6 ms·

I took an online class in 2015 that used Proctorio. Even at that time the proctoring/anti-cheat software was a nightmare. I was semi-accused of cheating becau

I took an online class in 2015 that used Proctorio. Even at that time the proctoring/anti-cheat software was a nightmare. I was semi-accused of cheating because of "anomalies" during one of my tests. It was quickly cleared up by talking to the professor. The software is a privacy disaster and any computer that has had any of this spyware installed should be considered compromised. I kept a separate hard drive and would swap it in to take tests. To fix the problem, grading measures need to be changed to accommodate the new world of online classes rather than trying to shoehorn old test proctoring into a remote space. This software only stops bad cheaters anyway. I'm already imagining the fights I'm going to have with my daughter's schools in the future when they ask us to install this malware.

withinboredom 6y ago
Here’s the thing, if you want to cheat, you’ll find a way to cheat. This won’t stop anyone, it just stops casual cheating at a pretty hefty price. Hell, just reading this article, I thought of various ways by having someone off screen listening to you read aloud and a projector mounted after the test starts, on the ceiling by another person who’s off screen. You could have a kvm switch to a whole different computer, an AI overlaying data on the screen (reading from the video output, and injecting into the video output), or any number of ridiculously complicated setups. It probably won’t catch any serious cheaters.
- toomuchtodo 6y ago
  Picture in picture monitor with multiple sources. Credit to someone who mentioned this in a previous thread.
- Anon1096 6y ago
  Most proctoring software that records the student would trivially root out the cheating method you mentioned about reading aloud the questions to someone else. They usually record audio as well, and if the software detects significant microphone input, will flag the test.
  - pushrax 6y ago
    Just mute your mic in hardware?
    - Anon1096 6y ago
      A lot of proctoring software will flag you for that as well. Then when the professor reviews the footage it will be obvious that you're talking to someone off screen.
      - rorykoehler 6y ago
        Put your mic in another room then.
      - deleted 6y ago
        [deleted]
      - pushrax 6y ago
        Do they analyze the noise floor or something? I guess you'd have to defeat that with a noise gate.
- wasdfff 6y ago
  No need to overcomplicate it. These technologies can be overcome with a phone in your lap connected to a groupchat with everyone in the class, or even a piece of paper with your cheat sheet.
throwaway201103 6y ago
What if you only have linux computers at home and can't run their spyware?
- uhartelightning 6y ago
  This is precisely what I said to one of my professors this semester and thankfully they were reasonable and didn't use Respondus for either of the exams like they had planned.
- technion 6y ago
  I've never dealt with this software but when I did my CS degree, several of the applications we worked with throughout the course were distributed as Windows binaries. If you'd ever done homework or study at all, you don't only have Linux.
  - yjftsjthsd-h 6y ago
    > If you'd ever done homework or study at all, you don't only have Linux. Speak for yourself; at my school, even the class that used C# worked with mono.
  - fabianhjr 6y ago
    > several of the applications we worked with throughout the course were distributed as Windows binaries Because most linux users use their distribution's packages and it is normally easier than hunting for windows binaries. Need an assembler? `sudo apt-get install nasm`, etc. I am a math/cs undergrad and have not used a windows machine in over 6 years. (In my case it would be editing either editing my home.nix or creating a shell.nix for a course rather than apt/dnf/etc)
  - saghm 6y ago
    I never need to use Windows or MacOS for any of my classes in college (although I initially did for the first few months of freshman year before I first started using Linux). For some classes, the students using MacOS or Windows actually had to jump through more hoops; one class required us to ssh into the school's Linux server for some assignments, which required Windows users to download extra software due to not having an ssh client by default (at least, not back then; I'm not sure if powershell has one now), and in another, we had to use Xilinx, a proprietary IDE for writing Verilog to design circuits for FPGAs, which only had builds for Linux and Windows, not MacOS. For the latter one, the TAs literally distributed flash drives with an Ubuntu VirtualBox instance for the Mac users (who comprised the majority of CS students at my university).
ouid 6y ago
The main problem is that receiving a credential and receiving an education are very different things that we do at the same time out of tradition and convenience. When testing was easy, it made sense to lump it in with teaching, but now that testing is impossible, I say we ditch it for the time being.
- ZephyrBlu 6y ago
  > The main problem is that receiving a credential and receiving an education are very different things that we do at the same time out of tradition and convenience Unfortunately I think most of the world sees them as one thing :/.
- TheCoelacanth 6y ago
  The problem with that is that you're throwing out the one that is more directly valuable to your customers.
  - ouid 6y ago
    No, I'm throwing out the one that is impossible to do.

