The Ability to Use Remote Exams Just Became More Remote

Experiments with online courses had been going on long before the pandemic accelerated the trend. Indeed, we have noted in previous postings on this blog that courses via television go back to the 1950s. Before that, there were courses on radio going back to the 1920s. And, of course, there were correspondence courses by mail even before then.

Although instruction was possible by these various means - at least by one-way instruction - exams pose a problem. How do you avoid cheating if exams cannot be proctored?

There are various commercial systems that are designed to be de facto proctors. These involved close monitoring of students using the cameras in their computers. But those systems are inherently intrusive. From NPR:

The remote-proctored exam that colleges began using widely during the pandemic saw a first big legal test of its own — one that concluded in a ruling applauded by digital privacy advocates. A federal judge this week sided with a student at Cleveland State University in Ohio, who alleged that a room scan taken before his online test as a proctoring measure was unconstitutional.

Aaron Ogletree, a chemistry student, sat for a test during his spring semester last year. Before starting the exam, he was asked to show the virtual proctor his bedroom. He complied, and the recording data was stored by one of the school's third-party proctoring tools, Honorlock, according to the ruling documents .

Ogletree then sued his university, alleging that the room scan violated his Fourth Amendment rights protecting U.S. citizens against "unreasonable searches and seizures." In its defense, Cleveland State argued that room scans are not "searches," because they are limited in scope, conducted to ensure academic fairness and exam integrity, and not coerced. U.S. district court Judge J. Philip Calabrese on Monday decided in Ogletree's favor: Room scans are unconstitutional...

Full story at https://www.npr.org/2022/08/25/1119337956/test-proctoring-room-scans-unconstitutional-cleveland-state-university.

Of course, not all classes require exams, or require exams of the type that need the kind of proctor-style monitoring described in the Ohio case. And the court decision is by one judge in one jurisdiction. Nonetheless, the idea - which was particularly attractive to former governor Jerry Brown - that the solution to the costs of higher education was online courses, has been dealt a blow by the ruling.

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