What is AI proctored assessment?

“You are not alone, you are being watched.” ~ Ram Writings
In April 2020, the Graduate Management Aptitude Test (GMAT) was proctored remotely, powered by AI technology. It was one of the first instances of remote proctoring to happen at a global level.
In India, institutions like Shiv Nadar University, OP Jindal Global University and Symbiosis International opted for AI-proctored online entrance exams during the pandemic.
Why? Travel restrictions during the pandemic made it impossible to either appear for exams or take interviews offline. So, there were only two options: not conduct exams and interviews at all or carry them out virtually.
Examinations that decided the future could not be done without. Companies looking to hire had to assess and interview job applicants. An unquestionable need for virtualising assessments and interviews arose.
As these went digital, maintaining their sanctity became a challenge. This saw the birth of online proctoring.

Online proctoring: Is it enough?

Online proctoring involves invigilating an exam remotely to prevent malpractices. In education, it is nothing new. It had been in use even before the onset of the pandemic. Competitive exams like GRE, GMAT, CAT are purely online proctor-based. But these have been proctored by certified human proctors.
But, is it sufficient to rely only on human eyes? What about unscrupulous candidates intent on hoodwinking?
Consider this piece of statistics — a 2019 survey conducted by Yale Daily News brought to light that 196 out of 1400 students who participated in the survey confessed to having cheated.
This survey result validates ethical lapses just as much as it creates anxiety concerning the probity of online exams.
This raises a pertinent question — how difficult is it to detect online cheating? The honest answer is, not more difficult than it is for the offline version, especially if one has the right tools.

AI: The new invigilator in the room

Till about two years ago, online proctoring technologies used static algorithms which did not meet the new demands created by the pandemic.
An evolution in remote proctoring — with the magic of AI — transformed the face of proctoring from online to cutting-edge automated.
AI’s ability to learn, adapt and get smarter turned out to be a phenomenal advantage.
Leveraging AI in proctoring now enables conducting exams seamlessly. They make for friendly tools too.

Friendliness quotient

AI proctoring scores over human-invigilation in many areas.

• AI-proctored exams can handle up to 100,000 candidates at once.
• Role-based access as admins, proctors or candidates ensures overall security.
• AI-proctored exams enable customisable assessment patterns (both MCQ and descriptive types included).

How do AI-proctoring services work?

AI-proctored software platforms provide services starting from before the exam-start all the way until after the exam. What do these services include?

Before exam-start — Candidate authentication:

This entails first verifying the candidate’s name and registration. Then, webcam clicked photos are verified against a scanned admissible ID proof. Then, it asks for a full scan of the room to ensure that necessary security standards are met.

At the start of the exam — Browser control and monitoring:

Once the candidate is verified, anti-fraud measures are put in place. These include blocking of search engines, web browsers and websites; disabling sharing for desktops and any other virtual environment; and, blocking connection to external devices or any mode of transfer.

During the exam — Live proctoring:

The candidate is allowed to commence the assessment only after successfully completing the previous two steps. At this stage, face and voice recognition algorithms look out for any signs of unusual behaviour and send out a warning in case they sense anything offbeat.

Post-exam — Audit:

Compliance is a big part of online exam integrity. To facilitate this, the session is recorded. Apart from compliance, this has proven to be useful for audit also.

Minimum infrastructure, maximum returns

All these conveniences come with the least possible infrastructure investment — a laptop with a webcam (in-built or attached) and a steady Internet connection are all that the platforms ask.

Conclusion

The rapid revolution in the way exams are now conducted created a demand for new ways of keeping a pair of watchful eyes and AI-proctoring paved the way forward.
Whether as a standalone solution or an augmentation to human invigilation, AI-proctoring is the need of the hour. As new innovations become more accessible, this technology too will evolve and undoubtedly surpass humans’ physical-processing abilities.
HirePro brings to you an AI-powered proctoring solution that has been implemented by over two million assessments and video interviews, in just one quarter, all of them proctored by the software alone, and, with an impressive 99 per cent success rate.
The future of assessments is here.