Abstract During the coronavirus disease‐2019 (Covid‐19) pandemic, many universities have adopted online exam proctoring technologies to monitor and control an increasing number of student cheating incidents. Although it looks like a natural and effective solution for a fair assessment of student online learning performance, the authors argue that proctoring technologies are rooted in problematic assumptions about educational fairness and authoritarian pedagogical approaches. The authors have conducted a qualitative case study in a large‐sized, top‐tier university in South Korea to investigate the negative impacts of adopting proctoring technologies on student subjectivities, pedagogical relationships and educational outcomes, which have not been fully discussed in previous studies. By utilising Foucault's theorisation of disciplinary governmentality, the authors effectively demonstrate that the binary subjectification of students as cheaters and the cheated has degraded the value of student engagement in university education whilst creating more competitive and distrusting relationships amongst students and between students and teachers. Nevertheless, without challenging the unethical consequences of online proctoring technologies or fundamentally unfair social and educational systems, students willingly accept and adopt them as docile bodies, which has led to educational deterioration rather than innovation. Practitioner notes What is already known about this topic There is an increasing number of online exam proctoring technologies available with advanced technical features. During the coronavirus disease‐2019 (Covid‐19) pandemic, many universities have adopted online exam proctoring technologies with exam‐related policies and regulations to stop student cheating behaviours. Previous studies have discussed both advantages and disadvantages of adopting online exam proctoring technologies, including specific ethical concerns. What this paper adds Online exam proctoring technologies are deeply rooted in problematic educational approaches such as teacher‐centred knowledge transmission. The adoption of online exam proctoring technologies has produced negative impacts on student subjectivities, pedagogical relationships and educational outcomes. Focusing on student cheating as an individual and interpersonal problem neglects the more fundamental issue of social and educational inequality. Implications for practice and/or policy The negative consequences and damages created by the adoption of online exams and online exam proctoring technologies need to be carefully reflected. The notion of academic fairness needs to be approached with a broader perspective, considering the different social and academic circumstances each student is in. It is essential to critically engage students with the broader conversation about educational fairness to develop them as critical thinkers and future leaders in their chosen fields.
Abstract Purpose As more students take online courses as part of their college curricula, the integrity of testing in an online environment becomes increasingly important. The potential for cheating on exams is generally considered to be higher in an online environment. One approach to compensate for the absence of a physical proctor is to use a remote proctoring service that electronically monitors the student during the examination period. Methodology/approach We examined the exam grades for 261 students taking two different upper division accounting courses to determine if a computer-based remote proctoring service reduced the likelihood of cheating, measured through lower exam scores, as compared to classroom proctoring and no proctoring. We examined both online and on-campus courses. Findings In qualitative and quantitative accounting courses, evidence shows that grades were significantly lower for students who were proctored using a remote proctoring service compared to students who were not proctored. In the quantitative course, remote proctoring resulted in significantly lower final exam scores than either classroom or no proctoring. However, in the qualitative course, both remote proctoring online and live proctoring in a classroom resulted in significantly lower final exam scores than no proctoring, and they are not statistically different from each other. Originality/value Academics and administrators should find these results helpful. The results suggest that the use of proctoring services in online courses has the potential to enhance the integrity of online courses by reducing the opportunities for academic dishonesty during exams.
PURPOSE: With the exponential growth of robotic urological surgery, particularly with robot assisted radical prostatectomy, guidelines for safe initiation of this technology are a necessity. Currently no standardized credentialing system exists to our knowledge to evaluate surgeon competency and safety with robotic urological surgery performance. Although proctoring is a modality by which such competency can be evaluated, other training tools and guidelines are needed to ensure that the requisite knowledge and technical skills to perform this procedure have been acquired. We evaluated the current status of proctoring and credentialing in other surgical specialties to discuss and recommend its application and implementation specifically for robot assisted radical prostatectomy. MATERIALS AND METHODS: We reviewed the literature on safety and medicolegal implications of proctoring and the safe introduction of surgical procedures to develop recommendations for robot assisted radical prostatectomy proctoring and credentialing. RESULTS: Proctoring is an essential mechanism for robot assisted radical prostatectomy institutional credentialing and should be a prerequisite for granting unrestricted privileges on the robot. This should be differentiated from preceptoring, wherein the expert is directly involved in hands-on training. Advanced technology has opened new avenues for long-distance observation through teleproctoring. Although the medicolegal implications of an active surgical intervention by a proctor are not clearly defined, the role as an observer should grant immunity from malpractice liability. CONCLUSIONS: The implementation of guidelines and proctoring recommendations is necessary to protect surgeons, proctors, institutions and, above all, the patients who are associated with the institutional introduction of a robot assisted radical prostatectomy program. With no current guidelines we anticipate this article will serve as a catalyst of interorganizational discussion to initiate regulatory oversight of surgeon certification and proctorship.
