Test Proctoring, Attendance, and Student Identity Verification

Dear Faculty and TAs  – As a reminder, please check the new Faculty: Preparing for a COVID-19-ready Semester section on the University’s coronavirus webpage for the latest information on return to instruction. You may also want to keep an eye on the parallel student page Students: Preparing for a COVID-19-ready Semester. Besides the latest information, both of these pages maintain copies of e-mails sent to faculty and students.  

This e-mail includes information on 1) test proctoring, 2) student identity verification for remote classes, 3) tracking in-class and online “attendance.”

Test proctoring

To maintain integrity and fairness, it is important to have robust and secure test proctoring. While many of us are most familiar and comfortable with traditional in-class, in person proctoring, mixed-modality and remote instruction delivery make it necessary for the University to provide instructors with additional proctoring options described below. 

In-person test proctoring at the University Testing Center

The University of Nevada, Reno Testing Center allows faculty to schedule on-campus proctored exams outside of the normal class period. This not only allows the instructor to have more time for instruction, but also provides a secure testing alternative to the typical crowded classroom environment. The testing center has the capacity to proctor 4,500 one-hour, web-based exams a week. The Testing Center can also help instructors arrange proctoring for students located remote from campus. Because faculty access to the center is on a first-come, first-served basis, please schedule your exams at least two weeks prior with the testing center director. For more information, visit the Testing Center.

Proctorio

Proctorio is an online remote proctoring platform. The system is built around a locked down browser that can take control of the student’s webcam and microphone for audio-visual surveillance during the testing session. Proctorio then runs the recorded session through an artificial intelligence algorithm to detect suspicious activity. The instructor has the options to only use the locked down browser or to also integrate Proctorio’s surveillance capabilities. Because there is a per-exam cost associated with Proctorio, we request that you only use this option for high-stakes exams such as midterms or finals. For more information on how to use Proctorio, please visit TLT.

Designing “proctorless” exams/quizzes

Teaching and Learning Technology (TLT) has resources to help you develop your own testing strategies that may not require proctoring at all. TLT’s Best Practices for Online Assessment page describes ways to structure an online exam through WebCampus that can mitigate cheating and maintain testing integrity regardless of proctoring structure. For more information on proctorless exams, visit the Online Assessment website.

Student identity verification for remote classes

One proctored/supervised exam or equivalent experience per course where students are required to present photo identification upon signing in for the proctored experience or test is required of each remote, distance, or online learning course. This system allows the instructor to know that the student mastering the material is the same student receiving credit for the course. Additional information on student identify verification can be found at the student identity verification website.

Tracking in-class and online “attendance”

Tracking in-class attendance

In-person attendance will be fluid and difficult to track for classes taught through HyFlex or multimodal instructional delivery. However, for in-class participants, faculty may use any means to track attendance for academic purposes. However, if a student in your class tests positive for COVID 19, an awareness of which students are present and in which seat they are sitting will be very important for contact tracing. Therefore, we suggest that instructors use their cell phones to photograph or video record classroom participants at the beginning of each class period. This will provide a record of in-class attendance and student seating positioning for each day. Instructors choosing this option, will be required to inform students during the first day of class and in their syllabus that in-class participants will be photographed or videoed each period only for use for contact tracing purposes in the case one of their classmates test positive for COVID 19.

Tracking online attendance

Zoom keeps an attendance record for meetings. To access the record of who attended a Zoom session, please make sure the meeting has ended and follow the instructions below:

  1. Sign into the  University's Zoom portal. 
  2. On the left side of the screen, under ‘Personal’, click on Reports.
  3. Click on Usage.
  4. Find the meeting that you wish to take attendance for and click on the number that is listed in the ‘Participants’ column.
  5. You may view the attendance information online, or export the data to an Excel spreadsheet.

Sincerely,

Dave

Dr. David Shintani, PhD
Vice Provost, Undergraduate Education
Professor of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology