Online education is has become a widely known phenomenon as more and more people are availing online courses to gain knowledge and skills without having to attend classes at a college or university campus. And, due to this widespread popularity of e-Learning, many techniques are mushrooming to instill reliability and authenticity into online programs.
One practice that is infusing trust into online exams is proctoring. Though test proctoring is mostly taken for granted when it is conducted on-campus since there are several professors and assistants to invigilate. However, it is a real challenge to manage an online exam proctoring service.
Many institutions are formulating disparate strategies to administer online proctored assessments. When there is no formal policy, the decisions related to proctoring are made by the faculty. In many cases, students also use learning management systems to go through instructional contact and submit assignments, but this does not always work. Hence, there is a need for an apt online exam proctoring service, especially for those students who stay far away from the campus.
The Growing Need for Exam Proctoring
What has been noticed in the past couple of years is that students residing in remote areas have to look for authorized proctors in places near them. The proctors could be a librarian, as church minister or a pastor and its cases like these where there is no assurance that the proctor will meet the expectations of the institution unless there is a video recording to prove the legitimacy of the exam.
A genuine exam proctoring service can help your institution provide a seamless online examination experience to your students without having them to visit the campus. There are majorly three types of online proctoring services out there.
- Live Online Proctoring
A live proctored exam involves an invigilator monitor a student’s screen & audio-video feeds in real-time. In this kind of proctoring service, a proctor will be placed in a remote area to check the authentication of the candidate and detect any unusual activity during the exam.
- Recorded Proctoring
Recorded proctoring entails the screen and audio-video share feeds to be recorded during the examination, hence, there is no need for a proctor to keep an eye over the students in real-time.
- Advanced Automated Proctoring
This is the most modern type proctoring where the screen and audio-video feeds are recorded and there is a system to monitor any fraudulent activity by using audio and video analytics.
Now, to choose a suitable online exam proctoring service, you need to conduct a market survey and seek services that fir into your budget. It can get a bit challenging to pinpoint the right service that will satisfy your institution’s proctoring needs as there are several vendors out there. But, you have to go for the one that offers you the maximum benefits.