Assistant Professor at Michigan State University Expands Course Enrollment and Protects Exam Integrity with Remote Proctoring Technology

To accommodate overflowing student demand, Dr. Cognato built a remarkable online zoology course that included everything. Except integrity?

Zoology 341, “Fundamental Genetics” at Michigan State University is a high enrollment course required by many majors. With student demand far outpacing the supply of seats, the Department of Zoology commissioned a fully online state-of-the-art version of the course in order to meet student demand. The online course was offered in the summer to accommodate students who were unable to be on campus or who had other summer obligations such as internships, study abroad, or employment.

However, cheating on exams quickly threatened the integrity of the online course. Something had to be done to ensure parity between the online and face-to-face testing environment. A lack of exam integrity threatened the ability to offer an online course and meet the challenge of growing enrollment.

CHALLENGE 1: AN ACCELERATED CLASS The online Zoology 341 was painstakingly created from scratch with web-native components like lecture capture and assessment tightly integrated into the student experience. The course was designed to engage students with interactive, hands-on activities to maximize learning gains.

However, one of the greatest challenges was the accelerated nature of the online course. Because the summer session was only7 weeks, assessments were required frequently to assess student learning. In lieu of the traditional 2 to 3 midterm, 1 final model, midterm-like exams were offered weekly, at the end of each learning module. However, an unintended consequence of the accelerated nature of the online course was an increase in the frequency of academic dishonesty.

CHALLENGE 2: CHEATING WAS DETECTED Cheating was detected the first summer the course was taught. By the second time the course was offered, cheating ranged from moderate (plagiarism from internet sources) to serious (sharing and copying entire answer keys).

Case Study

Challenge: Dr. April Cognato needed to enable students in her online genetics course to take exams remotely while maintaining academic integrity. She knew she needed the solution to satisfy several important criteria: ability to completely secure an exam being proctored remotely; be convenient and cost-effective and most importantly – prevent cheating. Solution: Dr. Cognato partnered with Software Secure to explore potential proctoring solutions for securing exams remotely. Their approach took into consideration the following:

• Convenience - a solution that enabled students to take exams from their homes.

• Complete security – a solution that addressed all aspects of exam environment security – from audio/video capture to securing the computer and authenticating the student taking the exam.

• Cost Efficiency – a solution that delivered rigorous security standards with minimal resource requirements and costs.

Remote Proctor Pro was the only comprehensive solution that delivered the total online exam security while meeting the demanding criteria of the online genetics course. Results: Dr. Cognato is now able to continue to provide online classes while ensuring academic integrity. Remote Proctor Pro System addresses both accessibility and convenience needs while controlling the exam environment.

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Several students were failed in the first two years of the course. But many more were suspected. It was clear that cheating was a problem, but Dr. Cognato had no way of knowing the extent of the problem. A secondary, but important, consequence was the impact widespread cheating had on the teaching team. Dr. Cognato and her teaching team spent an increasing amount of time policing cases of dishonesty. Beyond the unreasonable time commitment, playing the role of policeman made faculty feel adversarial and lowered their morale. Confronting students with allegations of cheating, reporting incidents to the Dean, facing students in distress—all of these made the entire experience very stressful. In addition, time spent policing dishonesty took away from the amount of energy the teaching team could contribute to teaching the course.

CHALLENGE 3: INTEGRITY AT STAKE

Overall, the outcome was that the integrity, and the quality, of the course suffered. This concern brought to the forefront many questions that needed to be addressed:

• Would word spread that the online version of class was ‘easy because of the ability to cheat on exams? • How would a reputation of cheating impact the reputation of our online courses? • How can we socially engineer an atmosphere that brings out the best in our students, one where dishonesty just

isn’t worth the risk?

The overarching concern was a need to level the playing field between the exams offered on campus and online. Protecting exam security online was an integral component of ensuring the quality and reputation of the online course.

