Educational Tech Trends to Look for in 2021

2020 brought many challenges and unexpected changes to every industry, including education technology. Educational institutions around the world scrambled to transition their on-campus programs to an online format. Honorlock’s online test proctoring solution evolved and scaled with changes this past year and helped hundreds of universities and colleges transition to an online format that is secure, scalable, and cost-effective. While many anticipate another year of uncertainty, here are a few trends in educational technology to look forward to in 2021.

Security and Privacy

Security is a growing concern in every sector of technology. From fingerprint identification to passwords to public Wi-Fi, the modern world seems fraught with opportunities for personal information to be compromised. Privacy is especially top of mind for faculty, administrators, and students in educational settings. As new tech for education provides more flexible learning than ever before, boundaries are needed to ensure rigor and these boundaries can carry some concerns.

For instance, in online proctoring, monitoring is necessary to protect academic integrity, but students want to know that they can still maintain privacy. This is why transparency will continue to be a key factor for educational technology companies. 

From information about how personal data is stored (or not) to insight into how online proctors can prevent cheating without accessing a student’s browsing history or the activity of other devices on their network, students and faculty want to be sure that they can maintain their online security. We’re proud to offer high-quality security to our students today, and we look forward to continued developments as the year progresses.

Accessibility

Pairing education with technology has already done so much to allow students with disabilities to access more course materials than ever before — including providing the flexibility to learn from home. From screen readers to text-to-talk features to auto-generated captions on video and audio materials, students have better access to educational resources than they ever have, but accessibility continues to be a major concern for most institutions. 

As much as technology has improved accessibility, it also often relies on a single mode of content delivery — typically visual or auditory. It’s vital to provide the same quality of education across all levels of ability, however, and tech advances in the next year (and beyond) will likely move us in that direction. From making sure that online exams work for students with visual impairments to providing accurate transcripts of online lectures for students who are hearing-impaired, these moves forward will help schools make sure that all students have access to educational opportunities.  

Artificial Intelligence

Anywhere you turn, someone is talking about AI. It’s integrated itself into our daily lives at home and on the go in our smartphones and smart home devices. It makes day-to-day life better, and it has huge potential to continue improving things for all of us — especially in educational technology fields. 

The possibilities for AI in education are virtually unlimited. We’re already using it to provide a hybrid between live proctoring and record-and-review exams, and other platforms are using it too. It can help relieve pressure on faculty and administration by reducing the need for human involvement in tasks like proctoring, and it can also help make the student experience more integrated and personal. 

Right now, we can only imagine how this field will expand — not just in the next year, but also in the next decade. As AI  technology continues advancing, more and more will become possible — making life easier for faculty, staff, and students. 

Mobile Learning

Technology that moves us toward more mobile learning opportunities is another hot topic in education right now. Like the rest of the world, there’s a strong push for mobility — most of us can already do most of what we need to do on a daily basis using our smartphones and tablets, so why should learning be any different? 

While the effectiveness of mobile learning is still a bit controversial — as are most technological advances — moves in this direction are an important way to provide better educational opportunities to more people. This is a vital learning tool for working adults. It allows them to tune into a lecture or take a quiz over lunch, fitting their learning around their already-busy lives. 

Many systems have already started moving toward mobility by providing access to LMS dashboards and online exams via a tablet. More development is needed to make this a reliable vehicle for teaching and learning, but 2021 is sure to continue moving us in this direction, allowing institutions to continue reaching more diverse learners. 

To 2021 — and Beyond!

As we think back on how far education has come recently, we can’t help but get excited about helping more educational institutions in 2021. It will be an interesting year ahead of us on the ed tech front. From personalized learning to virtual reality and new developments that we can’t even begin to imagine, tech for education will continue to shape the ways we learn and communicate.

We can’t wait to see what 2021 has to offer and to share the new trends in educational technology we’ve been working on here at Honorlock.

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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.

Setting Faculty Goals for 2021 with Online Proctoring

How to prepare for online exams

Whether you’re new to online exams or accustomed to them as well as taking a proctored exam, use these best practices for online exam taking to help you prepare.

5 things to keep in mind to help you prepare for an online exam

#1 Study! One of the most important tips for online test preparation is to make sure you’ve thoroughly studied for the exam itself. The exam will be structured by your instructor so you can best demonstrate your ability to apply and synthesize what you have been learning in the class.

