Page 29 - Campus Technology, August/September 2017
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SPECIAL SECTION: ONLINE LEARNING
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CAMPUS TECHNOLOGY | August/September 2017
Nobody’s Watching: Proctoring in Online Learning
There is no single best way to handle proctoring for digital courses, as this community college system pilot discovered.
By Dian Schaffhauser
USING ANSWERS PROVIDED BEFOREHAND to pass online tests; checking a cell phone display to look up a formula in a closed-book exam; conferring with an unseen person in the room for the right responses. Cheating in an online course seems like it could be a simple matter for a motivated student.
That’s why, as colleges and universities grow their online courses and programs, one aspect they need to nail down is how to provide the testing oversight traditionally handled by an impartial person sitting in the same room as the test-taker.
This is hardly a new challenge for schools. The Higher Education Opportunity Act of 2008 lays out the rule: An institution offering “distance education” needs to have processes in place for verifying student identity to ensure that the student who registers for a class is the “same student who participates in and completes the program and receives the academic credit.”4
