Future through the watchful eye of Artificial Intelligence in the world of Online Remote Proctoring Exams

The New Normal
Proctoring, or invigilation, is no longer restricted to a scheduled time and a physical exam center/campus anymore. The COVID-19 lockout led to a rapid revolution in the way the exams are now conducted. This created a demand for a variety of Online & Remote Proctoring Solutions and supporting technologies. Today, educators and students are increasingly adopting virtual platforms to remotely proctor and take the examinations from home resulting in modernizing the way of conducting assessments which is now “The New Normal”.

Here, what has not changed is the fundamental need to align security demands with a positive candidate’s experience making Online & Remote Proctoring, an opportunity, which is now widely used by both public and private sector organizations.


Deep Dive to the World of Online & Remote Proctoring

Online & Remote Proctoring is an effective, simple and technology-based alternative to traditional on-site proctoring where the integrity of the test is preserved with the assistance of AI-enabled monitoring tools that ensure a high level of safety & holistic experience for both educators and students using:

• Voice/Audio Recognition: To pick up background noise and match it with speech patterns to identify potential malpractice.
• Facial Recognition: To authenticate both that the student signed up for a given online examination is the one taking it.
• Object Detection: To identify objects on screen apart from registered face viz. mobile phone, books, unnecessary gadgets to avoid using malpractice during the exam.
• Eye Movement Detection: A regular pattern of even the most subtle motions of the eyes may suggest wrongdoing. As such this technology is vital to our AI system's accuracy.

As more exams are proctored with AI and machine learning, the systems are becoming smarter. AI systems will continue to learn and become wise enough over time to make judgements on the seriousness of their own findings.

The variations of Remote Proctoring
There are different types of online proctoring, depending on each institution's traditional requirements, such as budget, comprehensive experience, risk levels and safety testing. In broader terms, Remote Proctoring can be divided in three methods:

• Auto proctoring: Highly supported by AI, this flags suspicious events and provides the vast ability to continuously track a larger number of candidates. The program can discover the occurrences on the screen and what is happening in front of the camera. For example, if a test-taker opens a browser and browses another website or application during the test, the remote proctoring system takes screenshots of this activity if it occurs without letting the candidate know.

• Live proctoring: Live proctoring offers the best of both worlds by incorporating a "real human" with the technology. An invigilator sits and controls the video feeds with live proctoring, and can interfere in real-time if necessary in a candidate's exam, giving the proctors an additional level of security and feedback to candidates as they go through a test or review. A live proctoring may be used along with either auto proctoring or AI-assisted notifications.

• Record and review proctoring: This proctoring method not only enables additional protection but also provides flexibility to candidates who do not need to fix time and coordinate with the availability of the surveillant. Instead the candidates' audio-visual and screen-sharing feeds are recorded during the examination, a proctor then reviews the recorded exam, and flags any dubious activity if occurs.

Benefits of Remote World of Online Proctoring

The major reason why Online & Remote Proctoring is becoming more important & common is because of the ability to meet candidates’ and invigilator's expectation for evaluation of tests anywhere at any time, this includes:

• Reducing turnaround time while marking & publishing results.
• Go beyond geographical gap barriers to enter new markets.
• Cutting & optimizing logistics costs
• Integrate with your existing infrastructure using online proctoring that provides an extension to improve efficiency of an educational organization.

The Future is Now at Wheebox:

As new innovations are becoming more accessible and available, our algorithms also evolve and adapt these regular upgrades to provide:

• Enhanced & un-matched security
• Scalability & seamless exam experience
• Robust platform with advanced analytics using Microsoft BI tools.

Wheebox brings powerful and customizable solutions in time to help the delivery of any type of online examination certified by CERT-In (National Agency for Cyber Security) for application security that helps educational organizations to identify, & build cost effective online examinations with a higher accuracy that enables them to conduct the examinations according to the needs of assessment and test-takers alike.