#2 Make sure that your computer and webcam are working properly, and do our Simple Single-Click System Check to ensure you have the proper browser and meet minimum OS requirements [click here for our system check then scroll down to “Simple Single-Click System Check”]. When you’re taking a proctored exam, it’s best to make sure that the room where you’re taking the test is well-lit, clear of clutter, and that no other people are present. 

#3 Log into your school’s Learning Management System and install the lightweight Honorlock extension on your Google Chrome browser, or Click Here to install. It takes just a few moments to install, is active only within your LMS environment, and takes just a few seconds to delete, if you so choose, following your proctored exam.

#4 While Honorlock does not require a photo ID, many academic institutions do require a photo ID.

If so, you’ll likely need to have an ID accessible (e.g. your school ID, driver’s license or passport) 

Federal law requires that schools guarantee that you and the person registered in the course (and therefore taking the exam) are one and the same. When it comes to ID verification, Honorlock’s online proctoring software provides the easiest experience that you’ll find and it only takes about a minute.

#5 If your instructor requires it, you’ll perform a 360-degree camera sweep of your testing area so that our online proctors can check that you have don’t have prohibited materials nearby.

Do I have to make an appointment to take my online proctored exam?

You do not have to make an appointment to take your online proctored exam with Honorlock. We appreciate how hard it can be to schedule exams around your busy schedule. Honorlock was built by students to better serve students, and all of our online proctoring services are meant to be as convenient for you as possible. 

You don’t have to pick a time in advance and won’t have any fees to pay should you change your plans—even at the last minute. You get to take your proctored online exam on-demand, when you are best prepared to take it, any time day or night, so long as you meet your instructor’s deadlines.

What is going to happen during the proctored online exam?

Once your identity is verified and your environment is approved, you can focus on demonstrating the results of all that hard work you have been doing when studying. That’s basically it. Learn more here.

96% of students taking their proctored online exam with Honorlock will experience no other intervention from our remote proctors. Our proctors will interrupt you via chat only if our AI proctoring software flags a possible instance of academic dishonesty. But if you are one of the few that interacts with our remote proctors, don’t panic. The proctors are there to help, not penalize. They will inquire about the situation and make suggestions to prevent an additional “pop-in” intervention. 

What actions could generate a flag or a live proctor to pop into your online exam session?

There are many misconceptions about what causes a flag or a live proctor to pop into your online exam session. Natural head movements while thinking about an exam question, your dog barking at your neighbors, or your cat jumping on your desk will not automatically trigger a flag. Our AI has been trained to ignore those things.

Here are lists of things that will typically be flagged in a proctored exam – listed by high, medium and low-risk incidents.

Potential high-risk situations that our AI will recognize and flag for our human proctors so that they can pop in to find out what is actually going on include:

  • If you move completely out of the view of your webcam
  • If something obstructs your webcam
  • Use of an unauthorized search engine
  • Use of a secondary device, such as a smartphone or tablet
  • The appearance or sound of the voice of someone else in the room with you
  • Use of voice assistance software (Siri, Alexa, Bixby, etc.)
  • Violation of your instructor’s guidelines

Medium-risk situations that may trigger a Live Pop-In from a remote proctor include:

  • A less than appropriate workspace (i.e. not at a desk or table—if you prefer a couch or a chair for comfort or health reasons, that’s fine, but the proctor may check) 
  • Headphones or earphones
  • If you set up your webcam or move so that you are partially out of view
  • A secondary device in view (it’s best to keep your other devices in a different room)
  • An incomplete room scan (not 360 degrees, desk not shown, or materials not shown)

Low-risk situations that are less likely to be a problem but may generate a flag include:

  • Background noise
  • iMessage notifications on a Mac
  • Insufficient lighting
  • Ongoing conversation unrelated to exam content

Know that Honorlock online proctoring uses a combination of AI technology and human proctors because we understand that things do happen. If you accidentally look off into the distance or your roommate walks into the room unannounced, our live remote proctor may pop in to assess the situation, make sure there isn’t an academic violation, and help you get back on track with your online exam. Your instructor will also be able to review the recording of your online proctored exam to review any flagged incidents. Instructors make the final assessment as to whether an incident is a violation that requires further action.

We hope you find the lists above to be helpful, as we exist to help you succeed. You, your peers, your university, and society as a whole all benefit from a fair system of academic assessment, and we at Honorlock are proud to provide the least intrusive and most convenient online exam proctoring experience. 

