Proctored Examinations- Recreating The Exam Hall At Home

The examination system is a tool to measure the learning ability of the students. It helps to evaluate and constraint the knowledge and learning of the students at different levels. An exam is for improving oneself.

There may have been a lot of types of exams being emerged with the changes in time, technology and the opening of new horizons to the meaning of education. A proctored exam is one of the newly evolved types of examination these days.

The word 'proctor' stands for supervision. Thus, a person who is a proctor is the supervisor that monitors and keeps a check on the students taking such examination.

Taking a proctored exam means to be watched out continuously while giving the exam.

A proctored exam, also known as a 'timed exam' that is conducted when the proctoring software continuously monitors the desktop of the student's computer, the webcam video and also the audio.

The data is then transferred by the proctoring software to a proctored service cloud for a review. Some basic requisites of taking a proctored exam can be -

• A  well-working webcam
• At least 1 GB of free space on your system
• An uncluttered and alone room
• No visible writings on the walls or the surface of the room
• Any other requirements (as per the specific proctoring software installed)
• Proper working conditions of the setup installed

All courses do not essentially include the system of these proctored examinations but these have been lately conquering the world of some professional and competitive tests today. The following enumerates the working mechanism for taking a proctored exam:

• Firstly, the installation of the suitable proctoring software will mark the beginning of taking a proctored exam for a certified course of your choice. This software needs to be installed every time a person takes the proctored exam.
• Verification of the candidate's identity is essential before taking such an exam. This verification is done by going for a webcam picture of the face of the candidate, his photo ID and a necessary scanning of the desk and the room where the candidate proposes to take the exam.
• One must always follow all the rules and regulations framed for taking such proctored examinations. These rules may vary as per the different courses undertaking such exams.
• While the exam is being taken by the candidate, the proctoring software keeps a close check on any other software running on the candidate's computer or his desktop and thus allows streaming of the data of such an exam to the proctoring software through the cloud. This software also continuously keeps a track of the audio and video through the webcams.
• After the termination of the exam time or when the candidate ends his examination, the proctoring service reviews the exam session and computes the results that may take a few hours or few days usually less than five.
• There are undoubtedly a few risks involved too that require due consideration for the online proctored examination system. They include from areas such as the complex exam structure, testing environment, complex technology involved and so on .

By providing a facility for taking such online proctored examinations, a more consistent and wider reach to the students is activated, creating a more streamlined learning experience for them. Apart from these benefits, these proctored examinations are beneficial to the student community in more than one ways as follows:

• No physical establishments needed: Online proctored examinations do not require any huge physical buildings or establishments to be invested in. Thus, providing a benefit of cost-saving to the examiner board as well as the candidates taking such exams.
• Flexible scheduling of the exam: In the system of online proctored examinations, an 'exam-window' of several days is being executed in which the candidate can choose the best day, date and time of taking the proctored exam according to his own choice.
• No new and unfamiliar environment: The candidate need not go into an unfamiliar and busy test centre for taking such proctored examinations. Instead, one can take such tests while sitting in one's own place that will be quiet and a comfortable environment to take a test with more focus.
• No fix-in person invigilators needed: The organisations or the education boards conducting such proctored examination will not have to arrange for fix-in person invigilators that will decrease the workload of the administration of such exams being conducted.
• Less risk of cheating and infringements: There is an increased scope of security due to the all-time presence of an unseen invigilator over the candidates taking the proctored exam. Thus the risk and chances of cheating and any sort of infringements are reduced drastically.
• Globalised scale of operations for universities: With the facility of an online proctored examination, the big universities can expand to the new geographical areas all over the globe. It will help them to run more exams and scale their operational field all over the world.
•  Elimination of pressure of more exam hall space:  The online proctored examination system allows the elimination of the pressure over the universities and education boards to generate more and more exam hall spaces to engage a greater number of candidates taking the exam.
• Use of some convenient online tools: The candidate taking the proctored exam can officially make use of some online tools like spreadsheets or the text editors that would help in more convenience for the candidate by eliminating the strains caused on the hands with hours of continuous writing in the traditional setup of examinations.
• Add-on privacy: An added advantage that a proctored exam brings with itself is the add-on privacy to the candidate. As we know, most of the professionals do not prefer busy and hustled exam centres to take a test, thus these proctored exams can be the solution to their grief that allows the candidates to appear for the exam at their places or the offices in a completely quiet and hustle free environment just as the way they like.

Therefore, there are many benefits of an online system of proctored examinations as a method of exam delivery these days. One just needs a good technical knowledge of the system and here come all the benefits of the online proctored exams.

Recreation of the exam hall experience through the online proctored examination over a single click of the mouse with a steady internet connection is one of the most mesmerizing features enjoyed by the candidates taking such exams.

It would be no wrong to say that in this ongoing era of acute competition and growth prospects in the careers, adding to the profiles some online certified courses and degrees by some of the overseas universities through the proctored examination system is the need of the hour.