Comparing Proctoring Services: AI vs. Live Proctoring

When you compare online proctoring services, you may be surprised to find that they come in so many shapes and sizes. You get the freedom to choose whatever might be best for your school, but it can also be really overwhelming. Where do you even start? What are the most important factors to consider? How do you pick a tool that will run smoothly so students can focus on learning and faculty can concentrate on teaching? 

One of the best places to start is by looking at one of the core structures of online assessments—the proctoring process itself. There are two basic structures—automated proctoring and live proctoring—and some programs that offer a hybrid. Ready to get into it and discover what might be best for your students? 

Automated Proctoring

This is, well, just what it sounds like—an automated process for proctoring. A student sits down for the assessment, verifies their identity, and then gets started. AI technology monitors them throughout their exam, and then someone reviews the recording of their session and prepares a report for the instructor. The instructor can also review the session recording to check in on any flagged incidents. There are a few good reasons why this might work well.

The Pros of Automation

For starters, automation works because it’s convenient. Since no one has to be present for the session, students can access the exam at any time—day or night. They don’t have to worry about scheduling in advance or paying for a missed appointment. This format also makes it easy for instructors to review any incidents. The report provides key details, and then they can take a look at the footage themselves to determine if the student broke any rules. If they do decide to move forward with disciplinary action, this also gives them what they might need to confront students with objective evidence. But it isn’t all ease and simplicity. 

Automated Drawbacks

One of the main cons of video proctoring is that the entire system can be a bit clunky. There’s no way for a proctor to intervene in real-time if a student is cheating or trying to cheat—there’s nothing that can be done until the instructor receives the report and makes a call about the incident. And, when AI technology is helping monitor exams, there’s a chance that an issue will be missed. On top of that, the exam has to be reviewed after completion so that a report can be prepared for the instructor, and this can sometimes be a lengthy process—creating frustration for faculty and students by delaying the grading process. 

So, what’s the alternative?

Live Online Proctoring

Systems that aren’t automated usually use live proctors instead. This, too, is precisely how it sounds—a live proctor watches the student as they take their exam to ensure that academic integrity is protected. They’re often able to intervene live when an issue arises, and, after the exam, they prepare a report for the instructor. They also send over the recording of the test session so the instructor can verify for themselves any potential issues. There are several reasons why this might be a good fit. 

Upsides of Live Supervision

The most significant benefit of live proctoring is, of course, that it’s live. You get many of the same benefits you’d get with a TA or instructor proctoring their own exam in person. A human being handles all the monitoring, and that often makes instructors more comfortable that the integrity of their test will be protected. Live proctors may also be able to intervene in real-time if an incident of academic dishonesty does arise, and that can help keep the entire exam from being a wash. And, of course, the session is still recorded, so it’s easy for instructors to take a look at everything that happened and decide when disciplinary action may be warranted. There are a few drawbacks, though. 

The Cons that Come with Live Proctoring

Most live proctors don’t just watch one student at a time—sometimes they watch up to ten. While they’re monitoring everything, there’s always a chance that, because their attention is divided, they’ll miss an incident with one student while keeping an eye on another. There’s also the issue of scheduling. When a live proctor needs to be on-hand, students usually need to select their exam time in advance. It can be harder to work around their other commitments, and they may also face penalties if they end up having to reschedule at the last minute. Live proctoring can also be a problem for honest students—even when they aren’t doing anything wrong, they feel watched, leading to a heightened sense of self-consciousness that could distract them from the exam content. 

What’s a school to do? 

The Perfect Hybrid

You need a solution that pairs the best of both worlds—something that lets your students do their thing without increased paranoia but still provides the opportunity to intervene at the moment and prevent cheating before it happens. Hybrids like Honorlock’s Live Proctor Pop-In are AI-triggered and human-reviewed. It lets you harness the best of AI proctoring to flag potential incidents, but you also get the benefit of a real person checking in who can help the student get back on track with their assessment. And these hybrids often still offer the flexibility of automation.   

What’s Best for Your Faculty and Students?