Use this tutorial to learn more about how proctored exams work and what you can expect? 

Sign up below for more tips and best practices for online exams

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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.

Academic Integrity in the Online Era

At Honorlock, we pride ourselves on helping educational institutions preserve their academic integrity. Most of you, whether students, faculty, or administrators, will be aware of this phrase. Some of you will have thought deeply about academic integrity, while others may think of it only in passing. A few may have come into stark awareness of academic integrity only after being accused of violating it on an examination or a written assignment for a class. In part because of those circumstances, perhaps too much discussion of and emotion about academic integrity centers upon negative behaviors and instances when individuals fall short of the ideal.

In contrast, the International Center for Academic Integrity (ICAI) exists to focus on and champion the positive values associated with our intrinsic drive to do good, not just do well. These fundamental values, honesty, trust, fairness, respect, responsibility, and courage, each warrant a look when considering what remote proctoring solution a school administrator chooses, how faculty members create assessments for their students (and indeed how they produce their own research), and how students approach the pursuit of their degrees and their education. They also play an integral role in how Honorlock operates as a company.

Honesty

Honesty is not just the proverbial best policy, ICAI notes that it’s an “indispensable foundation of teaching, learning, research, and service, and a necessary prerequisite” for the five other fundamental values. Institutions need to be clear that dishonest behaviors in an academic community are unacceptable.

Honesty and honor are closely related. The temptation to take short cuts during one’s academic career can be overwhelming, and whether it’s due to stress or disconnection, or “nobody will know,” an extensive and recent ICAI academic integrity survey paints a troubling picture of the percentage of students who admit to betraying their honor at some time or another when completing an assignment.

What can remote proctoring software do in this environment? The answer is help schools limit the temptation, by providing effective deterrence for those who may be tempted to put short-term gains ahead of their own, and their institution’s academic integrity. 

Fairness

Humans have a compelling need to feel that they have been treated fairly. “Life” may not be fair, and, in a competitive economy, things may not always break our way, but we still demand that others deal fairly with us. Our educational communities can be fortified by “predictability, transparency, and clear, reasonable expectations,” as ICAI puts it.

Students want their grade evaluations to be impartial and accurate, and fairness in this sense is what builds trust between them and their instructors and institutions. Honest students need to feel confident that their peers are not gaining an unfair advantage by acting dishonestly. For courses with high stakes online midterms and final exams, Honorlock’s AI, backed up by live human proctors, performs a vital service in ensuring fairness for all.

Respect

“Respect in academic communities,” ICAI reminds us, “is reciprocal and requires showing respect for oneself as well as others.” For the individual, respect means “facing challenges with integrity.” For the group, making sure each member both shows and feels respect is everyone’s responsibility.

When students behave with integrity, they demonstrate respect to themselves, their peers, their families, their teachers, and their school. They also show respect to the alumni who have come before them and whose ranks they hope to proudly join having maintained their school’s good name.

Honorlock was founded by students, and we respect the commitment that everyone in the academic community makes for maintaining academic integrity with our 24/7/365 support. We appreciate our opportunity to contribute to an environment that fosters respect by ensuring that remotely proctored exams are conducted both conveniently and fairly. 

Responsibility

Here is the ICAI on responsibility:

Academic communities of integrity rest upon foundations of personal accountability coupled with the willingness of individuals and groups to lead by example, uphold mutually agreed-upon standards, and take action when they encounter wrongdoing.

Schools are taking on a wider responsibility for the education of the population by expanding their reach through distance learning, and part of that responsibility is ensuring the fairness of their remotely proctored assessments. Schools that successfully shoulder this responsibility engender credibility with the world at large. 

Courage

ICAI highlights courage last because it is less a value than a “quality or capacity” that allows us to act according to our values. Courage is “an element of character” that helps students hold themselves and each other to the highest standards. 

It takes courage to act with integrity when fear creeps in, or when stress derails us. But, in a way similar to intellectual capacity, ICAI concludes, “courage can only develop in environments where it is tested.” 

Protect Academic Integrity with Honorlock’s Remote Proctoring Software

Take courage as you make the most of your experience as a student, faculty member, or administrator. If you’d like to learn more about how Honorlock’s remote proctoring software can help preserve your institution’s values of maintaining academic integrity, request a demo. 

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Alice Cifuentes

Alice has several years of marketing experience within healthcare and most recently in higher education focused on social media growth, tradeshow management, and communication. She is passionate about creatively navigating new challenges and discovering innovative ways to connect with educators.

