Proctoring is a tool used to supervise online exams, guaranteeing the quality of the evaluation process without requiring the physical presence of either the student or teacher in any specific place.
In academic circles, the word proctor refers to a person who supervises or monitors students, normally during an evaluation. When using the word in relation to the performance of evaluation tests, we are talking about a methodology of carrying out examinations in which invigilation is conducted remotely: a proctored exam.
Invigilating an online proctored exam
Teaching methods have changed dramatically in recent years. Virtual teaching is becoming increasingly more present in education, making it possible to acquire knowledge, skills, and abilities remotely.
However, evaluation processes have not changed at the same speed. Until very recently, we have come across numerous barriers when conducting evaluations and assessments remotely.
For this reason, assessment tools have begun to emerge that seek to ensure the quality of the assessment process without the need for the student and examiner to coincide in a specific physical space. Pedagoo is responsible for ensuring that online tests are performed under the same conditions as those required for an official exam. The example of our evaluation platform is especially important in situations like the one we are currently experiencing with COVID-19.
The technological innovation necessary to apply proctoring has been designed by Pedagoo with the aim of guaranteeing the evaluation during the current academic year, even if situations of quarantine or suspension of school classes arise, making further remote testing necessary.
How to avoid cheating and advantages of online proctored exams
Pedagoo’s Proctoring tool includes identity verification, automated monitoring, content protection, secure browser settings, device lock, originality authentication, administrative controls, and instant deep analysis of a student’s activity during a test.
If Pedagoo already offered numerous advantages, such as the possibility of digitalizing evaluations in the classroom or carrying them out remotely, proctoring offers goes one step further: not only allows the identity of the person taking the exam to be verified, thus avoiding impersonations, but it also allows the proctor to know if the student has opened another tab of their Internet browser or a chat during the test.
In this way, the conditions of a test taken remotely are much more akin to the surveillance with which face-to-face exams are conducted, which increases security for both teachers and students.
Proctoring responds to the need for authentication required by the education system for its online evaluations with means that use webcam technology or the student’s mobile in a 100% secure way thanks to data encryption and the protocol surrounding how the images are received.
The implementation of proctoring technology is a new Pedagoo innovation, which in the last year has already improved and simplified its use for schools, through the creation of a four-step system that allows teachers to create their own questions, generate the assessment, share a link with their students in order for them to access the exam, and automatically mark the results.
In this way, teachers only have to prepare the exam (just as they would do for a conventional paper test ) and Pedagoo generates the evaluation for them. But the advantages don’t stop there; the assessment can be shared by any type of technological platform used by the educational center: from email to Microsoft Teams, WhatsApp, Zoom, Google Classroom or Skype.
The exams that are launched from Pedagoo can be carried out both in person in the classroom, with the corresponding technological instruments, as well as remotely. Therefore, the uncertainties that schools may face if there were to be a period of suspension of face-to-face classes due to quarantine, for reasons connected to the COVID-19 pandemic, are eliminated.
In the classroom, the main advantage in this situation is that the use of paper in exams is eliminated, avoiding a possible route for the spread of SARS-CoV-2. According to health authorities, virus can last up to three hours on printing paper, such as that used in tests.
In addition, with Pedagoo, exam correction is automatic. This allows teachers to focus more on teaching and for schools to obtain statistics and data on the performance of their students.
Learn how to use proctoring with the Pedagoo Knowledge Center
A few months ago, we welcomed the Pedagoo Knowledge Center, a platform that aims to offer help and support to our users in the most effective way. Among other things, this tool answers various questions that may arise when using the Pedagoo proctoring tool.
- How to activate our Proctoring service?
- How to start a supervised evaluation?
- How to view the report in a supervised evaluation?
- How to understand the proctoring report?
If you still have questions about how our proctoring service works, do not hesitate to contact us. It is the perfect tool to monitor your exams online!
