Humanizing the Exam Experience & Building a Culture of Integrity at South Plains College

February 9, 2026

South Plains College’s (SPC) mission is concise yet all-encompassing: to provide educational opportunities that improve the lives of its students by establishing a foundation for lifelong learning. That mission is tangible in the way SPC delivers accessible, flexible, affordable education to more than 20,000 learners each year while supporting the communities of the southern Texas High Plains.

SPC is a comprehensive community college offering degrees and certificates in the arts & sciences, health professions, and career & technical programs through comprehensive transfer pathways, innovative online options, and accessible short-term workforce courses leading to licensures. SPC serves a wide range of students (many who are first-generation college students, as well as academically and economically disadvantaged) in an accessible environment where personal attention, in and out of the classroom, is part of the culture. Students learn in modern classrooms and labs with the latest equipment and hands-on work built into the learning experience. SPC also serves the region through developmental education, continuing education, workforce development, and community service.

The challenge: Creating fair, supportive, and secure assessments at scale

SPC wanted assessments that were fair, supportive, and meaningful for every learner, whether they were on campus or online, new to college or preparing for the workforce. To support that, SPC focused on four priorities:

Provide a consistent and fair testing experience for all students.
Create a supportive test experience that reduces test anxiety.
Design authentic assessments that help students build relevant job skills.
Switch to a more secure test proctoring platform that’s easy to use and integrates directly with Blackboard®.

The solution & results: A new proctoring platform that improves the entire testing experience while protecting academic integrity

SPC selected Honorlock’s hybrid remote proctoring solution, which combines AI monitoring and live proctors and integrates directly with Blackboard. SPC also provided faculty training and gave students practice options so they could get familiar with the process before high-stakes exams. This approach helps students feel more prepared and helps faculty deliver and review proctored exams more consistently across courses.

Preparing and supporting students throughout the exam process

Setting clear expectations before the first exam

“I feel like a lot of students cheat because they don’t understand what is being asked or aren’t confident in their ability to deliver,” explained Instructional Designer Heather Medley. SPC addresses this by communicating requirements and objectives in advance so students can focus on the exam rather than dealing with avoidable technical problems.

Preparing students through practice

Practice exams and HonorPrep™ help students get comfortable with taking proctored exams. This preparation reduces confusion and test anxiety and helps students avoid avoidable technical issues.

Offering flexibility that works for students’ schedules

With adult learners, dual credit students, traditional students, and rural learners, SPC needed a solution that allows students to take exams at times and places that work with their schedules. Honorlock allows students to take proctored exams 24/7/365 without scheduling and provides on-demand live human support in seconds.

Heather Medley

Instructional Designer, South Plains College

“Our partnerships with Honorlock and Blackboard have been essential to the work we’re doing. They allow us to design assessments that are transparent, accessible, and engaging—while also meeting the real-world expectations our students will face beyond the classroom.”

Faculty support that drives adoption and saves time

Training that encourages adoption

To encourage adoption, SPC immediately started training faculty to use Honorlock across their courses. Medley said the support was hands-on and consistent. “They have come, and they have hosted trainings. They’ve come with support. It’s been really nice to have that level of support where four or five people will fly out here to train our faculty.”

That training helped faculty use the platform effectively and gave them more time to focus on teaching and improving assessments.

SPC Instructors summed it up in their feedback:

“Honorlock just works.”
“I spend far less time troubleshooting and far more time teaching.”
“I can finally focus on exam design instead of exam stress.”

The result was widespread adoption

47,669 proctored exams were delivered across 410 active courses in the first full year, far exceeding the usage of prior proctoring systems.

Building and proctoring exams in one place

he integration between Honorlock and Blackboard keeps the entire assessment process in one place, whether they’re building an exam or reviewing results.

Faculty can create question banks and rubrics within Blackboard and secure their quizzes and exams with Honorlock’s unique proctoring features that can detect cell phones and other secondary devices, block unauthorized AI tools, and find leaked exam content automatically. The direct integration also means that students and faculty won’t need to deal with extra passwords or logins.

Honorlock also integrates with Canvas, Moodle, D2L Brightspace, Open LMS, Intellum, and Docebo. In addition to our direct integrations, Honorlock offers custom integrations with other learning and assessment platforms with our easy-to-use APIs and Elements toolkit.

By combining Honorlock and Blackboard, SPC has improved teaching and learning for its 20,000+ students and faculty, and better supports the college’s mission to expand learning opportunities across its expansive 15-county service area.