WEBINAR: 4 Tips for Overcoming Exam Anxiety

As faculty, instructional designers and remote proctors, it is our duty to ensure an equal and fair testing environment for the students we serve. Most students feel that remote proctors exist to catch them in the act of cheating which can create a sense of distrust and high anxiety. How do we, as educators and professionals, change the way in which our testers view proctors and the platforms we use to facilitate exams so that we can help students with test anxiety management? How do we educate faculty in preparing students for a virtual test environment in this age of cyber “insecurity” and distrust. For remote proctors and faculty the results should be the same – equal and fair test environment and sense of security of exam content. In this webinar, you’ll learn 4 tips for overcoming exam anxiety and you’ll be able to:

  • Understand the role of a remote proctor
  • Identify ways to educate students about online proctoring and alleviate misconceptions about privacy invasion
  • Educate faculty on how to create a positive online exam experience for students as well as themselves
  • Use online exams appropriately – low stakes vs. high stakes – what is at stake for student and faculty
Download the PowerPoint

Speakers:

Paula Rodriguez

Director of the University Testing Center at Colorado State University.

Paula Rodriguez is the Director of the University Testing Center at Colorado State University. She received her Master’s Degree in Educational Psychology from the University of Northern Colorado. Part of her job as the Director is to oversee the management of the CSU Online exams process. She is a member of the proctoring committee at CSU that provides guidance to faculty and students on proctoring best practices and online proctoring tools. She and her team recently received national test center certification for the CSU Testing Center through the NCTA.

WEBINAR: Best Practices for Proctoring Online Exams in STEM Curriculums

Deploying effective online exams for STEM curriculums can be a challenge! Over the past couple years, Worcester Polytechnic Institute (WPI) has been working to improve the workflow for their Math students to complete high stakes online exams, while also submitting paper-based notes for faculty to evaluate how students arrived at their answers. In this academic webinar presentation Kate Beverage, Director of Technology for Teaching and Learning, and Lindsey Van Gieson, Instructional Technology Systems Manager, will discuss some pedagogical and technical STEM best practices they have developed, how WPI used them in conjunction with Honorlock’s remote proctoring software and address faculty and student academic integrity and privacy concerns. To learn more about Honorlock’s licensing agreement with NERCOMP, click here.

Download the Presentation

Surviving Remote Teaching

We recently hosted a live webinar entitled, “Surviving Remote Teaching:  Top 5 Things You Need to Know,” with Gabriela Alvarez, the Director of Learning Design and Innovation at Florida International University.  The information was so helpful, we wanted to share it with our blog readers. We hope you find these remote teaching tips informative and helpful as you prepare for the Fall semester.

The Top 5 Things presented by Gaby are rooted in the Community of Inquiry Model pictured below.

All these various inputs drive learners’ educational experience.  Distance learning is no different.  Teaching is teaching, no matter the medium, but how you present your distance sessions are guided by the following interactions:  

  • Instructor to Student – or how well you interact virtually with your learners 
  • Student to Student – how your students interact virtually with each other
  • Student to Content – how your students interact with the content you provide for them.

We can impact how well our students perform by using these interactions to guide our design of distance learning as well as our own behavior while doing so.

So, here are the 5 Remote Teaching Tips:

Tip 1: Your design really, really matters.

Everyone realizes that we are moving from “Emergency Remote Teaching” to a more thoughtful online mechanism of learning, now that the crisis seems to be passing a bit.  Here are a few things to think about as you contemplate your online sessions’ design.

  • Consider what elements of your teaching benefit most from real-time interaction.  That means really turn a critical eye toward what you need to teach in an interactive fashion.  It may seem onerous, especially in the early stages, to think you have to “be on” every moment of every session, but the truth is, you don’t necessarily have to be.  Think about engaging ways for the students to explore the content without you providing didactic instruction.  
  • Flip where you can. The flipped classroom has been very successful in schools and businesses.  Learners consume pre-recorded content (even by you!) and then come to their synchronous sessions to deep dive into the application.
  • Plan your synchronous interactions.  
  • Simplify where you can.  So much of what we have in the classroom is because we are face to face.  How much of that do you really need to get your instruction across?  Students (as well as teachers, especially now) are trying to balance access, content and structure in and out of our academic lives – so give yourself a break and figure out the best, easiest way.