Ultimately, only you can answer the question of what’s best in your context. You may find that the pros of live proctoring outweigh its cons. You might find that you’d prefer an automated system. Or you may opt for a mix of both. The great news? With all three, you can empower your faculty to provide top-notch assessment tools to help students succeed. And, because faculty doesn’t have to worry as much about protecting academic integrity, they can maintain focus on optimizing the learning experience. Thanks to their peace of mind, your students get the best possible education. That’s a win all the way around!

Honorlock’s hybrid solution is working for an increasing number of schools and colleges, including one who faced the very issues discussed in this post. Want to learn more? Contact us and we’ll show you how Honorlock’s remote proctoring works.

Sign up below to receive more resources for tips, best practices, white papers, and industry trends

Want to see Honorlock in action? Schedule a demo.

Read more relevant articles

successful-online
Instructors-Guide
Comparing-Online

Jordan Adair

Jordan began his career in education as an elementary and middle school teacher. After transitioning into educational technology he became focused on delivering products designed to empower instructors and improve the student experience.

The Instructor’s Guide to Online Proctored Exams

Every change in technology creates a learning curve for instructors. You want to focus your time on preparing syllabi, teaching, and research, but instead, you have to spend hours learning a new system. And it sometimes seems like things change so fast that it’s hard to keep up.

Whether you’re trying to get ahead of the game or are dragging your feet and only switching to online exams because your administration now requires it, you have questions and concerns about the process. You want to know that your students are still getting the best testing experience, that your exam results are reliable, and that you won’t have to lose precious time due to a frustrating system.

The good news? When your school chooses Honorlock for online exam proctoring, your job gets easier. Our system is intuitive, easy to learn, and supported around the clock by a highly skilled team.

Here’s everything you need to know about Honorlock as an instructor:

Setting up online proctored exams is easy

You don’t even need a separate account to do it. You can easily set up and enable exams with your school’s LMS. No more extra passwords or duplicating information. You simply need to write your exam, log in, and walk through our quick and easy setup process. Then? Kick back (or start working on the next thing on your never-ending to-do list) and wait for your students to begin testing.

So is accessing reports

Honorlock records all exam sessions, and, as the instructor, you get access to this recording right from your LMS—in real-time. We’ll also send you a report after the exam with timestamped notes about any incidents of potential academic dishonesty. Need to verify a student’s behavior during an exam or provide proof when determining appropriate discipline? Everything you need is easy to access right in your LMS.

You can seamlessly integrate with third-party exam sites

Do you need to connect to a third-party exam site like McGraw-Hill Connect or MyMathLab? Honorlock has your back. And, once again, you can do it all from right within your LMS. No more flipping back and forth between tabs and accounts. You now have a one-stop-shop for everything you need to set up and manage your exams.   

You get 24/7/365 support

Have you ever tried setting up exams on a Saturday morning or weekday evening, only to find your progress suddenly halted by technical difficulties? You check the clock and realize that the business day is over, and support can’t help you now—you’ll have to wait it out and hope that the issue somehow fixes itself. You don’t have to worry about that anymore. Honorlock provides 24/7/365 US-based support. Our trained technicians are on call to help with any problem that may arise. They’re also available to help your students 24/7, so you’ll never again have to field a middle-of-the-night phone call from a panicked student who can’t access their exam. 

You can whitelist websites students can access during exams

You want to prevent your students from accessing exam answers while they’re testing, but you also want to be able to let them access specific sets of information. We get it, and we’ve built a system that can help. Our browser guard keeps students locked into only the exam and whatever webpages and applications you whitelist. Want to provide access to a calculator or a site with a set of equations on it? No problem. Just enter the approved sites during exam setup, and you and your students will be good to go.

You can customize your exam parameters

Honorlock provides several ways to protect your classroom’s academic integrity, and each one is customizable. Do you want to prevent students from printing exam content? Just select that option during setup. Want to detect secondary devices or have the student scan the room ahead of time for any illicit notes and aids? That’s easy too. No matter what you need to do to prevent cheating, we have you covered.

Your test content is secure

We get it. Nothing’s as frustrating as finding out that your exam content has been leaked to a test bank website. Now you have to create new test questions so students can’t cheat as easily, and that cycle repeats semester after semester. Not anymore. With Honorlock’s search and destroy feature, we search the web for illicit copies of your exam questions and then file takedown notices. No more worrying that students have prepared for the exam by looking at the answers rather than studying the course materials.