This study revives the unsettled debate on the extent of academic dishonesty in online courses. It takes advantage of a quasi experiment in which online proctoring using a webcam recording software was introduced for high-stakes exams in two online courses. Each course remained the same in its structure, content and assessments before and after the introduction of online proctoring. Analysis of exam scores shows that online proctoring was associated with a decrease in average performance in both courses. Furthermore, the decrease in scores persists when accounting for potential confounding factors in a regression framework. Finally, in separate regressions of exam performance on student characteristics, the regression explanatory power was higher for scores under proctoring. We interpret these results as evidence that cheating took place in the online courses prior to proctoring. The results also imply that online proctoring is an effective tool to mitigate academic dishonesty in online courses.
The use of m-learning or other remote education continue to increase due to its ability to reach people who don't have access to campus. Exams are important components of educational programs as well as on an online learning program. In an exam, a proctoring method to detect and reduce the cheating possibility is very important to ensure that the students have learned the material given. Various methods had been proposed to provide an efficient, comfortable online exam proctoring. Start with implementing an exam design with hard constraints in a no proctoring exam, a remote proctoring using a webcam, a machine based proctoring and finally research on automated online proctoring. A visual verification for the whole exam session is needed in an online exam, therefore a face verification is needed. A remaining problem in face recognition area is the system robustness for pose and lighting variations. In this paper, we proposed a method to enhance the robustness for pose and lighting variations by doing an incremental training process using the training data set obtained from m-learning online lecture sessions. As a result, the design of the proposed method is presented in this paper.
Online proctoring generally refers to the practice of proctors monitoring an exam over the internet, usually through a webcam. This technology has gained relevance during the current COVID-19 pandemic, given that the social distance owing to health reasons has consequently led to the switching of all learning and assessment activities to online platforms. This paper summarises the available state-of-the-art of commercial proctoring systems by identifying the main features, describing them, and analysing the way in which different proctoring programs are grouped on the basis of the services they offer. Furthermore, the paper reports on two case studies concerning online exams taken with both automated and human proctoring approaches. The outcomes from state-of-the-art approaches and the experience gained by the two case studies are then summarised in the conclusion, where the need for an organisational effort in loading photographs that can be used to easily recognise student faces, and using an automated online proctoring program to support manual proctoring have been suggested.
There have been giant leaps in the field of education in the past 1-2 years.. Schools and colleges are transitioning online to provide more resources to their students. The COVID-19 pandemic has provided students more opportunities to learn and improve themselves at their own pace. Online proctoring services (part of assessment) are also on the rise, and AI-based proctoring systems (henceforth called as AIPS) have taken the market by storm. Online proctoring systems (henceforth called as OPS), in general, makes use of online tools to maintain the sanctity of the examination. While most of this software uses various modules, the sensitive information they collect raises concerns among the student community. There are various psychological, cultural and technological parameters need to be considered while developing AIPS. This paper systematically reviews existing AI and non-AI-based proctoring systems. Through the systematic search on Scopus, Web of Science and ERIC repositories, 43 paper were listed out from the year 2015 to 2021. We addressed 4 primary research questions which were focusing on existing architecture of AIPS, Parameters to be considered for AIPS, trends and Issues in AIPS and Future of AIPS. Our 360-degree analysis on OPS and AIPS reveals that security issues associated with AIPS are multiplying and are a cause of legitimate concern. Major issues include Security and Privacy concerns, ethical concerns, Trust in AI-based technology, lack of training among usage of technology, cost and many more. It is difficult to know whether the benefits of these Online Proctoring technologies outweigh their risks. The most reasonable conclusion we can reach in the present is that the ethical justification of these technologies and their various capabilities requires us to rigorously ensure that a balance is struck between the concerns with the possible benefits to the best of our abilities. To the best of our knowledge, there is no such analysis on AIPS and OPS. Our work further addresses the issues in AIPS in human and technological aspect. It also lists out key points and new technologies that have only recently been introduced but could significantly impact online education and OPS in the years to come.
