{"id":111025,"date":"2020-03-17T18:11:04","date_gmt":"2020-03-17T17:11:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.erasmusmagazine.nl\/en\/?p=111025"},"modified":"2025-12-19T11:24:46","modified_gmt":"2025-12-19T10:24:46","slug":"gera-noordzij-of-euc-you-can-check-in-real-time-whether-the-student-is-cheating","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.erasmusmagazine.nl\/en\/2020\/03\/17\/gera-noordzij-of-euc-you-can-check-in-real-time-whether-the-student-is-cheating\/","title":{"rendered":"Gera Noordzij of EUC: \u2018You can check in real time whether the student is cheating\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"

This week, 22 examinations are supposed to be taking place at Erasmus University College (EUC). When it became clear last week that these exams couldn\u2019t be held in a lecture room, Gera Noordzij and her colleagues at EUC went to great lengths to find a solution.<\/p>\n

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\n\t\n\n<\/svg>\n<\/span>\n\tImage by:<\/span>\n\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\tFrans Berkelaar<\/a>\t\t\t\t\t<\/span>\n\t<\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>

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Gera Noordzij.<\/span><\/p><\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>

What kind of solution did you come up with?<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cWe knew that the students would have to sit the exam online. Fortunately, my colleague came up with the idea of using an application called Proctor. This app films students whilst they are sitting an exam so you can watch in real time and check whether a student is consulting a book or cheating. We\u2019d never worked with the app before so it was quite an experiment.\u201d<\/p>\n

Isn\u2019t that rather risky when it comes to exams?<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cYes, it was! Which is why we told the students: Monday morning will be a bit of an experiment and things may not work out, but at least you\u2019ll have the opportunity to sit your exam. And if it does work, we can continue using it. But we didn\u2019t run into any problems, so we\u2019ll be using it more often this week.\u201d<\/p>\n

If you have two hundred students sitting a two-hour exam, you end up with four hundred hours\u2019 worth of footage. Does that mean having to watch all those recordings to check whether someone has cheated? And then do that 22 times?<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cWe were initially worried about that, but luckily that\u2019s not how it works. I thought it would be terribly boring. Basically, we don\u2019t watch our students in real time. The software company reviews the footage afterwards and then we\u2019ll get a message saying, \u2018Student no. 13 is doing something ten minutes into the video that looks like he might be cheating.\u2019 So we check it out.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\t

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\n\t\t\u2018The international students tend to be here without their parents and many of them have parents who are pushing for them to go home\u2019\n\t<\/blockquote>\n\n\t<\/figure>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t<\/div>\n

What if students don\u2019t have the right equipment for a live connection?<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re prepared for that possibility. If students really don\u2019t want to sit an online exam or don\u2019t have a proper laptop or anything, they\u2019re welcome to sit the exam here in the EUC building in exceptional cases. We discussed that with the Executive Board. As long as there are fewer than six students and they all keep their distance from each other, it\u2019s not a problem. We had two students show up for Monday morning\u2019s exam.\u201d<\/p>\n

What\u2019s the vibe like at the EUC building in Nieuwemarkt right now?<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s very quiet. Students aren\u2019t allowed to revise here anymore. The cafeteria and the library are closed. Most of my colleagues are working from home, except for a few, like myself. I have to be here because of the exams. It allows me to keep an eye on all the systems and to intervene if anything goes wrong. Starting from next week, I\u2019ll be working from home a lot more myself. That\u2019s when we\u2019ll be doing more to set up a proper remote-teaching environment.\u201d<\/p>\n

You have two hundred first-year students. They all live together in one building at Stadhuisplein. How\u2019s that going?<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cWell, they mustn\u2019t all get together, but they\u2019re not doing that. We can tell they\u2019re a bit stressed, but that\u2019s not surprising. International students tend to be here without their parents, and many of them have parents who are pushing for them to come home. But you can\u2019t even fly to some countries anymore. We try to check on how they\u2019re doing. We\u2019ve established some rules. They may have one visitor in their room, provided they keep their distance. And if any student starts developing symptoms, he or she may have to be isolated, but luckily that hasn\u2019t happened yet.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\t

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