Exam Proctoring Services as a Differentiator in Online Examinations

Basing our knowledge in linguistic knowledge, a proctor is defined as a supervisor who monitors students during the conduct of an examination. Sometimes, it also refers to officers who have disciplinary role functionalities in universities.

From the reference above, exam proctoring services are providing services for the conduct of examinations under the invigilation of proctors or invigilators to avoid cheating and other misconduct. What’s the advantage it adds to have proctored examinations and non-proctored examinations? Non-proctored examinations are the examinations conducted without invigilation or proctors.

In the past, examinations were all about hard copies which were handed to the students and collected at the end of the time which was scheduled in advance. At a specific place, everyone used to assemble for giving examinations at a proctored exam center. Cheating was hard with proctors watching. With online examinations, non-proctored examinations are the norm. You just have to have the links to the examinations which can even be shared through emails. Everyone can give such examinations at their place of convenience.

Non-proctored exams and cheating might go hand-in-hand. Exam proctoring services seem to lose their significance because cheating can be easily used while attempting online examinations. One’s own device can be used to sit for such examinations. With the advancement in technology, it is even the most difficult task to prevent cheating. But cheating can be avoided in online exams through a proctored exam center. How may you ask? Read on about a proctored exam center:

Use random questions: A question bank can be installed for online examinations which can give different questions for different people appearing for such examinations. Every time there is a new candidate, the questions will be totally different. Make sure there are multitudes of questions on different topics to test candidates on different parameters of skills, talent, and abilities required for a certain job description or educational course.

A set timer: Cheating takes a lot of time. Well, less time than preparing. That’s the whole point of people cheating. Set timers for examinations. Timers can either be set for the whole time of examination or on the basis of questions.

Problem-solving questions: Many times people search for one-word answers or simple multiple objective answers on the internet. If question banks have such questions, it must be rectified at the earliest. Such questions must be replaced by problem-solving questions which can’t be solved through a quick glance on the internet. It requires quick intelligence and aptitude. There’s always the option of using timer to avoid excess use of time for answering questions from the internet.

Exam-adopted interface: Set the software in such a manner that it prevents minimizing the interface or opening a new tab from the system. Once an exam has been started it can be closed but it can’t be paused. Even if the users try to check for answers in other devices if giving exam from home, their time on the original system is continuously running which avoids any cheating.