Kent State has partnered with Proctorio, an on-demand proctoring service for online exams, and is set to begin use this semester.

The automated proctoring software will join ProctorU, the university’s current live proctoring software, in monitoring students for cheating during online exams, said Paul Creed, the technology project director of Kent State’s Office of Continuing and Distance Education.

“Proctorio’s automated test proctoring service brings some unique features to the table that ProctorU’s service, by nature of it being live proctoring, cannot,” Creed said via email.

“These additional features include the on-demand nature of the service (the students do not need to schedule their exams in advance), and no limits on the number of exams that may be proctored since the service costs are on a per-student basis rather than a per-exam basis.”

Proctorio was awarded a three-year contract with the option to renew for three additional years in one-year increments, a decision approved by Senior Vice President of Academic Affairs and Provost Todd Diacon. 

Robert Clements, an assistant professor of biological sciences, demoed Proctorio in Fall 2016 and Spring 2017. Clements and Jyotsna Neuman, an assistant professor of accounting technology at Kent’s Trumbull campus, proposed partnering with Proctorio.

When Kent State sent out a proposal request, Proctorio was one of the numerous companies to respond and help with the initial selection process, said Jon Lacivita, the vice president of business development at Proctorio.

Lacivita said one reason Kent State chose the partnership was the system does not collect any personal, identifiable information from students, and was less invasive.

“ProctorU asked for identifiable information, asked questions about where you previously lived. Proctorio does not do that,” Lacivita said. “We can actually just use your single sign-on through our learning management system to determine your role without collecting any personal identity information.”

Another way Proctorio differs from ProctorU is its ability to put the online instructor back in charge of the proctored test.

“The instructor can pick and choose the settings that they put on their tests,” Lacivita said. “Anything from having the webcam on to record the video or turning on the audio to record that. There’s a lot of different tools they can pick and choose from.”

Jenna Kuczkowski is the managing editor. Contact her at [email protected].

Maria DeBone is a TV2 reporter. Contact her at [email protected].