The current global pandemic has forced schools, colleges, or any educational institutes to transform their educational process into a digital classroom.
It increased the demand for online assessment and remote proctoring solutions.
Recently, in India, AICTE has asked all its affiliate institutes to conduct final year examination following UGC's guidelines. And in this lockdown,
the only question on everyone's mind is how the final year exam will take place, and how institutes will maintain social distancing!
Education is going through a transformational phase right now,
and institutes are considering online examination with remote proctoring for safe and secure examination.
Remote Proctoring
Online proctoring is a relatively new way of invigilation, and there is not much awareness around it.
After the pandemic and lockdown, the demand for remote proctoring solutions is witnessing a 50-60% jump.
Remote proctoring makes it possible for the students to write and give exams
online from anywhere in the world while also maintaining the examination's integrity.
The students confirm their identity through a video camera,
and they are also being monitored through the video camera for any suspicious activity.
Though there was not much awareness about remote proctoring in the past,
testing and assessment companies are integrating online proctoring into their solutions in recent years.
Also, learning management systems are incorporating the remote proctoring as a part of their solutions.
Problems Faced By the Exam Organisers without Proctoring
In this global pandemic, it is almost impossible to conduct offline proctoring due to lockdown.
It is challenging to find quality proctors for offline examination. Also, it is hard to monitor the quality of the proctoring.
Offline proctoring is not scalable. There should be multiple proctors for multiple test centres.
Online tests without proctoring often result in malpractices and cheating.
Most students use smartphones or books to search the answers to the questions.
Requirements for Online Remote Proctoring
To take an online proctored exam, candidates must have
- A Computer(Desktop/Laptop/Tablet)
- A Stable Internet connection
- A functional Webcam and mic
- Any latest browser
Types of Remote Proctoring
Currently, there are three major types of remote proctoring available for educational institutions.
These are live online proctoring, Recorded proctoring, and AI-based proctoring.
1. Live Online Proctoring
In live online proctoring a human proctor monitors the candidates through the webcam and the audio feed in real-time.
A human proctor can monitor 15-30 candidates at once. This process removes the location constraint from the examination process.
Candidates can take up exams from wherever they want.
But the drawback of this system is that it still requires candidates to give exams at a set time. And the capability of a human proctor is
pretty limited when it comes to keeping track of all the candidates at once. It is also not scalable and expensive.
2. Recorded Proctoring
In this method, no one monitors the candidates in real-time. Instead, the recorded audio and videos are sent to the human proctor.
And he/she plays back the feed-in fast-forward mode and looks for any suspicious behaviour.
This method's advantage is that it removes the time and location of both constraints from the exam process.
However, human proctors are still required to monitor the exam. Hence it is not scalable and even costly.
It is the most advanced type of proctoring. Hare the video and audio feed of the candidates is recorded in real-time. And the AI-based system monitors the video and audio feed for any unnecessary behaviours.
The AI software also uses face recognition to verify the candidate.
The advantage of AI-based proctoring is it eliminates the need for a human proctor. That makes it highly scalable and efficient.
Parakh Online Pvt Ltd. provides one of the best online proctoring solutions with its online assessment solutions.
Who Can Benefit From Online Proctoring Solution
1. Assessment Providers
Companies that provide assessment solutions or provide test engineering solutions to their clients can use remote proctoring to increase their functionality.
Here are the benefits,
- Become a one-stop solution by providing a holistic assessment solution at a low cost.
- Create additional revenue streams
- Scale business by enabling them to conduct exams worldwide.
2. Educational Institutes
Online proctoring solutions have already proved their effectiveness in monitoring candidates and assuring fair examination.
Educational institutes, schools, colleges, and universities can use online proctoring
solutions effectively to take their internal and external examinations.
3. Certifying Agencies
Certifying agencies can use the online proctoring solution for various reasons.
- For scaling a business by conducting online certification examinations.
- Bringing low-cost certification courses to the market.
- Expand the global reach of the certification examinations.
- Maintain records of examinations for future reference.
Organizations like Microsoft and Salesforce are using online video proctoring effectively in their certification examinations.
Disadvantages of Remote Proctoring
- Commercial proctoring services can be costly for some businesses. However, these advanced automated proctoring are highly scalable and cost-effective.
- There are concerns about the use of personal and facial data with AI. Many students feel uncomfortable about the fact that they are being watched.
Future of Online Proctoring
Remote proctoring will become one of the essential parts of the assessment process, both online and offline. The current trends are:
- Using biometric technology to verify the authenticity of the candidate.
- Smartwatches and fitness trackers can also be used to monitor students' behaviours.
- Head movement and positioning analysis can be used in the future.
Conclusion
We at Parakh Online Pvt. Ltd offers remote proctoring solutions with our end-to-end exam management solution. With the help of our solution,
educational institutes can conduct any type of online examinations effortlessly, while keeping the integrity of the examinations.