CASA Monitoring Platform for Proctoring Online Exams
With the transition of course instruction to an online format, administering/proctoring exams has been a challenge and is of great concern for many faculty members.
Platforms, such as Respondus Monitoring, have been used by faculty. However, these platforms come with the complication that they require the exam to be offered through a commercially available Learning Management System such as Blackboard.
Dr. Jeff Morgan and the CASA development team (primarily Herb Ward, with assistance from Jatindera Walia and Shailesh Magrulkar) have developed “CASA Monitor,” which can be used for CourseWare exams. CASA Monitor does not require students to install any additional software on their computers.
During an exam, the platform uses screenshots from the computer monitor along with web camera images taken every few seconds to monitor the student’s exam activity. The screenshot nature has the added advantage of allowing students to use additional resources if allowed by their professor, while keeping track of their activity.
CASA Monitoring was initially tested on over 4,000 computer simulated exams and has recently been tested on actual exams in Dr. James West’s, Dr. Jiwen He’s and Dr. David Blecher’s courses.
Development and testing will continue throughout the summer with the goal of having the system ready for use in Fall 2020. As an added measure, the developers are working to add a feature which will request students to display their photo ID to the web camera at random instances during the exam.
CASA Monitor may be an in-house exam solution which can help to prevent cheating on exams and help address some of the concerns of faculty related to administering online proctored exams.