withinboredom 6y ago

Here’s the thing, if you want to cheat, you’ll find a way to cheat. This won’t stop anyone, it just stops casual cheating at a pretty hefty price. Hell, just reading this article, I thought of various ways by having someone off screen listening to you read aloud and a projector mounted after the test starts, on the ceiling by another person who’s off screen. You could have a kvm switch to a whole different computer, an AI overlaying data on the screen (reading from the video output, and injecting into the video output), or any number of ridiculously complicated setups. It probably won’t catch any serious cheaters.

toomuchtodo 6y ago
Picture in picture monitor with multiple sources. Credit to someone who mentioned this in a previous thread.
Anon1096 6y ago
Most proctoring software that records the student would trivially root out the cheating method you mentioned about reading aloud the questions to someone else. They usually record audio as well, and if the software detects significant microphone input, will flag the test.
- pushrax 6y ago
  Just mute your mic in hardware?
  - Anon1096 6y ago
    A lot of proctoring software will flag you for that as well. Then when the professor reviews the footage it will be obvious that you're talking to someone off screen.
    - rorykoehler 6y ago
      Put your mic in another room then.
    - deleted 6y ago
      [deleted]
    - pushrax 6y ago
      Do they analyze the noise floor or something? I guess you'd have to defeat that with a noise gate.
wasdfff 6y ago
No need to overcomplicate it. These technologies can be overcome with a phone in your lap connected to a groupchat with everyone in the class, or even a piece of paper with your cheat sheet.

throwaway201103 6y ago

What if you only have linux computers at home and can't run their spyware?

uhartelightning 6y ago
This is precisely what I said to one of my professors this semester and thankfully they were reasonable and didn't use Respondus for either of the exams like they had planned.
technion 6y ago
I've never dealt with this software but when I did my CS degree, several of the applications we worked with throughout the course were distributed as Windows binaries. If you'd ever done homework or study at all, you don't only have Linux.
- yjftsjthsd-h 6y ago
  > If you'd ever done homework or study at all, you don't only have Linux. Speak for yourself; at my school, even the class that used C# worked with mono.
- fabianhjr 6y ago
  > several of the applications we worked with throughout the course were distributed as Windows binaries Because most linux users use their distribution's packages and it is normally easier than hunting for windows binaries. Need an assembler? `sudo apt-get install nasm`, etc. I am a math/cs undergrad and have not used a windows machine in over 6 years. (In my case it would be editing either editing my home.nix or creating a shell.nix for a course rather than apt/dnf/etc)
- saghm 6y ago
  I never need to use Windows or MacOS for any of my classes in college (although I initially did for the first few months of freshman year before I first started using Linux). For some classes, the students using MacOS or Windows actually had to jump through more hoops; one class required us to ssh into the school's Linux server for some assignments, which required Windows users to download extra software due to not having an ssh client by default (at least, not back then; I'm not sure if powershell has one now), and in another, we had to use Xilinx, a proprietary IDE for writing Verilog to design circuits for FPGAs, which only had builds for Linux and Windows, not MacOS. For the latter one, the TAs literally distributed flash drives with an Ubuntu VirtualBox instance for the Mac users (who comprised the majority of CS students at my university).

ouid 6y ago

The main problem is that receiving a credential and receiving an education are very different things that we do at the same time out of tradition and convenience. When testing was easy, it made sense to lump it in with teaching, but now that testing is impossible, I say we ditch it for the time being.

ZephyrBlu 6y ago
> The main problem is that receiving a credential and receiving an education are very different things that we do at the same time out of tradition and convenience Unfortunately I think most of the world sees them as one thing :/.
TheCoelacanth 6y ago
The problem with that is that you're throwing out the one that is more directly valuable to your customers.
- ouid 6y ago
  No, I'm throwing out the one that is impossible to do.