical & geographical constraints. Now a student sitting in India can easily attempt an exam being conducted by a university-based in Canada. Here the university would also be assured of the maintained integrity of the candidate with the support of an online proctoring solution.
- Cost Advantage
Any time the use of technology will give better economical results. Even after being compared to a manual man-power based infrastructure. It gives liberty to the institutions to enrol students in volumes without much worry about resource management. Also, the scalability is attached to the online proctoring. And it nullifies the expense fluctuation issue.
Online Proctoring: The Way Forward
The whole world has acknowledged the transformed face of the education system. Digital solutions can only ensure continuity, deliverance & sanctity of the learning & assessment needs. Universities, colleges & schools across the globe are exploring ways to integrate resourceful digital solutions into their existing infrastructures. Webcam proctored testing does the work for them. It offers a fine culmination of artificial intelligence with human judgement. Ultimately to reach the goal of an ethical, unified & boundaryless assessment environment.
