Proctorio aims at preventing cheating through locking down browsers and recording student environments. Credit: Zachary Rilley | Photo Editor
Most students think not knowing the course content would cause the most stress on exam day, but the flaws in a commonly used remote testing tool provide one more worry.
Students and professors around Ohio State said the online proctoring service Proctorio causes more headaches and anxiety for students — who might worry of inaccurate detections of cheating, technical difficulties and the program violating their privacy — than effectively upholding the academic honesty for which it was created.
According to its website, Proctorio is completely automated. When an exam is submitted, representatives can watch exam recordings and review flagged behaviors. During testing, Proctorio can record video, audio, screen, web traffic and the student’s desk.
Proctorio became a testing solution for many universities like Ohio State during the pandemic when online classes were the predominant mode of learning. According to The New Yorker, Proctorio’s client list grew more than 500 percent between 2019 and 2021 as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. According to an April 2021 Lantern article, COVID-19 increased the use of Proctorio by nearly 200 percent at Ohio State.
Aly Murphy, a first-year in political science, used Proctorio in her in-person Spanish class. She said she wondered how the software evaluated her movements.
“I’ll often catch myself just looking at my face being like, are they, if I like look off camera while I’m thinking, I’m like, ‘Are they going to think that I’m cheating right now?’” Murphy said.
With its use of face-tracking and recording, Proctorio and similar services have gained attention due to potential privacy concerns. According to NPR, a federal judge sided with Aaron Ogletree in August 2022, who sued Cleveland State University after claiming a room scan violated his Fourth Amendment rights. Ogletree instead used HonorLock, another online proctoring service.
According to Ohio Law, virtual proctoring may be offered through college-approved testing software and requires the use of a PC-based computer or Mac, built-in or student-purchased webcam, high-speed internet access and college-provided software.
A study published in 2021 of 30 students indicates that Proctorio doesn’t catch cheaters and wrongly flags honest test-takers.
Murphy said she does not understand why Proctorio exams are needed when she has in-person class.
“What if I have things that I don’t want my teacher to see in my classroom or in my room?” Murphy said. “And I feel, like, the opportunity is definitely there for us to take the tests in class because we already meet during, like, every single day.””
Katie Freytag, a first-year in biology and molecular genetics, said Proctorio made her in-person math course more stressful from the steps needed to ensure she was able to access the program and take the exam on time.
“They had us go through, like, all the steps and they sent out some information, but it was pretty much ‘Follow all the boxes, double, triple check that everything’s right before you’re able to take the exam,’” Freytag said.
Laura Jones, a lecturer and coordinator within the Department of Statistics, said in an email she switched her Statistics course from Proctorio to Zoom proctoring due to technical difficulties.
“There were too many technical difficulties that would arise, and it was difficult to simultaneously fix them all in a timely fashion,” Jones said. “This caused unnecessary anxiety for the students.”
Jones said since using Zoom, feedback from students has changed.
“When I used Proctorio, I received a handful of emails about feeling uncomfortable with the exam environment,” Jones said. “I no longer receive emails with those concerns.”
Deborah Rumsey, an associate professor in statistics, said online testing in her statistics course began with the pandemic. Online testing is easier when course enrollment is large, she said, as in-person testing would require multiple rooms and assistants. The convenience of online testing has allowed the system to stay in place.
“Giving an in-person exam is a, is a really big production,” Rumsey said. “It’s a lot of, takes a lot of time and a lot of work, and I would gladly do it except I don’t want it to be unfair to one group over another in terms of how I proctor.”
Rumsey’s course utilizes Zoom proctoring over Proctorio. Students are required to keep their cameras and microphones on.
“I think we have to do something to watch people during an exam,” Rumsey said. “So, I try not to be too invasive. And, and the students, the only complaint I hear from students is that they can hear other people like sneezing or coughing or somebody, somebody’s got a dog barking or something like that.”
Lia Holland, campaigns and communication director at Fight for the Future, said the organization aims to highlight how e-proctoring practices can be discriminatory.
Fight for the Future is a national digital rights organization that has spent time researching online proctoring. According to its website, the non-profit has led some of the largest online protests in human history. They focus on topics such as anti-surveillance, artists’ creative rights and access to knowledge.
“We looked more into the technology and saw that it uses, you know, biometric analysis, facial recognition, although they often don’t like to call it facial recognition, right, because they know that that word is incredibly toxic and unpopular,” Holland said. “As well as, you know, gaze tracking and, just, invasive practices like scanning people, like forcing students to scan their bedrooms or flagging them as suspicious if there’s any sort of background noise, which is really discriminatory for students who live with roommates or family or have children.”
Holland said Fight for the Future is hoping there may be some legislative action taken against online proctoring services in the future.
“Change does happen over time, and this is, in particular, being looked at as a mistake that might have been made during the pandemic and something that there is still time to correct,” Holland said. “So, I would say that despite the pervasiveness of these technologies, we should stay hopeful and keep fighting.”
The Lantern was unable to get in contact with Proctorio for comment by the time of publication.
