How to Conduct Online Academic Exams Remotely?

How to manage academic exams during Covid-19 outbreak

The concept of online exams did exist prior to the COVID-19 outbreak. But the global pandemic has raised the importance, popularity, and demand for online exams in an exponential manner. With the pandemic, and social distancing norms, the pen-and-paper-based exams soon got substituted with online exams. And, the concept of virtually proctoring the online tests came to the fore. 

In this article, we will discuss online learning, how the examination process has evolved over the years, especially during the pandemic, how EdTech is transforming the education ecosystem, and what educational institutions and organisations are expected to do to ride the evolutionary tide. 

Online Learning

Traditional classroom-based learning is shifting to online mode in a compulsive environment where there is a complete or partial shutdown across the world. Students have been asked to attend online classes or use communication technologies like hangout, skype, and online videos to continue their learning.

The closure of traditional learning is getting compensated partially by online learning.

Examination Process

However, the examination process is one of the critical aspects of the academic cycle. The right evaluation of students is essential to understand the progress of the student in terms of knowledge gained, and conceptual understanding of the subject or topic.

The traditional examination process where students are requested to gather at the examination centre to write the exam is not possible in the context of the covid-19 outbreak. Institutes need to identify and adopt new ways and means to conduct the examination process of the students. Without conducting secure exams, the academic year would become meaningless and motivation for learning might get diminished for the students.

Way forward for Education Institutes to conduct exams

The government is asking various entities, and various organisations to work from home or even there is a shutdown for Educational institutions as well as universities. Education institutions or universities are facing a great challenge in terms of completing their academic cycle and conducting exams as well.

So if you consider the traditional scenario, physical examination invigilation is an impossible scenario in the current context of the world, but thanks to the technology, you can use Artificial Intelligence-powered Remote Proctoring technology which will help you to conduct an exam even for the remote candidate. 

Artificial Intelligence enabled Proctored Online Exams

So imagine a scenario where all of your students are sitting at home in a quarantine environment and you want to conduct the exam for those students. AI-powered technology can help you to conduct exams online in an easy, efficient, and seamless manner. Here are details about how you can conduct such online exams with the help of Technology and you can easily invigilate those exams sitting at a remote location as well.

why remote proctoring during exams

Limitations of Traditional Physical Exam Invigilation

Examination Center for Online Exams

Letโ€™s imagine a scenario where traditional examinations approach where students need to appear for the exam at the exam centre. Then, physical exam invigilation happens where the invigilator needs to monitor student activity to analyse whether they are doing any kind of cheating or not. The traditional exam approach requires social gathering and physical exam invigilation.

Even in the case of online exams that are conducted at the exam centre, some sort of physical invigilation is essential.

Remote Proctoring for Secure Online Exams

With the help of technology, you can easily conduct exams where students are distributed across multiple locations. They can appear for the Online Exam while sitting at their home.

In this case, there are various steps involved that help you to conduct the online exam in a secure manner.

Workflow of remote Proctoring

1. Remote candidates log into the online exam with a secure browser. It prevents the user from opening any other window during exam activity

2. Remote user does self-authentication by showing an identity card in front of a web camera and the system also captures the photograph of the remote candidate

3.The next step while attempting the online exam is Facial Recognition.

The system tries to capture the photograph of the candidate appearing for the online exam and it is compared with the existing database available within the system.

Imagine if the student is uploading the photograph or the system is capturing the photograph of the student that is compared with the existing Identity Card or identity associated with the student. The system will alert the proctor if there is a mismatch between the user attempting an online exam and a corresponding photograph of the student.

And, if that photograph matches the identity card or identity of the student, then only the student will be able to appear for the online exam.

The system can also help you to identify and track if more than one person is sitting in front of the screen

4. As a Remote Proctor, you can easily monitor the entire Remote Examination activity, where the entire live streaming associated with the exam activity will be recorded and it will also be shown live.

As a Remote Proctor, you can easily monitor all the candidates or all the students appearing for the online exam.

5. Remote Proctor can also initiate a live chat with candidates attempting the online exams. There are additional facilities to terminate, pause, and resume online exams of remote candidates.

