Paper Info
Title
On the necessity (or lack thereof) of digital proctoring: Drawbacks, perceptions, and alternatives
Abstract
Background It is important for institutions of higher education to maintain academic integrity, both for students and the institutions themselves. Proctoring is one way of accomplishing this, and with the increasing popularity of online courses-along with the sudden shift to online education sparked by the COVID-19 pandemic-digital proctoring has seen an increase in use. However, there are privacy and bias concerns related to digital proctoring, so it is important to critically examine its role in higher education-when it should and should not be used, and how it is perceived among those who interact with it. Objectives In this paper, we: examine the features of and concerns about digital proctoring; analyse the results of a survey regarding student and teaching assistant (TA) attitudes towards digital proctoring; and present alternatives to digital proctoring and a framework for evaluating the need for a digital proctoring tool. Methods We surveyed students and TAs in an online graduate computer science program, asking them to provide their agreement or disagreement with 20 statements related to digital proctoring. For each response option on each statement, we calculated overall percentages as well as percentages broken out by demographics. We compared these percentages to develop a picture of student and TA perceptions. Results and Conclusions Students and TAs alike are generally tolerant of digital proctoring software and perceive some benefits to using it, including adding integrity to course grades and value to degree programs. However, they have some concerns in the areas of privacy, equity, and technical difficulties. Takeaways Digital proctoring software should be used only when necessary, with thought devoted to its impact on students and TAs and any concerns they may have. There exist alternative methods for maintaining academic integrity in a course. The framework we have presented can help with determining the need for digital proctoring.
Year
DOI
Venue
2022
10.1111/jcal.12700
JOURNAL OF COMPUTER ASSISTED LEARNING
Keywords
DocType
Volume
academic integrity, assessment design, cheating, digital proctoring, student attitudes
Journal
38
Issue
ISSN
Citations 
5
0266-4909
0
PageRank 
References 
Authors
0.34
0
2
Name
Order
Citations
PageRank
Alex Duncan100.68
David Joyner200.34