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8 Questions to Ask When Evaluating Proctoring Services

If you’re investing in online proctoring services and software, make sure that your faculty will actually use it.

With so many options available, here are eight questions to ask each proctoring service that you’re evaluating:

1. Can students schedule and take exams 24/7/365 scheduling flexible?

Your students deserve the flexibility to start their exam whenever and wherever they’re ready—even if that’s at 2am in bed or on a holiday.

  • Do students have to reserve an exam time in advance?
  • If so, are they charged a fee if they miss their exam timeslot? Are there times when students can’t schedule exams (for example, overnight)?

2. What support does the proctoring service provide?

Technical difficulties are always possible, so it’s important that your students and faculty always have access to top-notch support services. If the proctored exam service is available 24/7/365, that means support should be too.

  • Is support available at all times when students are taking proctored exams and faculty are setting them up?
  • Will faculty and students actually speak with a human support agents?
  • Are support agents trained to troubleshoot and effectively answer questions?

3. Do students have to download a bulky software to use it?

Students are concerned about the security and performance of their computers, and they don’t want to compromise either by downloading extra and unnecessary software.

They also don’t want to have to build in enough time to install additional software. The good news? Extra software isn’t necessary anymore. A service that uses a built-in browser extension saves time and hassle.

4. How does the proctoring software prevent cheating?

Make sure that the proctoring software has features that effectively prevent cheating while still supporting student success.

  • Can the proctoring software detect cell phone use and voices?
  • Does it have built-in ways to prevent access to browsers and applications during an exam?
  • Can students scan the room before beginning to ensure they aren’t using any additional resources?
  • Can it protect exam questions and answers from being shared on unauthorized websites?
  • Does it verify student identity before launching the proctored exam?

All of these are important ways to preserve academic integrity.

5. Can the proctoring software detect cell phones?

The only way to truly secure exams and prevent cheating is to be able to detect the use of cell phones and other secondary devices like tablets and smart watches.

If a proctoring service doesn’t have a way of preventing mobile phone use, students can use them to find test answers online.

6. Who are the test proctors?

  • Who is monitoring and reviewing the exam?
  • Are the remote proctors trained to handle of student anxiety?

7. Do faculty at other schools like it?

Online exam proctoring only works if faculty use the service.

  • Do faculty at other institutions find it easy to use?
  • Do they find the support to be helpful?
  • Has the school broadly adopted it?
  • What are their top pros and cons of the online proctoring software?

8. Does it improve student outcomes?

Ultimately, this is the most important question for any proctoring service.

timately, this is the most important question for any proctoring service.

  • Does the system normalize bell curves?
  • Do faculty and administrators have confidence that it’s maintaining academic integrity?
  • Is it flexible and adaptive enough to fit into students’ lives and increase student engagement and retention?
  • Is it scalable and helping programs grow?

Now that you’ve asked these remote proctoring questions, you’re ready to start making a decision.

And, if you ask these questions of Honorlock, you’ll find that we check all these boxes (and more). From best-in-class US-based support to on-demand proctored exams to faculty adoption and academic outcomes, we offer online exam proctoring that’s easy to use and will actually be used by your students and faculty.

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