How to cheat on the exam with online proctoring

Examus faces new cheating tricks every academic semester. Let's discuss the newest technologies that we have implemented to confirm the transparency and honesty of the online exams.

Identification before the exam

Mostly, test-takers try to arrange a participant swap before the exam. These students rely on their better-prepared friends which probably can successfully pass the exam for them. But with Examus they have no way to do it. Examus has developed a versatile programming interface. It allows almost any biometric identification provider to integrate into the online proctoring system.

For example, Examus, together with Vision Labs, developed a system for remote exams - Luna Exam. When registering, the student enters an e-mail, uploads a scan of the passport and takes a selfie. The system reads the passport data and compares the selfie with the portrait in the passport.

To identify the student, it is enough to enter his email in the system and look into the webcam – computer vision will automatically compare the face in the frame with the existing database. After that, the user will be redirected to the exam page. He will not be able to replace himself with another person: identity verification will continue until the end of testing. If the student try to swap with another person, access to the exam will be blocked immediately.

Some students tried to use a printed photo instead of a real face or tried to broadcast a video from the screen of another device. To prevent this Luna Exam Liveness algorithms can check whether a real person is in front of the camera or not.

Cheating during the exam

Usually, the proctoring system tracks only the image from the student's webcam and desktop. Sometimes sneaky students try to use the limited viewing angle of the webcam. They stick cheat sheets directly to the screen or keyboard, put a tablet or smartphone on the keyboard.
With a proctor, it is nearly impossible to do this unnoticeably, but with automatic proctoring, it is much easier.

Therefore, Examus has developed a new feature – "Smartphone as a second camera". According to the new rules, a student enters the Examus system on a smartphone using a QR code or a direct link, and then places the smartphone on the stand so that the computer screen and the student's desktop are clearly visible from the camera of the mobile device.

This system reduces the possibility of using cheat sheets or additional devices to almost zero. It is important this feature does not require additional costs from students or customers, since today almost every user has smartphones, and all data is stored on the customer's server or cloud.

Thus, Examus is constantly working to ensure the academic integrity for your online exams.