CHALLENGE 4: IT WON’T WORK IF IT’S COSTLY, INCONVENIENT OR DOESN’T COVER ALL THE BASES The immediate problem was how to stop the cheating ASAP, particularly in an accelerated, online course with a high level of student interaction. A system was needed with a 360-degree view of the exam environment to monitor scratch paper and notes and capture them visually to ensure students were doing their own work. In addition, the rising cost of higher education raised cost concerns. The IT group needed the solution to integrate easily with Angel LMS. The instructors wanted the peace of mind -- that ‘our bases are covered’ – by closing as many cheating loopholes as possible.

THE REQUIREMENTS CHECKLIST:

Desired End-User Features

1. Flexible

2. Cost-effective

3. Easy to employ for faculty and students

4. Tech-support for students

5. Customer-support for faculty

Desired System Features

1. Authenticates student identity

2. Monitors student activity 360*

3. Secures computer access

4. Compact, portable

5. LMS compatible

"The Remote Proctor Pro Solution closes as many loopholes [to cheat] as possible." April Cognato, Ph.D., Assistant Professor, Michigan State University

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PARTNERSHIP WITH SOFTWARE SECURE A thorough search returned a range of vendors with various products, but Dr. Cognato found only one vendor had the comprehensive solution: Software Secure’s Remote Proctor Pro System. Software Secure’s team responded quickly by meeting with Dr. Cognato, the Department Chair, the Head of Distance Learning, and the IT group – responding efficiently with answers to questions and solutions to unique challenges of the ANGEL LMS. Software Secure helped Dr. Cognato create a set of best practices for the Remote Proctor Pro system, like how to avoid test-day trouble (email reminders to students). They helped write exam policies (to set up clear ground rules) and walked everyone through a test exam.

To keep both costs and risks low, Software Secure came up with an innovative ‘rented’ payment arrangement where students paid a modest deposit upfront (via familiar Paypal) to use the device for the 7 weeks of class – and then received their deposit back after returning the device. Software Secure even provided quick and simple options to ship the system directly to the students; even return shipping was made simple and easy.

STUDENTS CHOSE REMOTE PROCTOR Almost 80% of the students chose to use Remote Proctor instead of using a certified testing center. And for a variety of reasons: • Cost: At net cost of $100 per student for 7 weeks of exam

proctoring, the Remote Proctor Pro solution was more economical than using certified testing centers.

• Flexibility: Depending on a student’s life factors (like work hours, distance from a testing center, etc.), live proctoring was not always available when the students wanted it. Conversely, Remote Proctor Pro was available to students 24 hours a day.

• Convenience: Students could apply their best efforts from the comfort of their homes.

RESULTS: ONLINE EXAM INTEGRITY AND LEVEL PLAYING FIELD

Dr. Cognato is continuing to realize the benefits of remote proctoring. In a post-course survey, over 80% of the students said Remote Proctor Pro made cheating either impossible or difficult. By covering all the bases, like authenticating the identity of the student test-taker and monitoring the exam environment, the legitimacy of Zoology 341 was maintained. Following the initial trial, other units on campus are investigating Remote Proctor Pro as a solution to safeguard online exam integrity. About Dr. Cognato Dr. Cognato is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Zoology at Michigan State University (MSU) where she teaches online and face-to-face courses in undergraduate biology. She has been integral in developing the first fully online courses in her department, and continues to expand their online course offerings. MSU is a public research university in East Lansing, Michigan, USA. Founded in 1855, it was the pioneer land-grant institution and served as a model for future land-grant colleges in the United States under the 1862 Morrill Act. Its study-abroad program is the largest of any single-campus university in the country, offering more than 200 programs in more than 60 countries on all continents including Antarctica.

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“The remote proctoring device was easy and convenient...you could take your exam in your own home and at whatever time you wanted.

The lowered cost compared to the in-person proctoring exam was a plus.” -MSU Students