About Proctoring and Anti-Cheating Tools

Advances in technology can address instructors’ concerns about academic integrity and student conduct while testing virtually for face-to-face and online classes. Traditional proctoring is an alternative for instructors to observe students who are testing at remote campuses (or online via their home computers). Online proctor services use remote observers to replicate the face-to-face proctoring experience over the internet. In the absence of an observer (or in testing labs), non-proctor technology is an efficient tool for mitigating cheating by restricting browser access during online tests. In addition, plagiarism-detecting technology can promote good conduct and academic integrity in student research by checking papers against larger literary databases to determine matches for work not cited.

Effective Practices for Using Proctor Tools and Services

• Make reservations in advance for proctored spaces on campus since there may be limited availability during peak testing times
• Instructors should provide learners with a list of approved proctor locations at the beginning of the term
• Do your research and make sure potential proctor sites meet standards for secure testing, active monitoring, data protection, and student privacy
• Implement varied proctor-options to meet the needs of learners with distance and travel barriers including options such as live recorded proctoring or advanced automated proctoring
• Provide practice tests for students using non-proctor tools to detect/resolve installation issues early and offset technical difficulty during actual exams

To discuss more on proctor tools and services, schedule a meeting with one of our TLC consultants.

Effective Practices for Using Anti-Plagiarism Tools

• Academic enterprise plagiarism tools (rather than free tools online) should be used for high-fidelity assignments since they can check item matches across specific libraries and databases that include institutional and scholarly content
• Educate students about plagiarism via micro-learning modules (course orientation, pre-assessment) with writing samples and meaningful checks for understanding (self-assessment, checklists, etc.)
• Review flags in plagiarism reports to determine if matches represent actual plagiarism since anti-plagiarism tools may flag quoted content (such as citations) from previous submissions as it checks for text matches against specified database submissions
• Orient students to content submission in the system as well as the system process for checking content (notifications, flags, scoring, etc.) prior to submission of their first major writing assignment
• Help the tool work for you by adapting writing assignments and projects every term so that students write about different topics with more current references

To discuss more effective practices for reducing plagiarism in general, schedule a meeting with one of our TLC consultants.