Online education continues to grow, bringing opportunities and challenges for students and instructors. One challenge is the perception that academic integrity associated with online tests is compromised due to undetected cheating that yields artificially higher grades. To address these concerns, proctoring software has been developed to address and prevent academic dishonesty. The purpose of this study was to compare online test results from proctored versus unproctored online tests. Test performance of 147 students enrolled in multiple sections of an online course were compared using linear mixed effects models with nearly half the students having no proctoring and the remainder required to use online proctoring software. Students scored, on average, 17 points lower [95% CI: 14, 20] and used significantly less time in online tests that used proctoring software versus unproctored tests. Significant grade disparity and different time usage occurred on different exams, both across and within sections of the same course where some students used test proctoring software and others did not. Implications and suggestions for incorporating strategic interventions to address integrity, addressing disparate test scores, and validating student knowledge in online classes are discussed.
Traditional and online university courses share expectations for quality content and rigor. Student and faculty concerns about compromised academic integrity and actual instances of academic dishonesty in assessments, especially with online testing, are increasingly troublesome. Recent research suggests that in the absence of proctoring, the time taken to complete an exam increases significantly and online test results are inflated. This study uses a randomized design in seven sections of an online course to examine test scores from 97 students and time taken to complete online tests with and without proctoring software, controlling for exam difficulty, course design, instructor effects, and student majors. Results from fixed effects estimated from a fitted statistical model showed a significant advantage in quiz performance (7-9 points on a 100 point quiz) when students were not proctored, with all other variables statistically accounted for. Larger grade disparities and longer testing times were observed on the most difficult quizzes, and with factors that reflected the perception of high stakes of the quiz grades. Overall, use of proctoring software resulted in lower quiz scores, shorter quiz taking times, and less variation in quiz performance across exams, implying greater compliance with academic integrity compared with when quizzes were taken without proctoring software.
Massive open online courses and other forms of remote education continue to increase in popularity and reach. The ability to efficiently proctor remote online examinations is an important limiting factor to the scalability of this next stage in education. Presently, human proctoring is the most common approach of evaluation, by either requiring the test taker to visit an examination center, or by monitoring them visually and acoustically during exams via a webcam. However, such methods are labor intensive and costly. In this paper, we present a multimedia analytics system that performs automatic online exam proctoring. The system hardware includes one webcam, one wearcam, and a microphone for the purpose of monitoring the visual and acoustic environment of the testing location. The system includes six basic components that continuously estimate the key behavior cues: user verification, text detection, voice detection, active window detection, gaze estimation, and phone detection. By combining the continuous estimation components, and applying a temporal sliding window, we design higher level features to classify whether the test taker is cheating at any moment during the exam. To evaluate our proposed system, we collect multimedia (audio and visual) data from $\text{24}$ subjects performing various types of cheating while taking online exams. Extensive experimental results demonstrate the accuracy, robustness, and efficiency of our online exam proctoring system.
The COVID-19 pandemic has seen the rapid but sometimes controversial take-up of ‘online examination proctoring’ systems by universities keen to maintain their assessment schedules during times of campus closure. Following the theoretical tradition of media ‘domestication’, this article examines the mainstream adoption of different online proctoring systems in Australian higher education during the first year of the pandemic. Through analysis of interviews, documents, news, social media and marketing materials, the article examines the ‘appropriation’, ‘objectification’, incorporation’ and ‘conversion’ of proctoring technology from the perspective of commercial providers, university authorities, university staff and student groups. This raises a number of critical issues underpinning the adoption of this exam surveillance technology – not least the surrender of control to commercial providers, the hidden labour required to sustain ‘automated’ systems and the increased vulnerabilities of ‘remote’ studying.
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In recent years, there has been rapid progress in understanding the properties and mechanism of generation of the light-evoked electrical signals of vertebrate rods and cones. The graded hyperpolarization that carries information over the length of the cell is generated by closure of cation-selective aqueous pores in the surface membrane of the outer segment. These pores are controlled cooperatively by cyclic GMP, which acts continuously in darkness to keep the pores open. Photoisomerization of rhodopsin or cone pigment produces the rapid amplified activation of phosphodiesterase, which lowers the concentration of cGMP, thereby lowering the conductance of the surface membrane. Calcium ions, once thought to relay excitation to the light-sensitive channels, do not play this role. Instead, they appear to participate in a feedback control mechanism that regulates the nucleotide cascade. Although some general features of the transduction mechanism are now understood, a number of important questions remain. How is the nucleotide cascade shut off? Where does Ca act? What is the structure of the light-sensitive channel? How are stereotyped single photon responses produced? Primate photoreceptors are no longer off limits to single cell electrophysiology. Analysis of the response properties and dark noise of primate rods gives a physiological basis for several fundamental features of human rod vision: single photon detection, poor temporal resolution, the "dark light," rod saturation, scotopic spectral sensitivity, and, perhaps, after-image signals. Primate cones show less sensitive but faster responses shaped by a resonance which may figure in the flicker sensitivity of human cone vision. The spectral sensitivity of the three types of primate cones has been determined over the entire visible region. These sensitivities satisfactorily predict human color matching. The spectral sensitivity curves indicate that the pigment in a given cone is very pure, and that individual cones of a given type normally contain pigments with very similar or identical spectral properties.