Your students can’t use phones or tablets to cheat on exams

Today’s students have myriad ways to access the internet. If you or your TA aren’t in the room to proctor an exam live, how can you make sure they aren’t using them just out of site to find test answers? Honorlock’s proprietary Secondary Device Detection technology does just that. By detecting the presence of secondary devices, you can protect academic honesty in your classrooms—even if you aren’t there to oversee the process.

We verify student identity for added security

Another common concern among instructors is whether an online proctoring system can effectively verify student identity. After all, an exam is only an accurate reflection of a student’s knowledge if the student answered themselves. Fortunately, with Honorlock, you don’t have to worry about this anymore. Before each exam, we use AI technology to take an image of the student’s photo ID as well as their face, and then we compare that to the information in the LMS to ensure that students only get credit for their own work.

Your students will love it

Honorlock was built by students for students. Our exams are on-demand, so students don’t have to worry about any headaches with scheduling. We offer easy-to-access 24/7/365 support for any technical issues. We don’t require bulky, security-compromising software downloads. All they need to do is install the browser extension and begin the exam. It really is that easy.

Sign up below to receive more resources for tips, best practices, white papers, and industry trends

Are you ready to see more of the ways Honorlock makes life easier for instructors? Schedule a demo.

Read more relevant articles

successful-online
Instructors-Guide
Comparing-Online

Tess Mitchell

Tess has 20+ years of experience heading up corporate marketing teams in healthcare and higher education. She is passionate about thinking differently to lead teams to discover new and innovative ways to drive positive outcomes.

Press Release: Honorlock Launches Universal Third-Party Exam Integration

Honorlock customers can now proctor exams administered by third-party exam services. 

BOCA RATON, Fla, September 10, 2019 – Honorlock, a cloud-based proctoring solution that is transforming how education institutions protect the academic integrity of online courses and assessments, today announced it has launched Universal Third-Party Exam Integration allowing customers to effectively proctor exams taken in third-party education systems.

As the popularity of online education continues to grow, many schools and universities use third-party education systems to expand and enhance their online courses and assessments. Honorlock’s Universal Third-Party Integration allows customers to launch and customize these exams from within their LMS and activate proctoring of these exams to protect academic integrity.

“When faculty need to administer exams outside of their LMS, they want solutions that provide effective evaluation while preventing the possibility for academic dishonesty,” said Michael Hemlepp, CEO of Honorlock. “Honorlock has developed a system that makes it seamless for both faculty and students.”

Honorlock’s Universal Third-Party Exam functionality is the latest innovation from the company. Other exclusive features include Secondary Device Detection which detects a student’s use of a mobile phone or tablet during an assessment, and Search and Destroy, which removes unauthorized test content from websites making the content inaccessible to students taking online exams.

About Honorlock

Honorlock is revolutionizing the way education institutions protect the academic integrity of their online courses and assessments. Used by three of the 10 largest universities in the US, Honorlock’s proprietary features provide educators with the assurance that their test is protected, and students with the flexibility of proctored exams whenever and wherever they need it. Honorlock is dedicated to providing world-class service and support 24/7/365. www.honorlock.com.

Tess Mitchell

Tess has 20+ years of experience heading up corporate marketing teams in healthcare and higher education. She is passionate about thinking differently to lead teams to discover new and innovative ways to drive positive outcomes.

The Buyer’s Guide to Online Proctoring Services

If you’re looking for new online proctoring or online testing solutions, you know just how overwhelming the process can be. There are countless features to compare, and you also need to consider the needs and perspectives of students, faculty, and administration.

But where do you even begin? Start by considering these ten factors.

1. Flat-rate cost per exam

Each instructor, not to mention each course, has variable requirements for assessment length. This can lead to unfair hikes in cost—when online proctoring services charge per hour, you may pay twice as much for longer exams.

As you grow your online programs, you need cost-effective testing. Systems that charge a flat rate per exam protect your bottom line and help you accurately estimate testing costs.

2. LMS integration

Your faculty are busy. The last thing they need is to find the time to learn a whole new system. Unfortunately, many online proctoring services require just that. Instead of focusing on teaching or research, they’re spending their days setting up exams.

