{"id":124000,"date":"2021-03-08T18:06:27","date_gmt":"2021-03-08T17:06:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.erasmusmagazine.nl\/en\/?p=124000"},"modified":"2025-12-19T11:25:27","modified_gmt":"2025-12-19T10:25:27","slug":"proctoring-should-only-go-wrong-once-every-thousand-exams-in-our-case-it-was-the-very-first-one","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.erasmusmagazine.nl\/en\/2021\/03\/08\/proctoring-should-only-go-wrong-once-every-thousand-exams-in-our-case-it-was-the-very-first-one\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018Proctoring should only go wrong once every thousand exams. In our case, it was the very first one.\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"

Lecturer Noa den Hertog and Professor Albert Wagelmans of Erasmus School of Economics are happy to talk about online proctoring from a lecturer\u2019s perspective. A Mathematics examination the two scheduled in October was marred by a technical issue.<\/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\tEsther Dijkstra<\/a>\t\t\t\t\t<\/span>\n\t<\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>

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Noa den Hartog<\/span><\/p>

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Den Hertog: \u201cOur second real exam with online proctoring for first-year Economics students didn\u2019t go as planned.\u201d<\/p>\n

Wagelmans: \u201cThis was an awful experience for our students. These freshmen had already missed out on their graduation parties in secondary school. And then we put them through this. And we also feel extra anxiety: whether everything will work properly or not.\u201d<\/p>\n

Unfortunately, it didn\u2019t: things went south in the final 30 minutes of the exam. How did you find out?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Den Hertog: \u201cIt wasn\u2019t clear to me at first that something had gone wrong. There was a kind of pop-up message that students couldn\u2019t click away. It said something about sharing your screen. We haven\u2019t been able to establish exactly how many students were affected by the issue.\u201d<\/p>\n

Due to this problem, students had thirty minutes less to round off their exam. How was this resolved?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Den Hertog: \u201cWe ultimately offered a \u2018free\u2019 resit to all the examinees: anyone satisfied with his or her mark was allowed to keep it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Wagelmans: \u201cWe\u2019ve heard that examination boards can be less than sympathetic, but I believe that in the case of Erasmus School of Economics, the board carefully considered the students\u2019 interests. The members also explicitly involved us in their deliberations. For example, they asked whether a student may have benefited from a specific irregularity. But at the end of the day, we don\u2019t make the call on these questions as lecturers: the examination board does.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Albert Wagelmans<\/span><\/p>

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Why do you use proctoring then, if you think it\u2019s so awful?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Wagelmans: \u201cStudents also wonder whether we couldn\u2019t do without. But in some cases, this is out of the question. A few years ago, during an online exam \u2013 which wasn\u2019t proctored \u2013 I found out that students were working together. We had posted the assignments online on Sunday evening, and everything needed to be handed in by noon Monday. You\u2019d think that doesn\u2019t give you a lot of time to confer, but things still didn\u2019t go as intended. It was a personalised assignment, with different figures for each student. But by Monday morning, someone had already put an algorithm online that could be used for your calculations. Simply change the appropriate numbers and Bob\u2019s your uncle.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\t

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\n\t\t\u2018You don\u2019t hear people saying that we can do away with invigilators during regular exams on campus either, do you?\u2019\n\t<\/blockquote>\n\n\t<\/figure>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t<\/div>\n

Den Hertog: \u201cYou can\u2019t avoid proctoring. Our subject curriculum involves a lot of basic knowledge, which is tested during the exams. So you can\u2019t rely on open-book tests. And even if we tested students\u2019 ability to creatively apply this knowledge, students would still be able to work together. It would be easy for friends in a senior year or who deal more with mathematics in their own programme to help out with the calculations.\u201d<\/p>\n

Wagelmans: \u201cAnd we simply want to know for sure who\u2019s sitting the exam. Which quickly becomes a problem if you don\u2019t have proctoring. Sure, you can do everything based on trust. But you don\u2019t hear people saying that we can do away with invigilators during regular exams on campus either, do you?\u201d<\/p>\n

Erasmus University is afraid that the validity of its degrees will be called into doubt if exams aren\u2019t proctored. Do you share these concerns?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Den Hertog: \u201cSome students will be completing nearly the entire first year of their programme during the pandemic. And if you count along last year too, this adds up to two years. That\u2019s a major part of your bachelor degree programme. How could you possibly justify to students who\u2019ve played by the rules that there are others who have brazenly cheated their way through half the programme?\u201d<\/p>\n

Have you caught anyone cheating with single-camera proctoring?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Den Hertog: \u201cWe\u2019ve had a situation, but we didn\u2019t find that one out thanks to technology. We discovered remarkable similarities between different students\u2019 answers when we were checking exams. It\u2019s actually quite remarkable to discover something like that, because the exams are checked by multiple lecturers, who can hardly keep everything \u2018top of mind\u2019.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\t

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\n\t\t\u2018There are no practical alternatives to proctoring, but it\u2019s a constant struggle\u2019\n\t<\/blockquote>\n\n\t<\/figure>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t<\/div>\n

Is the software reliable enough in your view?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Wagelmans: \u201cWhat is clear is that you shouldn\u2019t have technical issues of any kind. Perhaps once every thousand exams. In our case, it was the very first proctored exam, so that\u2019s incredibly annoying. A fault like that is very distracting \u2013 it\u2019s as if someone suddenly starts talking very loudly during an exam in the M Building.\u201d<\/p>\n

What do you think of EUR\u2019s decision to introduce a second camera?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Wagelmans: \u201cI see it as an extra risk \u2013 even though I believe the chances of it being abused are relatively slim. Apparently it\u2019s necessary. There\u2019s a fairly simple method to cheat with a single camera, so I do prefer to use a second one.\u201d<\/p>\n

Den Hertog: \u201cI understand why the students are concerned. But you have to keep in mind that our students are required to do a lot of writing. So if you only rely on a webcam, a lot of the time you hardly see the examinee. In those cases, a second camera can be very useful to check what someone\u2019s up to.\u201d<\/p>\n

Wagelmans: \u201cThere are no practical alternatives to proctoring, but it\u2019s a constant struggle. What I do find important is that as a lecturer or examination board, you don\u2019t simply assume that someone has cheated if something goes wrong. You need to take all the available information on board before making that call.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\t

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Students about proctoring<\/h2>\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t