TIP 2: Your Attendance Is Mandatory

And by that, we mean you.  Not them.  You must be present and engaged to win.  As in Tip 1, people are stressed and you need to try to be intentional with providing opportunities for the student to interact with you.  Here are a few ideas:

  • Let your students get to know you and each other. Spend time intentionally getting to know them and letting them know you.  You’d be surprised at the calming influence this can be for them.
  • Send frequent announcements.  Communication is always key in stressful situations.  Don’t assume they know.  Make sure you tell them.
  • Give substantive feedback.  Teaching is feedback, no matter the medium!  Make sure you develop a way to provide the feedback they need.  They may need more or less right now.  Just ask and follow through.
  • Hold virtual office hours.  Make sure they can contact you.  It also helps to put a lid on the “noise” you may receive in a digital world.  Remember, time and place is interrupted in the digital space.  Where they may hold their questions till “next class” in the brick and mortar world, in the digital space, they can ask things on the fly.  And probably will expect an answer in that way as well.  So making sure they understand when you will be available will save everyone some angst.

TIP 3: Establish boundaries and Set Expectations on at least two parameters:

PERFORMANCE

  • How often, when and how?  Make sure they clearly know what to do.
  • Proctoring requirements, especially if you are new to proctoring
  • Other online-specific course policies that you may have

INTERACTIONS

  • How do you expect students to interact in your course?
  • How can they expect you will interact throughout the course?  Make sure they understand how you expect the class to communicate.

Check out the webinar below to see an example of FIU’s template.  Yours may be different, but it’s a good exercise to go through to understand what expectations are.

Tip 4: Usability matters…a lot!

Spend time looking at your course as if you were a student.  If you have to, enlist others who aren’t as close to the instruction as you might be.  They can sometimes see things you don’t.  If they are having trouble, your students will be having trouble.  For example, these are some things to watch for:

  • Is the course navigation logical and consistent?  If people are lost in the navigation, they don’t consume the content, plain and simple.
  • Is the text-based content legible?  Are you using an old copy of a copy that you scanned in?  Go find the original and make sure people can see what you need them to see.
  • Test your course site navigation (as a student).
  • Orient your student to the layout of your course.  Spend a bit of time (it can even be a pre-recorded module!) that walks them through how to get around in your course.
  • Provide instructions on how and where to solicit technical support.  And lastly, you aren’t the Luddite whisper.  In a very nice manner, post where they go for password resets, etc.

TIP 5: Mind your policies.

Especially if you teach at multiple institutions, make sure you understand what the privacy and accessibility standards might be.

Family Educational Protection Act (FERPA)

Guidelines to consider are personally identifiable information privacy:

  • Know how directory information is defined at your institution.
  • Use the technology provided by your institution.
  • Do not post student grades publicly.
  • Can I record my synchronous sessions?
  • Consider your proctoring procedures.

Consider the abilities of ALL your students in a digital space:

  • Videos should be captioned.
  • Audio files should have transcripts.
  • Use color carefully.
  • Provide accessible documents formats.
  • Provide alternative text for images.

Well, those are the Five Remote Teaching Tips. If you would like more information or remote teaching resources, please view the recorded webinar here.  Be kind to yourself!

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Jan Wilson

As an organizational development and learning consultant, Jan has provided strategic planning, process alignment, change management, curriculum development and planning, as well as learning solutions to a variety of clients in pharma, healthcare and state governments. Jan earned a Bachelor of Business Administration with a concentration in information technology from Belmont University in Nashville, Tennessee, and a Master of Education in Human Resource Development from Vanderbilt University, also in Nashville, Tennessee. Additionally, she has served as adjunct faculty at the Peabody School of Vanderbilt University.

