How online proctoring can improve exam integrity while preparing students for a hybrid work environment

In the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic, Brian K. Marchman, Ph.D. and his team faced a dilemma: how to transition all of the University of Florida’s students to an online learning environment where they could both participate in classes and take exams efficiently in a way that ensured academic integrity. 

Unable to pack a thousand students at a time in an auditorium or manage the bureaucracy of scheduling individual tests with online monitors, his team looked to a product that could provide large-scale proctoring without an invasive feeling. “We needed scalability, immediate access, and we needed seamless integration with our learning management system (LMS), Canvas,” Marchman says.

His team landed with Honorlock, a Florida-based test proctoring company that combines artificial intelligence (AI) software with live test proctors. He also discovered its services can help students prepare for a hybrid work environment after graduation..  

Marchman served as the Assistant Provost and Director of the University of Florida’s Office of Distance Learning for nearly a decade before becoming the Director and Superintendent of the institution’s P.K. Yonge Developmental Research School. He has watched the evolution of educational technology and sees a distinct throughline between online learning and modern, hybrid work environments that young workers will need to navigate.   

A recent column in Forbes predicts that 36 million Americans will be working remotely in 2025.

Immediate benefits for students and faculty

University of Florida students and faculty saw immediate benefits from using online proctoring, Marchman says. 

Faculty could focus more on teaching during class time than monitoring test-taking, opting to schedule tests outside of class time. “Assessments can be done differently,” he argues. “Now, instead of taking one hour or more of class time, faculty may  schedule an assessment for a 24-48 hour window to be taken online, and students choose to test at a time that best suits them,” he says, noting, “Nobody likes walking up and down the aisles of an auditorium during exams.”  

For students, being able to schedule a test during a 1- or 2-day window instead of showing up in an auditorium at a set time allows them to manage work and family obligations along with their studies. It can also give them more immediate feedback on their performance. “Instant access to results reinforces learning,” Marchman says. “You don’t have that luxury when you have to wait for a Scantron test or an assessment with faculty.”

Ensuring exam integrity

Tools like Honorlock offer a seamless experience for students and faculty through their institution’s existing LMS. “Students can just click the link and focus on the content,” he says. They don’t need to schedule an exam with a live proctor, which could be especially challenging for large student bodies.

Likewise, faculty no longer need to worry about making multiple versions of the same exam for different sections of test takers. Students are prohibited from using cell phones, taking screenshots, visiting other websites or accessing prohibited tools on their computers during an assessment, ensuring that the exam’s integrity remains intact. 

By combining both artificial intelligence and human proctoring, Honorlock can ensure the fidelity of the exam–and confirm that the individual sitting for it is, indeed, the correct student, without the hangups. Unlike other programs, which can make students feel interrogated, this combination can follow documented procedures approved by both the U.S. Department of Education as well as various accrediting agencies, without making the student feel untrusted. 

“It took some change management,” Marchman says about introducing faculty and students to the new technology. But now that they’ve made the switch, everyone sees the value of a seamless, one-click experience.

Preparing for a new world of work

Marchman argues that universities must take a role in helping equip students with the skills they need to be successful, citing a recent column in Forbes predicting that 36 million Americans will be working remotely in 2025 (a 417% increase from pre-pandemic levels) and noting that 89% of companies have already introduced some form of written or formalized remote working policy. 

“We need to prepare them for this new world of work,” Marchman says. “We don’t want students to face this reality cold turkey.” An online learning environment–even one that’s available for a portion of their degree program–can help students learn how to mix online collaboration with individual work, providing a more realistic proxy for what they will face after graduation. 

Online exams can also prove useful, as they teach students about their own, individual work habits. “A lot of assessments and exams are endurance contests, requiring students to stay focused for an hour or 90 minutes at a time,” he says. Online exams can help them learn how to focus and help them learn what time of day their minds are at their sharpest, all information that can transfer into a hybrid working environment. 

As the pandemic emergency ends, educational institutions and businesses have both moved from teaching, learning and working in a completely remote environment to one that has allowed for individual customization and preference. Administrators and employers alike are finding that some of the tools and skills they adopted in the worst days of the COVID-19 pandemic are making learning and working easier today. 

For his part, Marchman feels young graduates will ultimately be better served after using these remote tools in college. “By having this as part of their undergraduate experience, it may help their foray into the workplace go more smoothly.”