[low_key]

I took an online class in 2015 that used Proctorio. Even at that time the proctoring/anti-cheat software was a nightmare. I was semi-accused of cheating because of "anomalies" during one of my tests. It was quickly cleared up by talking to the professor.

The software is a privacy disaster and any computer that has had any of this spyware installed should be considered compromised. I kept a separate hard drive and would swap it in to take tests.

To fix the problem, grading measures need to be changed to accommodate the new world of online classes rather than trying to shoehorn old test proctoring into a remote space. This software only stops bad cheaters anyway.

I'm already imagining the fights I'm going to have with my daughter's schools in the future when they ask us to install this malware.

[ouid]

The main problem is that receiving a credential and receiving an education are very different things that we do at the same time out of tradition and convenience. When testing was easy, it made sense to lump it in with teaching, but now that testing is impossible, I say we ditch it for the time being.

[ZephyrBlu]

> The main problem is that receiving a credential and receiving an education are very different things that we do at the same time out of tradition and convenience

Unfortunately I think most of the world sees them as one thing :/.

[TheCoelacanth]

The problem with that is that you're throwing out the one that is more directly valuable to your customers.

[throwaway201103]

What if you only have linux computers at home and can't run their spyware?

[uhartelightning]

This is precisely what I said to one of my professors this semester and thankfully they were reasonable and didn't use Respondus for either of the exams like they had planned.

[cowmoo728]

If you have a linux computer you can boot from usb or a second drive to run windows. That's what I did when I had to take exams using Proctortrack.

[technion]

I've never dealt with this software but when I did my CS degree, several of the applications we worked with throughout the course were distributed as Windows binaries. If you'd ever done homework or study at all, you don't only have Linux.

[withinboredom]

Here’s the thing, if you want to cheat, you’ll find a way to cheat. This won’t stop anyone, it just stops casual cheating at a pretty hefty price.

Hell, just reading this article, I thought of various ways by having someone off screen listening to you read aloud and a projector mounted after the test starts, on the ceiling by another person who’s off screen.

You could have a kvm switch to a whole different computer, an AI overlaying data on the screen (reading from the video output, and injecting into the video output), or any number of ridiculously complicated setups.

It probably won’t catch any serious cheaters.

[toomuchtodo]

Picture in picture monitor with multiple sources. Credit to someone who mentioned this in a previous thread.

[Anon1096]

Most proctoring software that records the student would trivially root out the cheating method you mentioned about reading aloud the questions to someone else. They usually record audio as well, and if the software detects significant microphone input, will flag the test.

[wasdfff]

No need to overcomplicate it. These technologies can be overcome with a phone in your lap connected to a groupchat with everyone in the class, or even a piece of paper with your cheat sheet.