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I took a course recently and the final exam had this kind of eproctoring setup where I would have to install proprietary software, show the examiner around my r

I took a course recently and the final exam had this kind of eproctoring setup where I would have to install proprietary software, show the examiner around my room, under my desk and so on. I did not take the exam.

ShroudedNight 5y ago
> I did not take the exam. I assume at significant cost? I feel similarly strongly about my dominion over my own computing devices and the boundaries placed on their intrusion into my environment. I wonder, at what point should this reasonably be considered equivalent to a religious belief and provided the same sort of protection.
- dspillett 5y ago
  > I feel similarly strongly about my dominion over my own computing devices Same here. If I ever need to take remote exams like described I'll get a cheap laptop, or something like a Pi attached to a TV/monitor, and take the exam on that. They can have me install anything they like, it will be on a guest wireless network that can't cross to the rest of the local network, will be freshly installed with an account that is not one of my primaries, and will be wiped down when the exams are done. In fact I have an old slow laptop that would do, assuming it still works. Of course, not everyone has the luxury of being financially and technically able to do that. I'm the same with work. If work wants specific control on the devices I use, then they need to provide devices instead of taking control of my personal ones. I did install the comms software on an old phone in 2020 but if the ability to remote-wipe this granted is ever used (accidentally or purposefully) I'll lose nothing but my "get up for work" alarm as that is the only other thing on the device. If I work from home it is via RDC over VPN to my machine at the office - if there becomes a requirement for more control of the machine I'm VPN+RDCing from then either they provide a machine they control or I stop being able to work out of hours (not a problem for me!) or work from home should that be convenient/required (which isn't often, other than during lockdowns over the last 18 months). I don't have an adversarial relationship with work (which might be implied by the above paragraph), at least not as far as I can tell, but I find it better for my mental health (and my work, I think, though that is the secondary concern from my PoV) to silo my work and personal life somewhat. I can see a day when extra requirements will turn up, as we work with clients in strongly regulated industries and many of them are actively tightening their internal controls and making increasing demands on their suppliers (including us) to do the same. > and the boundaries placed on their intrusion into my environment. That you can do less about in many cases, though again I'd have options. I only have a two-bedroom flat, but the little bedroom is used as a training room, so I could setup a chair and something as a desk in there. All they'll see in the tour of the room is the treadmill, weights, mats, and related bits & bobs. Again, many do not have the luxury of this option.
  - mkl 5y ago
    An old laptop is the way to go, as long as its networking is good. A Raspberry Pi is unlikely to be supported; these programs usually only support Windows and macOS (and possibly ipadOS or Android). A virtual machine is not an option either, as it will be detected and the program will refuse to run.
- erhk 5y ago
  Surely you should lease my harddrive space if you believe it is necessary. I charge $10/megabit/minute as i am an exclusive artisianal cloud. And thats not including badwidth or installation fee.
  - erhk 5y ago
    And while we are on the topic my work from home office is 2300/month to lease
alanfranz 5y ago
Was that a curveball? Nobody had told you beforehand?
- 0xffff2 5y ago
  It's certainly possible. Thankfully I graduated before Turn-it-in was fully mainstream and before online tests were even a thing AFAIK. Nonetheless, I had one professor decide midway through the semester that our final paper would need to be submitted to Turn-it-in. I had to go to office hours, point out that this requirement was not in the syllabus, and that if it was I would not have taken the course, and finally threaten to go complain to the dean. I was incredibly lucky to make it through school without ever having to submit to this kind of BS, but I rather think it's simply impossible today.
  - alanfranz 5y ago
    Turn-it-in checks your assignment text against other submitted assignments, and highlights copypasted parts. Then the teacher chooses what to do. What’s your problem with it?
    - 0xffff2 5y ago
      It has been a very long time, but my recollection was that my primary objection was to granting them a perpetual, royalty free license to my work, i.e. that my own assignment would also be used as one of the "other submitted assignments" without any benefit whatsoever to me.
      - alanfranz 5y ago
        That’s something that I can understand. But is a university’s “normal license” for homework different? Don’t they have a right to keep your work?
op00to 5y ago
I took a test like this in the bathroom. Real easy to clear the room.

