Admission procedures, business meetings, but also gatherings with family members or friends. Over the last year, all of these events had at least partially moved to the online environment. And the same can be said about various entrance exams and other tests. Universities and other institutions had to suddenly face the challenges of arranging fair online entrance exams for thousands of applicants. Fortunately, the helping solution that made the situation easier for both examiners and examiners was already present. It is the way of remote supervision called AI proctoring.
The main task of proctoring AI is to prevent possible test fraud. Due to the supervision abilities of these solutions, it is almost impossible for others than test participants to take the exams or for the participants to help themselves with illicit devices. The solution uses the technical equipment of the tested person to recognize the face in front of the screen and objects in its vicinity. In addition to the image, some proctoring technologies can also monitor sound, thus preventing any hints. But AI proctoring is not only a whip for students. It also helps them.
How does it even work?
The basis of the solution is a comparison of ideal patterns of behavior of the examinee and his surroundings with the conditions that are set for each test. Whenever a significant difference between what the technology records and what the student is allowed occurs, the AI proctoring solution records the discrepancy for later review.
The most important part of the solution is a clever technology that uses the persons’ webcam to recognize objects and faces in the room. Artificial intelligence thus recognizes whether other persons are not present during the test or whether the examinee does not use any prohibited aids, such as a mobile phone or a calculator. Similarly, technology can also monitor room sounds. The moment such technology detects another voice, it records the exact time when it happened and passes the event on for further evaluation.
The use of AI proctoring often sparks worries that AI will misjudge some controversial situation and exclude the examinee unfairly. But in reality, this is prevented by the involvement of human controllers. Artificial intelligence does not automatically exclude any participant itself – it only collects and highlights controversial situations. The final decision on whether some of the participants deserve to be excluded from the exam or not lies in the human hands.
In addition to facial, object, or sound recognition, some modern AI proctoring solutions can do even more exciting and advanced things. A good example would be the analysis of the eye and mouth movements, which can detect when the examinee has a book or another monitor with unauthorized help next to the one where he takes the exam.
A modern Czech example
A great example of a modern and valuable AI proctoring technology would be the ScioLink solution, recently presented by two Czech companies Scio and Born Digital. Both experts on the preparation of high-quality tests and the development of state-of-the-art AI solutions joined forces to develop ScioLink. The result is a unique AI proctoring solution that offers righteous supervision of various exams with any number of participants. As an addition, ScioLink offers several new features that take online testing one step further. Both for examiners and examiners.
One of the main advantages of Sciolink is its ability to alert participants to their suspicious behavior during the test. The ability to warn the examinee, together with the top-quality artificial intelligence for object recognition, reduces possible exclusion due to cheating or complications associated with cases where the student forgets a forbidden object in his vicinity by mistake. “For example, when the camera captures an object resembling a mobile phone, it alerts the student and at the same time records the time when the object appeared in the shot. The human controller then only goes through all the similar controversial moments in the record and assesses whether the test rules were violated,” explains Martin Drnek on behalf of Scio.
Another advantage is that ScioLink does not place high technical demands on the tested students. The solution is a direct part of the online test. “Our technology will save a huge amount of time and start-up for everyone involved in the test. In addition, it can moderate exams with thousands of participants without any problems,” describes Born Digital director Tomáš Malovec.
Reliable and safe online entrance exams can thus become a new standard with solutions such as ScioLink. As artificial intelligence arranges the smooth running of online exams, its other benefits stand out. “Thanks to the online environment, for example, there is no need to travel physically to university or to prepare facilities for a large number of potential future students,” adds Malovec.
