Academic dishonesty is a bad practice that many schools and colleges strive to prevent. And thanks to the Proctor program, some schools have achieved this. This software has an efficient and effective mechanism to minimize cheating cases if the student is doing the exams remotely.
Such features could be facial recognition and detecting all activities on your screen. This guide carries the correct details if you want to discover how this proctoring software will help you.
What is Proctor?
Proctor is a proctoring software to curb cheating in schools during examination sessions. It is a virtual proctoring service that many colleges and schools adopted to control the examination environment easily.
This system enables faculties to prompt their students to take the exam on canvas while this proctoring software observes all their activities on the screen.
Proctor is a powerful tool that creates a lockdown for students by providing a controlled environment to monitor the students’ behaviors during exam sessions.
This tool works well for high-stakes exams providing an additional layer of security and oversight.
Proctor works uniquely, whereby the faculty creates an exam event and schedules the students for the specified period.
When the exams are due, the students will access the Proctor, get the proctor assignment and begin the intake process.
How the Proctor Works
As a proctor software, Proctor works by verifying student details such as the college identification, scanning of the physical testing environment, and the human proctor to monitor the webcam and the screen.
For one to begin this canvas exam, you must have login with your password. This Proctor tool has a provision to chat with the student if there is a need to pass certain information.
If you are the test-taker, you enjoy the services of Proctor as it offers you the convenience to test the student in the comfort of your home or a private study room. In addition, you need the following items to take an exam using this software:
- A working webcam
- A functioning microphone
- A strong internet connection
- A quiet, private, and well-lit room
- Proctor account
This software works great for test administrators. Some of its features in a 24/7 live and fully automated platform backed by artificial intelligence.
The software is suitable for academic institutions and other professional organizations that administer examinations or corporate training tests.
This Proctor platform is easy to use as a test administrator.
First off, you need to create an account and access the options to upload exams and review student sessions. You must set parameters including allowing breaks, specifying permitted materials, and extra time needed for each student.
Can you Cheat on Proctor Exam?
Proctor is a program that detects some of the prohibited activities like opening a web browser or unauthorized programs.
It is not possible to cheat Proctor because it is a strict and effective proctoring software. Proctor makes it difficult for the students to consult with outside services during exam sessions. This service is not a threat to students’ privacy but allows some professors to prevent cheating and safeguard exam integrity.
One great advantage with Proctor is that it has different monitoring levels to decrease or increase student surveillance. During the session, a student has audio and video all the time.
Before the exam commences, the student must provide a 360 degrees view of their space. When the exam occurs, there shall be monitoring of students’ movement, audio, and computer activity to ensure no cheating is possible.
In addition, the program uses artificial intelligence to track the student’s eye movement and nay suspicious motions. When it detects such unusual activities, they will flag it without making any warnings.
How to Cheat on Proctor
Although Proctor intends to prevent cheating in schools and colleges during examination sessions, there are loopholes that students can use to access the examination notes and cheat to pass that particular test.
First off, Proctor has no remedy for controlling someone using a virtual machine to access some details for cheating gains.
Cheating becomes easy when you load them up a virtual machine and take the examination inside it while allowing you to do anything on your host machine.
One advantage of using a virtual machine when taking the online exam is that the test taker can connect the screen-sharing app such as join.me to the host machine. This helps to make online exams reliable because it prevents cheating.
For that reason, it allows one to remote control the mouse and take that exam. As such, that creates an impression or confuses the webcam that the student in view is the one taking the examination.
Additionally, this virtual machine allows the student to use Google, notes, or textbook on the host machine to access the suitable materials to answer the asked question and succeed in your cheating missions.
Another method that assists the student to cheat on Proctor exams is to mirror your screen thanks to the HDMI cable, which can display the outside room. After that, involve the number of friends who can research answers and pass them to you.
The reason why it is so easy to cheat on the Proctor exam it lacks in-person supervision. There is a limited area where the webcam covers since a single camera only points to the test taker and fails to determine if another person is in the room.
If you lack the complete view of the room, it becomes impossible to notice if someone is passing information to the test-taker. This is one of the ways how students cheat in online classes and try their trickery on the examiners.
Another loophole is that all security features in this Proctor program will only guard against the activities happening on the computer.
The test-taker will be scrolling down the questions for other people in the room to see and research for the answers at pass it to him accordingly.
How Schools Can Prevent Proctor Cheating
Academic dishonesty is rampant in several colleges promoting these institutions to implement some measures to control this practice. Here are proven methods that one can employ to reduce cheating in online classes, and in this case when using proctor.
1. Set Integrity Policies
Different colleges and universities have definite policies about cheating as spelled in their code of conduct.
Such is the most effective measure to instill a sense in the mind of students to avoid cheating.
For instance, if the student breaks the policies, serious consequences may follow, such as suspension or expulsion from the program.
The best practice is to allow the students to sign an honor code statement before taking any test.
2. Using Key Verification Software
The college can implement essential verification software as a method of cheating prevention. This approach is relatively straightforward as the student will type a short phrase which the software program analyzes.
It will assess the typing speed, rhythm, and other personal characteristics to fill the biometric profile of every student. Before submitting any work, it must undergo verification.
3. Variable Testing
Many students tend to access resourceful sites such as CourseHero and Chegg to find a solution for their answers during a testing session. One can prevent this occurrence by making quiz banks and randomizing questions so that students have a challenge in sharing answers.
The professor can change assessments for every semester by creating multiple versions of quizzes for every class. Furthermore, the professor should include explanation or essay questions which makes it easy to detect if you only copied the answer from a particular source.
4. Manage Access of Personalized Devices
It is critical to establish rules concerning cellphones and other devices during exam sessions. One method is to create a designated area for the student to place their gadgets before entering an examination room.
Another way is to let the student put their phones upside down to not read the contents in the phones when the exams are on. Some students may have installed apps like Photomath that can be used to cheat during exams. Therefore, phones should not be in exams.
Caught Cheating On Proctor? Here’s what to Do
If the lecturer gets you cheating on Proctor, you have several options to exploit. Firstly, you can use diplomacy to negotiate for a lesser punishment.
Explain to the lecture that you were acting under duress to pass the exam and ask for another chance to resit for the next exam instead of facing dismissal from the programs.
If you establish that the lecture lacks sufficient evidence to prove that you cheated, you can deny the allegations and ask for proof.
However, you should bear in mind that Proctor detects your computer activities, which is already a piece of hard evidence against you.
Such knowledge will help you frame your defense. Or at least it could help you stay off the hook. Check out that related post on what Proctor detects to understand more about proctoring programs.
How does Proctor Know if a Student is Cheating?
Proctor has a mechanism to provide exam recording and later indicate the suspicion ratings for every exam attempt using facial recognition and machine learning technology. This software does not support label students as cheaters but in ratings only for the examiner to analyze alarming reports.
Joseph is a freelance journalist and a part-time writer with a particular interest in the gig economy. He writes about schooling, college life, and changing trends in education. When not writing, Joseph is hiking or playing chess.