Online Exam proctoring and streaming

6. Remote Proctor has entire control of the examination activity; the proctor can also see the remote candidate screen activity. Audio and image proctoring help to detect if a candidate is taking help from the external environment and such an incident can be easily logged in the system with the help of technology.

Remote Invigilator Role During Online Exams

There are various educational institutes that want to conduct traditional exams, but because of this covid-19 scare, they have shifted their entire examination process to the Remote Proctored Online Exam.  The entire proctored examination process became seamless and all security aspects of invigilation were taken care of.

Eklavvya platform provides you with the option to conduct online exams on the mobile phone of the student. While the student is attempting an online exam on a mobile phone, the camera of the phone continuously streams the activity/face of the user to the exam proctor. The exam proctor can ensure that the candidate is not using any means or taking help from books, notebooks, or talking to another person while the exam is happening.

Conclusion

Examination conduction and management can be effectively done during the Covid-19 pandemic with the help of technology of AI-powered remote proctoring. It can serve a purpose where students can attempt online exams from their homes and entire copying, and exam malpractice can be prevented using proctoring and streaming technology.

The process is quite simple; you need to register for the remote proctored examination process. Then, you can define an online exam. 

You can ask your students to appear for the online exam from a remote location where they need to have a continuous internet connection along with a web camera. 

The web camera will help you to capture the photographs of those candidates and it will also help you to record the entire activity of the candidate. An artificial intelligence-powered algorithm will also help you to monitor the candidateโ€™s activity in real-time.

So managing such a remote exam is quite easy and quite possible. So if you are finding it a bit challenging as an educational institute or university, and if you are looking forward to conducting online exams in the current challenging scenario, remote proctoring is the solution for you to get started.

What is the importance of online learning?

Online learning has transformed the educational world in a huge way today, especially after the spread of the pandemic Covid. Students and teachers can stay safe at home to perform the learning process from their devices. Many educational institutes and even universities have recognized the importance of online learning and have considered it to be a part of their curriculum. Not only did online learning become quite beneficial for the students, but it also offered convenience to the teachers and faculties of different universities and institutes. Overall, online learning has become important today because it has turned out to be beneficial for everyone in the process. 

What are the advantages of online learning?

A good number of educational centres have realized the advantages of online learning. Here are some of the notable advantages of online learning. 

  • No need to commute to the centre as you can teach and learn from your convenient location and through your convenient device. 
  • You can avail of the flexibility of time according to your convenience.
  • You can pursue learning with your profession or can also pursue more than one program or course together. 
  • You are able to learn in a much more comfortable environment.
  • Online learning enables you to save a lot of money as you do not have to commute, and you access all your modules online. 

How does online learning help students grow?

While regular schools and colleges just offer knowledge to the students, there is a high chance for the students to grow with online learning. Here are some of the ways how online learning help students to grow. 

  • Students can pursue more than a single course at the same time and from different faculties. 
  • The students do not just gain knowledge about the programs but also learn time management skills. 
  • You do not have to commute to your centre, and this saves a lot of time as well as money that you can spend on something else that is equally important.

Why do students prefer online learning?

There are so many reasons today why students prefer online learning now. 

  • The very first reason is that the students do not have to commute to the centre and this saves not just their time and energy but also their money. 
  • Online learning also offers the flexibility of time. Thus, the students are able to schedule their own time for the sessions according to their convenience. 
  • There is no such need to carry physical books, as online learning also allows students to learn from digital books and modules. 

Apart from all these reasons, also working professionals prefer online learning as it helps them in balancing work and studies better. 

Is online learning effective or not?

Online learning is considered extremely effective due to several reasons and the benefits it offers. Some of the most common benefits of online learning are that it helps the students in saving time as they do not have to commute. Also, it helps you in saving a good amount of money as you can access your modules and books in digital form online and do not have to buy physical forms. 

Apart from the benefits to the students, online learning is also considered effective as it is beneficial for the environment too. The lesser use of physical books helps in reducing pollution in the environment. 

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