9 Best Practices to Ensure Online Testing Integrity

How to protect online testing integrity

How to protect online testing integrity

  1.  Low Stakes Assessments – Nothing is worse for a learner than to realize their midterm or final will be taken with new proctoring software.  “Who are these people?  Does my school not trust me? What if the software glitches and I can’t finish my test?”  Rest assured, none of that will happen with Honorlock, but your test takers might not know that. Use low stakes assessments – provide a practice test or think of fun quizzes so that students can get comfortable with the proctoring software in a stress-free environment.
  2. Test Banks – Use test banks that to randomize questions for students students. And make sure that is known so they won’t be tempted in the first place!
  3. Concepts and Understanding – How questions are worded can make a big impact on how to gauge understanding. For example, try to craft questions that students answer conceptually rather than a simple definition. Using concepts helps students learn more and actually tests their knowledge.
  4. Limit Information Access – It goes without saying that limiting access to information during test-taking is the reason for proctoring services.  You need your students to be able to show they master content without looking up information. But, you also need to make sure you don’t lock them out of necessary information they don’t need to commit to memory in order to solve a problem or demonstrate their mastery of a particular subject.  Things like figures and tables they need to solve a problem should be provided in the question or websites whitelisted in the proctoring system. This helps students not spend precious brainpower remembering models when you really want to see if they can solve a problem in context.
  1. Knowledge Application – An important aspect of teaching and learning is how well your students can apply the knowledge you taught them. Keeping reference material at bay during a test shows you they have mastered the material and can apply it. This is important to employers as well. Employers will one day take that student as an employee.
  2. Trust, but Verify – Using online proctoring on all tests lets students know that it’s an expectation of your course. It’s also important to have a conversation with students about why academic integrity is so important – to the school, but also to the students who will have earned their degree in your institution. 
  3. Syllabus Information – Your syllabus can work wonders in explaining expectations, test rules and why cheating is never an answer.
  4. Find Methods to Observe Behavior – Anyone that has developed online learning will tell you what one intends sometimes is not what is practiced. This means that students can sometimes misunderstand specifics that you might have felt were obvious. For that reason, it’s important to pencil in a full quality check that includes reviewing the usage logs (who is having trouble), watch the proctoring videos, or maybe even a search of student discussions.  All these help you see how your testing is being consumed so you can tailor it if need be.
  5. Request feedback – Let students know you want to know and encourage them to provide feedback to you. 

Tip:  Listen to the feedback objectively and then do something constructive with it.  It could be something as simple as someone needs further explanation, but you won’t know if you don’t ask!

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Jan Wilson

As an organizational development and learning consultant, Jan has provided strategic planning, process alignment, change management, curriculum development and planning, as well as learning solutions to a variety of clients in pharma, healthcare and state governments. Jan earned a Bachelor of Business Administration with a concentration in information technology from Belmont University in Nashville, Tennessee, and a Master of Education in Human Resource Development from Vanderbilt University, also in Nashville, Tennessee. Additionally, she has served as adjunct faculty at the Peabody School of Vanderbilt University.

Improve Online Learning during COVID

Online learning has been a wild ride for higher ed.  “Just make it so, number one” is how it felt to those doing the instruction. Students needed to finish courses and preserve their credits, COVID or no COVID. 

Educators and institutions have been very clear that they need more help in understanding how to effectively design, develop, and deliver high-quality instruction online. 

This is true for all instructors and institutions but is greatest for those teaching at institutions that serve those who will likely be affected most because they lack access to needed resources and technology.  

What has dropped this week is a faculty-focused online playbook from Every Learner Everywhere that provides those expert resources and guidance to assist us all as we struggle to master the next phase and improve online learning.

The Online Playbook to Improve Online Learning in Response to COVID-19

The online playbook, Delivering High-Quality Instruction Online in Response to COVID-19, was developed by the Online Learning Consortium, the Association of Public and Land-grant Universities, and Every Learner Everywhere, with support from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.

Here’s a summary of the 55 page playbook about designing with equity in mind, course design, content management, and more.  

To begin with, the online playbook provides a path for continuous improvement of instruction along a quality-oriented continuum and provides guidance along with three milestones:

  1. Initial Design
    Guides immediate and basic needs for moving a course online.  In the past few months, this has been “your hair on fire” modality. And that was totally ok.  Going forward, you will use less “fire” and more thoughtful design. It is useful for the translation of face-to-face or blended courses for fully-online delivery.
  2. Enhancement
    It provides options to strengthen the student learning experience.  This milestone presents itself when you have the time to recognize what worked and what didn’t, and how to improve online learning experiences for your students. It is useful for improving face-to-face course elements that do not translate easily to online modalities.
  3. Optimization
    Optimize offers ideas and resources for online teaching that aligns with high-quality, evidence-based instructional practices. It is useful for the continuous improvement of the online learning experience and student outcomes.  This maps to a more settled milestone where you can incorporate more support for the longevity of any course.

These are all good principles to use whether you are in a crisis or just generally for good learning design.

