Webcams a new tool in the fight against cheating

By: Staff and Wire

Posted: 6/27/07

The number of college students taking courses online is surging, creating a tough dilemma for educators who want to prevent cheating.

The dilemma is one reason many online programs do little testing at all. But some new technology that places a camera inside students' homes may be the way of the future - as long as students don't find it too creepy.

This fall, Troy University in Alabama will begin rolling out the new camera technology for many of its approximately 11,000 online students, about a third of whom are at U.S. military installations around the world.

The device, made by Software Secure, a company based out of Cambridge, Mass., is similar in many respects to other test-taking software. It locks down a computer while the test is being taken, preventing students from searching files or the Internet. The latest version includes fingerprint authentication authentication, to help ensure the person taking the test isn't a ringer.

But the new development is a small webcam and microphone that is set up where a student takes the exam. The camera points into a reflective ball, which allows it to capture a full 360-degree image. (The first prototype was made with a Christmas ornament.)

When the exam begins, the device records audio and video. Software detects significant noises and motions and flags them in the recording. An instructor can go back and watch only the portions flagged by the software to see if anything untoward is going on - a student making a phone call, leaving the room - and if there is a sudden surge in performance afterward.

Preston Dubose, the marketing director for Texas A&M, said in an e-mail he doesn't think the webcams will come to A&M.

"While anything is possible, this one seems pretty unlikely," Dubose said.

The inventors admit it's far from a perfect defense against a determined cheater. But a human test proctor isn't necessarily better. And the camera at least "ensures that those people that are taking classes at a distance are on a level playing field," said Douglas Winneg, Software Secure's president and CEO.

Troy graduate students will start using the device this fall, and undergraduates a year later. Software Secure says it has talked to other distance learning providers, too. A potential future market is the standardized testing industry, which has struggled to find enough secure testing sites to accommodate growing worldwide demand for tests like the SAT college entrance exam and the GMAT for graduate school.

An estimated 3.2 million students were taking online classes in the fall of 2005, according to the most recent figures from the Sloan Consortium, a group of online learning providers that studies trends in the field, and that figure is almost certainly substantially higher.

But many distance learning providers do very little testing, including some of the largest, for-profit ones such as the University of Phoenix, Capella University and Walden University. Officials at all three schools said they rely mostly on student writing assignments. They said the best method to assess their students, most of whom are working adults.

But Dubose said there will always be a need for assessment."There will always be a few cases in which it comes down to a test. I think the key is to have a variety of testing options available so the professor can pick the best fit for that situation. For instance, for small classes one-on-one, video-based oral exams may be the way to go, but that's certainly not feasible for a class with 400 students."

At Troy, like at many distance learning programs, past testing options have been less than ideal. One was to line up a proctor from a list of acceptable exam monitors such as clergy or commanding officers.

"We just assumed and hoped the proctor would follow the instructions," said David White, direct of the Southeast region for Troy. "In some cases they did, and probably in some cases they didn't."

The other was to arrange proctoring with a testing company and travel to one of their centers. But that was inconvenient for many students - and, of course, impossible for soldiers in places such as Iraq and Afghanistan.

The device will cost Troy students $125, White said.

Richard Garrett, a senior research analyst at Eduventures who closely follows online learning, said he finds the technology promising, particularly for large companies trying to streamline a now-messy part of their operation.

"I think technologies like this are redefining our whole concept of personal space and privacy. You don't think anything of a proctor standing over your shoulder while you take a test. One could argue that while you're taking the test, your living room (or wherever your computer is set up) stops being personal space and becomes a virtual extension of campus. Or, you could argue that it's creepy and you don't know who on the other end is engaging in voyeurism. Progress is messy, but we certainly live in interesting times," Dubose said.

Clearly, it won't be a good idea for everyone. Stephen Flavin, dean of corporate and professional education at Worcester Polytechnic Institute in Massachusetts, said his institution is always looking at new technologies, but recording students by camera "would be probably pushing the boundary of our comfort level."