Teachers have always tried to keep an eye out for cheating, and cheaters have always tried to conceal the tricks of the trade. But now surveillance is coming to higher education, from Boston-based startup ProctorCam, a maker of Web-based software for the live monitoring of test-takers remotely.
The idea for the company came when founder and CEO Rob Toof witnessed the hassle his mother went through to take a test for her online course at Boston University. The nearest in-person test-taking facility was two hours away—removing the convenience that typically attracts students to online classes. Most universities require close monitoring and proctoring to prevent cheating and impersonating in test taking, either at the university or at designated proctor sites. But Toof decided to take that process to the Web to extend the convenience of taking online classes all the way to exam time.
Students schedule a specific time to take their exam via ProctorCam. The user experience starts with a check-in process where a proctor checks the student into the exam via a video interface, using a set of criteria customized by the institution, prior to opening up the Internet browser window for the exam. “In a lot of ways we’re an extension of the brands of the institutions we work with,” says Toof, who previously worked at Boston-based word-of-mouth marketing company BzzAgent. These steps often include checking a government-issued ID and examining the student’s desk and workspace via video.
In some ways, it sounds like a cheater’s dream. But in addition to the check-in process and the video proctoring that follows, ProctorCam has technology measures in place that aim to replicate the close monitoring of an in-person proctor. The software platform monitors users’ desktops throughout the test-taking process, to track whether or not a test-taker has opened up a program or Internet browser to potentially cheat off of. It also records the entire exam session and can flag any irregularities to report to the schools, and enables universities to directly view the recordings of the exam sessions.
ProctorCam held the first online test with a group of BU students in spring 2009. But the university was curious about how the ProctorCam test-takers’ scores matched up to those who took the test in a traditional proctor setting. The company ran a study of more than 500 students, half of them using ProctorCam, and half tested in-person, and found that the difference in scores between the groups averaged about two points. Now 41 percent of test takers from BU’s online program take tests via