ShroudedNight 5y ago

> I did not take the exam. I assume at significant cost? I feel similarly strongly about my dominion over my own computing devices and the boundaries placed on their intrusion into my environment. I wonder, at what point should this reasonably be considered equivalent to a religious belief and provided the same sort of protection.

dspillett 5y ago
> I feel similarly strongly about my dominion over my own computing devices Same here. If I ever need to take remote exams like described I'll get a cheap laptop, or something like a Pi attached to a TV/monitor, and take the exam on that. They can have me install anything they like, it will be on a guest wireless network that can't cross to the rest of the local network, will be freshly installed with an account that is not one of my primaries, and will be wiped down when the exams are done. In fact I have an old slow laptop that would do, assuming it still works. Of course, not everyone has the luxury of being financially and technically able to do that. I'm the same with work. If work wants specific control on the devices I use, then they need to provide devices instead of taking control of my personal ones. I did install the comms software on an old phone in 2020 but if the ability to remote-wipe this granted is ever used (accidentally or purposefully) I'll lose nothing but my "get up for work" alarm as that is the only other thing on the device. If I work from home it is via RDC over VPN to my machine at the office - if there becomes a requirement for more control of the machine I'm VPN+RDCing from then either they provide a machine they control or I stop being able to work out of hours (not a problem for me!) or work from home should that be convenient/required (which isn't often, other than during lockdowns over the last 18 months). I don't have an adversarial relationship with work (which might be implied by the above paragraph), at least not as far as I can tell, but I find it better for my mental health (and my work, I think, though that is the secondary concern from my PoV) to silo my work and personal life somewhat. I can see a day when extra requirements will turn up, as we work with clients in strongly regulated industries and many of them are actively tightening their internal controls and making increasing demands on their suppliers (including us) to do the same. > and the boundaries placed on their intrusion into my environment. That you can do less about in many cases, though again I'd have options. I only have a two-bedroom flat, but the little bedroom is used as a training room, so I could setup a chair and something as a desk in there. All they'll see in the tour of the room is the treadmill, weights, mats, and related bits & bobs. Again, many do not have the luxury of this option.
- mkl 5y ago
  An old laptop is the way to go, as long as its networking is good. A Raspberry Pi is unlikely to be supported; these programs usually only support Windows and macOS (and possibly ipadOS or Android). A virtual machine is not an option either, as it will be detected and the program will refuse to run.
erhk 5y ago
Surely you should lease my harddrive space if you believe it is necessary. I charge $10/megabit/minute as i am an exclusive artisianal cloud. And thats not including badwidth or installation fee.
- erhk 5y ago
  And while we are on the topic my work from home office is 2300/month to lease

alanfranz 5y ago

Was that a curveball? Nobody had told you beforehand?

0xffff2 5y ago
It's certainly possible. Thankfully I graduated before Turn-it-in was fully mainstream and before online tests were even a thing AFAIK. Nonetheless, I had one professor decide midway through the semester that our final paper would need to be submitted to Turn-it-in. I had to go to office hours, point out that this requirement was not in the syllabus, and that if it was I would not have taken the course, and finally threaten to go complain to the dean. I was incredibly lucky to make it through school without ever having to submit to this kind of BS, but I rather think it's simply impossible today.
- alanfranz 5y ago
  Turn-it-in checks your assignment text against other submitted assignments, and highlights copypasted parts. Then the teacher chooses what to do. What’s your problem with it?
  - 0xffff2 5y ago
    It has been a very long time, but my recollection was that my primary objection was to granting them a perpetual, royalty free license to my work, i.e. that my own assignment would also be used as one of the "other submitted assignments" without any benefit whatsoever to me.
    - alanfranz 5y ago
      That’s something that I can understand. But is a university’s “normal license” for homework different? Don’t they have a right to keep your work?

op00to 5y ago

I took a test like this in the bathroom. Real easy to clear the room.