You and your institution can’t afford to lose this time—you need a proctoring service that directly integrates with your LMS and allow faculty to set up exams in your LMS with just a few clicks.

3. 60-second student ID verification

With the growth of online education, verification of a student’s identity has become an important factor for success. For some programs, ID verification is required, but all schools want to ensure that the student taking the exam is the same student enrolled in the course. It’s important that the proctoring solution you choose can read the content on the student’s ID and then compare and match it to the student’s name and information in your LMS before the student is permitted to launch an exam. 

4. Cell phone detection

Pretty much any student has a cell phone or a second device such as a tablet or smartwatch. As student technology advances, you need the ability to detect cell phones and prevent students from using them to cheat on exams.

Most online proctoring services have yet to solve this problem, leaving your results vulnerable. You, your faculty, your accrediting bodies, and the businesses hiring your graduates want to know that the degree your students earn is an accurate reflection of what they’ve learned. 

5. 24/7 support based in the US at no additional cost

For faculty, there may not be anything worse than hearing from a student at 3 am because they’re having trouble with an exam. It’s frustrating for students too.

When online proctoring systems offer sub-par support or have limited support hours, they place the burden on faculty and administration. You need an online proctoring service that will provide assistance whenever your faculty or students need it. On-demand exams only work with on-demand technical help.  

6. AI proctoring software proctoring combined with human

Most of the proctored online testing solutions on the market today follow one of two models (live or automated) both of which come with challenges.

Those that offer live proctoring create discomfort for students, who feel like they’re being watched. They can also be somewhat less reliable because a single proctor watches multiple students at once, making it easier to miss instances of academic dishonesty.

By using an automated, record and review format, it’s impossible to intervene in real-time if an issue arises. You need a solution that combines AI with a human touch for the perfect hybrid—the AI proctoring software monitors the student for potential problems, and, if it detects any, a proctor is prompted to pop in and work with the student to address it before it turns into anything too serious.

7. 24/7 exam scheduling

Choose a solution that allows students to take their proctored online exam at any time, day or night. This helps alleviate the stress of scheduling and then waiting for the remote proctor before they can start the online exam.

Limited proctor hours can prevent students from being able to take the exam when they are most ready and most alert. With on-demand proctoring, students can take assessments from anywhere at any time—even if it’s at 2 am over Thanksgiving break. Your students deserve the freedom and convenience of taking exams on their schedule without any headaches.

8. Test content protection

Few things are more frustrating for faculty than discovering that their exam questions are available on test bank websites. Unfortunately, this is becoming more common, and instructors have limited tools to respond. Instead, they find themselves creating new exam content every semester to stay ahead of cheating and protect academic integrity.

When you’re selecting proctored online testing solutions, this is an important consideration—does it do anything to protect test content? Look for one that will search test bank sites for illicit exam questions and file takedown notices. You can save faculty time while protecting your program’s academic integrity.

9. Actionable proctored exam reporting

As online educational tools become more widely used, both students and faculty expect faster turnaround times for evaluations. Unfortunately, many online proctoring systems can take up to three days to provide exam recordings for faculty review, and faculty then need to log into a third-party system for access. Your faculty and students don’t want to wait that long for results. You need a system that will provide real-time access to exam recordings—right in the LMS.

10. No bulky software downloads

More and more students are concerned with cybersecurity—and with good reason. The last thing they want to do is download extra software to take an exam. These third-party browsers are often slow and take up an unreasonable amount of computer memory. Even if they’re deleted immediately following the exam, they can slow things down, and they can make students even more apprehensive about security. You need an online proctoring system that utilizes browser extensions to prevent unnecessary extra software and protect your students’ peace of mind.

The good news? While this is a lot to keep in mind when selecting a proctoring service, you can find all of it in one place. Honorlock offers all this and more. Our proctoring software protects academic integrity, and our system is intuitive, easy to learn, and convenient for students and faculty alike. 

Sign up below for more online proctoring decision making resources

Want to see Honorlock in action? Schedule a demo.

Tess Mitchell

Tess has 20+ years of experience heading up corporate marketing teams in healthcare and higher education. She is passionate about thinking differently to lead teams to discover new and innovative ways to drive positive outcomes.