Too many things changed during the pandemic – from how people work to how people shop and consume entertainment. But a significant change in recent times has to do with the growing popularity of hybrid exams. A survey by Mercer | Mettl revealed that a whopping 78% of respondents preferred the hybrid exam models.
While this spells good news, academicians and institutes have been expressing concerns about the new exam mode. They are worried that shifting the exams online would not provide a level-playing field for students. Issues such as slow internet connection or power cuts could pose a challenge for students in completing the exams on time.
But more importantly, academicians and institutes are worried about the lack of academic integrity in hybrid exams. They fear that lack of supervision could give students an opportunity to consult and copy content from friends and family or use forbidden study materials to complete the exams. To establish academic integrity and prevent cheating, institutes must invest in hybrid proctoring.
Proctoring Hybrid Exams – The Case for Hybrid Proctoring
There are various ways to proctor hybrid exams:
1. Live Proctoring:
In this mode, the proctor is present throughout the exam duration and monitors the students in real-time. Proctors use a combination of audio, video, and screen share tools to monitor the students. This type of proctoring involves human intervention and automation.
2. Recorded Proctoring:
In recorded proctoring, the student’s screen is recorded throughout the exam and sent to the proctor for review to check for malpractices. While this does not take place in real-time, the proctors have a chance to collect evidence to report malpractices.
3. Automated Proctoring:
Automated proctoring relies on artificial intelligence (AI) for proctoring exams. The computers watch videos, learn from the behavior that looks like cheating, and flag the issue. While this saves time and resources, AI is not fully equipped to comprehend complex human behavior.
So, what can institutes do to balance between using technology and human intervention and improve the quality of proctoring?
The answer lies in hybrid proctoring. Hybrid proctoring combines AI and human proctors to identify malpractices or issues and flag them. The AI tools detect and report suspicious behavior, while humans validate it to ensure fairness and authenticity.
Why Use Hybrid Proctoring?
To understand the need for hybrid proctoring, let’s explore how AI and human-enabled proctoring work.
a) AI Proctoring
AI-based proctoring reduces human oversight and makes reviewing easy for humans by flagging the issues on time. It works 24/7, so it can be implemented anywhere, anytime. However, AI-based proctoring has its shortcomings. AI proctoring cannot easily predict human behavior and can result in false flagging. It could even flag something like looking away from the screen or noise in the room as cheating. Additionally, there are concerns such as facial recognition bias and lack of privacy as students feel anxious about continuous monitoring.
b) Human Proctoring
Human-enabled proctoring, on the other hand, can bring more clarity and efficiency to the process. Human-enabled proctoring reduces instances of false flagging and ensures that no student is unduly punished. They can intervene in real-time and address the student’s queries efficiently. However, there’s always a chance of human oversight, especially when the proctor has to watch too many students simultaneously.
The proctor’s attention could get divided, and they could miss catching the incident in real time. That’s why hybrid proctoring is so helpful. It blends the best of both worlds. It brings together the accuracy of AI and humans’ experience and cognitive discretion to make proctoring effective.
Benefits of Hybrid Proctoring
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Establishes Academic Integrity
Let’s go back to the example stated above. The AI could flag the student looking away from the screen as cheating. However, a human proctor could discuss it with the student and understand the reason why they looked away from the screen. This will help the proctor determine if it was cheating or a genuine action. Hybrid proctoring helps in establishing academic integrity and, at the same time, ensures fairness in assessing the situation.
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Provides Student Support
In an automated proctoring setting, students have no scope to interact with the proctor and get their queries addressed. The students are stuck if there’s no support provided during the exam duration. Favorably, hybrid proctoring allows students to chat with the human proctor and get their problems resolved. In case of IT issues, the IT support team can intervene and ensure uninterrupted services for students.
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Time-Effective
Hybrid proctoring is time-effective as, unlike live proctoring, human proctors don’t have to be present throughout the exam duration to monitor the students. Also, unlike automated proctoring, the review process doesn’t take too long.
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Improves Examination Experience
Hybrid proctoring can enhance the overall examination experience by ensuring that there’s no cheating and, simultaneously, making the process error-free. It helps in retaining the valuable human touch.
The Bottom Line
Hybrid proctoring is helpful for remote examinations where students take exams from anywhere. There’s no need even to schedule exams. Students can take it anytime. The AI can monitor multiple students simultaneously and alert the proctor when it detects a potential cheating case. This enables the human proctor to make an informed decision. It can revolutionize how exams are conducted and monitored in the age of hybrid exams.
At EnFuse, we provide reliable and secure proctoring services worldwide with our highly customizable and configurable proctoring platform. Our platform can be integrated with websites and learning management systems to enable human proctors to monitor the exams securely anytime, anywhere, and enhance the overall examination experience.
Apart from that, we also offer proctoring services such as:
- Record and review proctoring, where the sessions are recorded and later on reviewed by the human proctors for errors.
- Live proctoring, where humans monitor the exams live and intervene in real-time when they find suspicious behavior or activity.
- IT support to support the faculty in ensuring uninterrupted services.
We offer both automated and human-enabled proctoring services to institutes and enterprises. To know more about our proctoring services and platform, contact us.
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