So, In a Nutshell:

When you are thinking of how to design your course or courses, the use of an evidence-based model (they link to Backward Design) helps you begin with the end in mind.  If you begin with where you want them to end up, it is much easier to see the forest for the trees in laying out your course.

The following is excerpted from the playbook:

Key course design principles include:

Beyond effective design and presentation of content and materials, there are several things you can do to set yourself and your students up for success:

  • Become familiar with the LMS that your institution uses (and your remote proctoring solution if you have one ).  
  • Select supplementary tools based on your course outcomes and goals.  Here is a great list of some from which to choose.
  • Introducing yourself and your course is important for establishing your class environment, setting expectations, and for allowing students and instructors to get to know one another. In an emergent situation, providing a course welcome in the online course can help ease the disruption and set the stage for instructional continuity.
  • Design your course to provide intentional opportunities for students to interact with the instructor, each other, and the course content.
  • Set clear and explicit expectations for your course for both performance and interaction. This is especially important in the online environment, where there are fewer verbal or behavioral cues than in face-to-face courses.
  • Provide options and opportunities for students to communicate with the instructor. This is especially important in online courses, where real-time interaction is limited or unavailable.
  • Provide academic support resources (including institutional resources such as library and tutoring services as well as supplemental resources) and ensure that students are aware of them.
  • After an online course is completed and has been offered, it is important to regularly evaluate and rove the course to ensure that it is up-to-date, relevant, and following current best practices for high-quality online education.

Download the Faculty Playbook here.

Click below to get information about quickly implementing online proctoring if your institution is moving to online learning related to COVID.

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Jan Wilson

As an organizational development and learning consultant, Jan has provided strategic planning, process alignment, change management, curriculum development and planning, as well as learning solutions to a variety of clients in pharma, healthcare and state governments. Jan earned a Bachelor of Business Administration with a concentration in information technology from Belmont University in Nashville, Tennessee, and a Master of Education in Human Resource Development from Vanderbilt University, also in Nashville, Tennessee. Additionally, she has served as adjunct faculty at the Peabody School of Vanderbilt University.

Student Privacy, Online Exams, and COVID-19

COVID-19 continues to impact higher education institutions

As COVID-19 continues to impact the US, colleges are rapidly moving to online learning—an abrupt and jarring transition for many students and faculty. In some places, all courses will be offered online and most colleges and universities haven’t decided if courses in the future will also be online-only. So, what does this mean for students?

For those of you who are already learning online, very little about your schooling structure has changed. However, for students who had intentionally chosen an on-the-ground, in-person learning experience, this might feel like quite a loss. Not only are you being asked to learn new technologies and maintain your grades during a global pandemic, you’re probably missing the on-campus connection with faculty and classmates.

Get information about quickly implementing online proctoring if your institution is transitioning to online learning related to COVID

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Online Learning: The Practicalities

In addition to processing this entirely new dynamic, you probably have some logistical and privacy concerns as you make the switch to online learning. We don’t blame you—learning a new technology is challenging enough in itself without the additional pressure of doing it overnight. So, we want to take some time to ease your worries and help you understand how Honorlock collects and uses your data.

For starters, we want you to know how seriously we take student privacy online. Honorlock was founded by college students—we get the worries and frustrations that often accompany online learning, and our goal has always been to make those things better.

One of the ways we do this is by maintaining a commitment to honesty. We understand why you might have some concerns about using our platform, so we want to be completely open about what information we collect from you, how we collect it, how (and how long) we store it, and how we use it. So, without further ado, let’s take a look at what Honorlock asks from you, how that compares to other proctoring services, and what else you need to know about protecting student privacy online during exams.

What Information Does Honorlock Collect?

You’re probably wondering what this all means on a practical level. What, exactly, does Honorlock gather during your exam? The short answer is that we gather as little as possible.

  • Using our Chrome extension, we gather your IP address
  • Using your school’s LMS, we also gather your name and email address
  • During the exam, we capture a screen recording and a webcam recording
  • To verify your identity, we’ll also ask you to take a photo of yourself as well as your student ID

That’s it.

You won’t be required to create an account or password—everything about our online proctoring system can be accessed through your LMS. We also don’t access your webcam outside of your exam—as soon as you’re done testing, we stop using it. And, as always, if you continue to be concerned, you can just uninstall the extension and reinstall for your next exam.