The mature lens is unique in that except for a peripheral ring of active metabolizing tissue, damaged macromolecules can not be replaced and metabolic cycles are inoperative. This situation is a result of a remarkable process. New fibers arising from the epithelial cells in the equatorial region gradually lose their nuclei and their DNA and RNA (Fig. 1). Thus the inner region of the lens is dependent on the outer tissue to maintain homeostatic control and to metabolize toxic compounds. This arrangement makes a substantial portion of the lens tissue particularly vulnerable to damage since no apparent mechanism is available for repair. The lens can be considered to be in a metastable state. It has a remarkably high protein content, for the human lens, approximately 35% on a wet weight basis. In the inner region, the nucleus, of the rat lens, the protein concentration may be as high as 65-70%! Of course, in spite or because of this unique protein concentration, the tissue is transparent, not translucent but dramatically transparent in the wave length region beyond the range of protein absorption. Such observation suggests a uniformity of refractive index throughout the lens indicative of short range spatial order as recently reported by Delaye and Tardieu. With aging there is deterioration of this remarkable architecture which is not sufficient to cause blindness but leads to a definitive loss of transparency. Changes in protein structure can be linked to this alteration in optical properties. First with aging there is an increased abundance of water insoluble protein—indeed our measurements suggest that after the first few years of life, the water soluble protein fraction appears to remain relatively constant in abundance while there is an increasing accumulation of water insoluble protein (Fig. 2). There is more insoluble protein found in the inner
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From PGF(2alpha)-isopropyl ester to latanoprost: a review of the development of xalatan: the Proctor Lecture
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Clinically different forms of amblyopia share as common denominators an inability to form well-defined and focused images in one or both eyes and, in the case of unilateral amblyopia, unequal visual input to the brain. This suggests two amblyopiogenic mechanisms which are effective, individually or in unison, in the various forms of amblyopia. The first is lack of adequate visual stimulation during infancy, causing visual deprivation. The second mechanism is based on abnormal binocular interaction. The clinical evidence and data from the animal laboratory will be reviewed in support of this dual etiological concept of amblyopia. An etiological classification of amblyopia suggested in 1972 on hypothetical grounds can be upheld on the basis of information that has accumulated since that time. Amblyopia is not a static condition but has a strong dynamic component since its severity can be modified by the type of stimulation received by the sound eye. Special emphases is placed in this lecture on this unique feature which is based on binocular interaction and is similar to the inhibition of afferent visual stimulation during suppression.
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Pharmacokinetics of instilled drugs in the human eye is reviewed. The behavior of drugs in the conjunctival cul-de-sac is discussed, and the loss rates with various vehicles are estimated. Kinetics of intraocular drug penetration follows the same pattern in human and rabbit eyes. From results of rabbit experiments, various pharmacokinetic coefficients are computed, including the permeability of the corneal epithelium. Also, with use of published data in human aqueous, the corneal permeability, apparent absorption, and elimination rate constants are calculated for some drugs in the human eye. From the anesthetic response of the cornea the apparent elimination rate constants of the surface anesthetics are obtained. The pupil response is converted to a response parameter proportional to the biophase drug concentration. The time course of its changes conforms with the kinetics of intraocular drug penetration, and the apparent absorption and elimination rate constants are computed for various drugs. The latter constant becomes smaller with increased ocular pigmentation. Use of the relative bioavailability concept permits comparison of drug absorption efficiency among various vehicles. Pharmacokinetic coefficients are also obtained for the cycloplegic responses. The intraocular pressure response is analyzed, and it is suggested that the reduction ratio in the outflow pressure, outflow resistance, and the aqueous formation rate be used for dose-response studies. The rate of effect disappearance is defined and is given for three beta-adrenergic blocking agents.