1) Flags aren't cheating. Flagged events and the Review Priority value don't determine whether a student has cheated or not. Rather, they are tools to help identify suspicious activities, anomalies, or situations where the data is of too low of a quality to analyze.
2) Facial detection is important. Several flagging events rely heavily on facial detection technology. If the face cannot be detected in the video, it isn't possible to determine if the test taker is "missing" or "different". If a student's face is turned away from the webcam or heavily cropped in the video (e.g. you can only see the student's eyes and forehead), facial detection rates will drop. Other things that affect facial detection rates are baseball caps, backlighting, very low lighting, hands on the face, and certain eye glasses.
3) There are more "false positives" than "true positives." Flags that rely on facial detection technology are often incorrect (known as a false positive). If a student is flagged as "missing" but he/she is still visible in the frame, this would be considered a false positive. A "true positive" is a suspicious behavior that is correctly identified by the flagging system. Our goal is to reduce the false positive flags as much as possible, without missing the "true positive" events. It's not a perfect science — yet.
4) Garbage in, garbage out. You can achieve immediate improvement with automated flags that rely on facial detection by having students produce better videos. Provide these simple guidelines to students to help them create higher quality videos so the flagging system works better.
- Avoid wearing baseball caps or hats that extend beyond the forehead
- If using a notebook computer, place it on a firm surface like a desk or table, not your lap.
- If the webcam is built into the screen, avoid making screen adjustments after the exam starts. A common mistake is to push the screen back, resulting in only the top portion of the face being recorded.
- Don't lie down on a couch or bed while taking an exam. There is a greater chance you'll move out of the video frame or change your relative position to the webcam.
- Don't take an exam in a dark room. If the details of your face don't show clearly during the webcam check, the automated video analysis is more likely to flag you as missing.
- Avoid backlighting situations, such as sitting with your back to a window. The general rule is to have light in front of your face, not behind your head.
- Select a distraction-free environment for the exam. Televisions and other people in the room can draw your attention away from the screen. Other people that come into view of the webcam may also trigger flags by the automated system.
5) Continual improvements. Respondus Monitor is the most advanced system for automated exam proctoring. The goal is to provide "meaningful results," not simply a list of flagged events that require instructors to analyze everything themselves. Respondus Monitor is continually being enhanced, so instructors can focus on teaching, not analyzing the videos of exam sessions.