The data we collect is for the sole purpose of verifying your identity and ensuring academic integrity. We’ll never sell or share your data and, after 12 months, it is purged from our system. Plus, while we have it stored, we make sure it’s encrypted and secured—everything at Honorlock meets industry standards with AES-256 block encryption. Also, as an AWS partner, Honorlock follows federal NIST 800-88 guidelines for proof of data/drive destruction.

Does Honorlock Have Access to Mobile Devices or Detect Phones?

You may have heard that Honorlock can detect the use of cell phones and other secondary devices.

Here’s the real deal: we do not have access to your mobile devices.

It’s true that our system can create and send alerts if you attempt to search for answers, but those alerts are based on the sites you might visit—not your device. We never have access to your mobile device’s operating system or information—not during your exam and not at any point after.

Does Honorlock Sell My Data?

We do not sell your data. You may have concerns about student privacy online and data security, but don’t worry, Honorlock has you covered.  We only share your data with your educational institution and delete it per school policy.

Using Honorlock’s Online Proctoring System

We know that for many of you online education wasn’t part of the plan. Our goal is to help you make the best of a challenging situation. As you adjust to using Honorlock’s online proctoring system, please don’t hesitate to reach out to our support agents with questions—they’re here for you 24/7/365.

We wish you all the best as you transition to online schooling during the pandemic and will be cheering you on as you finish your semester!

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Alice Cifuentes

Alice has several years of marketing experience within healthcare and most recently in higher education focused on social media growth, tradeshow management, and communication. She is passionate about creatively navigating new challenges and discovering innovative ways to connect with educators.

Online Education: How to Successfully Work Remotely

As we enter the next phase of this abrupt transition to online education it is important to focus on how to successfully work remotely. While this may not be permanent, it is important to learn how to best manage your responsibilities to ensure the success of your students during this time. We’ve compiled a few remote work tips for how to successfully work remotely.

Develop a Regular Cadence

Without a consistent schedule, you risk your ability to focus, stay productive, and meet your institution’s education goals. Cathleen Swody, Ph.D., organizational psychologist and founding partner at Thrive Leadership, states that “Dressing pulled-together helps us feel pulled-together.” Maintaining a sense of regularity as you would heading into your office and/or classroom is essential. Ensure that you are sitting down during regular hours to provide support to your students and that you are equally taking breaks throughout the day. Create personal reminders and events; become your own personal manager. Developing a structure can aid significantly in preserving mental health during this chaotic time and reduce the possibility of burn out. 

Stay Connected

Do not be a stranger to your fellow faculty members! When you are fully remote it is easy to feel like you and your colleagues are less connected to one another. According to the Buffer State of Remote Report loneliness and collaboration/communication accounts for 40% of the challenges of working remotely.

It is more important than ever to support each other to ensure that the success and education of your students remain constant despite this crisis. How can you do this? Here are a couple of our favorite remote work tips:

  • Plan regular one-on-one calls with peers. It is an overwhelming time for everyone so having someone check-in is incredibly valuable. Ensure that you not only discuss the challenges they are facing with their classes but see how they are doing personally. We are all traversing a nervewracking time of change, but a sense of comradery can go a long way in making someone feel supported.
  • Start a weekly department-wide meeting. Discover new opportunities, discuss concerns, and offer ways to contribute.

Stay Productive

Working remotely introduces new distractions that must be combated. When you are not giving a lecture or providing one-on-one attention to a student, how do you manage your other responsibilities in a focused manner? Here are a few strategies we like:

  • Consider noise reduction headphones. Our home environments may not be fully set up to support a quiet workspace, but reducing the sound of distractions can significantly improve your ability to concentrate.
  • If your home does offer the ability to designate a workspace, ensure that it is a stress-free area that does not interfere with your ability to teach nor intrude into the lives of other household members. Avoid sitting on the couch in front of your TV or lounging on your bed.
  • In order to stay productive, you also have to ensure you unplug from your workday. Close the door to your office, put away the laptop, gather up your lecture notes, etc. Safely stow away your work materials and recharge for the next day. Read our previous blog post, “Top 10 Things to Take Care of Your Right now” to learn more about how to unwind. 

Most importantly, working remotely does not have to be complicated. Find what works specifically for you to ensure that your students’ education remains consistent.

Read more relevant articles

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Alice Cifuentes

Alice has several years of marketing experience within healthcare and most recently in higher education focused on social media growth, tradeshow management, and communication. She is passionate about creatively navigating new challenges and discovering innovative ways to connect with educators.