Listen to this articleProctorio is a fully automated, online proctoring service that provides a scalable, cost-effective solution to validating student identities and activity during online exams. Proctorio’s customizable, secure exam settings and live ID verification allow instructors to set-up unscheduled, on-demand proctoring or invigilation specific to their assessment needs. Proctorio levels the playing field for students by increasing accountability, deterring cheating, and promoting a culture of academic integrity while improving learning outcomes. Below is our interview with Mike Olsen, CEO and Co-founder of Proctorio:
Q: You’ve recently announced a partnership with the University of Minnesota; tell us something more?
A: The University of Minnesota offers world-class online and blended programs for students who want the flexibility to learn at their own pace, in their own space. Proctorio gives UMN instructors and students increased flexibility by offering single sign-on integration and unscheduled proctoring. Instructors can add proctoring to any exam with customizable settings and no scheduling from within their learning management system (LMS). As a result, students are able to access their exams directly through their course pages, anytime, day or night.
Because of its partnership with Proctorio, professors at UMN can offer proctoring for all assessment types–quizzes, tests, and exams. Unlike other proctoring solutions that require advanced scheduling and extra logins and fees, Proctorio’s low-cost, automated proctoring can be used seamlessly on low-stakes quizzes at the beginning of the semester all the way through to high-stakes final exams with complete flexibility to suit every assessment situation.
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Q: What is unique about Proctorio and how does it stand out from the competition?
A: Proctorio is unique because it is designed to protect student privacy while keeping the power of determining academic dishonesty in the hands of instructors. Proctorio does not collect personally identifiable information, nor do we label students as “cheaters”. Only authorized agents at the institution may access exam recordings. The Proctorio Gradebook delivers exam recordings directly within the school’s LMS and provides a suspicion rating for each exam attempt. This process protects student privacy while allowing instructors to determine whether suspicious behaviors are violations of academic integrity in their digital classrooms.
Another distinguishing feature of Proctorio is it does not require require students to schedule their exams in advance. Scheduling exams in advance limits the flexibility of online education, and flexibility is a major reason why students take courses online. Proctorio’s automated software and 24/7 customer support ensure that students from around the globe can take their exams whenever they want. Our automated proctoring solution offers the greatest flexibility available for students, professors, and administrators.
Q: What have been some major milestones over the last 12 months?
A: 2017 is a big year for Proctorio as we have added both new educational partners and new features. We are teaming-up with the California Community College System and its Online Education Initiative to bring automated proctoring to online students throughout California and beyond. We are also building a network of in-person testing centers to allow students to utilize our proctoring services at secure locations in their local communities, if they prefer.
As a Google for Education partner, Proctorio is proud to offer free exam integrity to K-12 Google Classroom users this fall. We are offering our secure browser to K-12 institutions at no cost. As online options and flipped classrooms continue to grow within education, exam security and identity verification will become increasingly important for school accreditation and validation of student work. Proctorio is the only proctoring solution to integrate with Google Classroom. We know that schools using Google’s G Suite for Education are home to some of the most creative and forward-thinking educators in the world, and we are excited to see how they will utilize our complimentary exam integrity services.
Also in the fall of 2017, Proctorio is offering Live Room Verification to further protect the testing environment throughout the exam. This, along with our Live ID Verification, allows for extra scrutiny during high-stakes exams as well as additional assurance that the student taking the exam is the one registered for the course. No institution wants to find itself on the front page of a newspaper because of financial aid fraud or a cheating scandal. Proctorio is constantly improving its exam security and student identification procedures to suit the needs of our institutional partners.
Finally, we just released a scientific calculator and digital whiteboard to be used within secure exams at the instructor’s discretion. Rather than worrying about students having additional devices or notepaper, these tools can be turned on or off from within the exam settings to be used in any secure exam mode. Features like these are good examples of what Proctorio does best: offer the most secure exam settings with the greatest flexibility for all types of quizzes, tests, and exams.
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Q: What are your plans?
A: Proctorio is constantly developing new features for our partners to better analyze exam data and student behaviors. We have introduced and are continuing to develop our Admin Dashboard to provide aggregate test data across departments and divisions within institutions. This powerful tool allows administrators to keep track of academic integrity and exam data throughout the academic year.
We will be unveiling additional partnerships and features at EDUCAUSE 2017 this October in Philadelphia as well as OLC Accelerate 2017 this November in Orlando. We are excited to continue to engage educators and students in thinking more deeply about online education, academic integrity and the future of digital learning. We are proud to be in the vanguard of educational technologists making the distinction between online and brick-and-mortar education a thing of the past.
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