{"id":17159,"date":"2021-01-13T00:58:54","date_gmt":"2021-01-13T08:58:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/?p=17159"},"modified":"2021-01-13T00:58:56","modified_gmt":"2021-01-13T08:58:56","slug":"wou-finalizes-purchasing-agreement-with-wise-education-for-new-proctoring-system","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wou-finalizes-purchasing-agreement-with-wise-education-for-new-proctoring-system\/","title":{"rendered":"WOU finalizes purchasing agreement with Wise Education for new proctoring system"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Western expands pilot of new online proctoring system Wise Proctor<\/em><\/p>\n

Sydney Carpenter<\/strong> | News Editor<\/span><\/p>\n

Western\u2019s Academic Innovation Department has launched a broader version of the proctoring system Wise Proctor.<\/span><\/p>\n

In spring 2020, the transition to remote instruction raised concerns about testing integrity.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cAcademic Innovation investigated different remote proctoring solutions and ultimately selected Wise Proctor for a pilot,\u201d said Academic Innovation Director Michael Reis.<\/span><\/p>\n

After a summer test trial, Western moved forward with a large-scale pilot currently funded by Library & Academic Innovation. Reis explained that the department rearranged savings from temporary operational changes brought on by COVID-19 in order to fund the program. At this time, Western does not require or intend to require professors to use Wise Proctor; but, in departments like biology, some professors have opted to enter the pilot program.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cIt can be difficult to ensure academic integrity and fairness in an online system,\u201d said Assistant Professor Gareth Hopkins, \u201cand so this is a way to try to ensure that in my classes.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

According to Hopkins, there had been a desire for a proctoring system by several biology faculty members for classes that are important prerequisites for programs such as medicine, dentistry and nursing. However, some faculty have opted out of using the system.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cMy main reason is to ensure equity in my classes,\u201d said Assistant Professor from the Department of Chemistry Dr. Feier Hou. \u201cWhat if a student does not have a camera on their computer? What if the student has poor internet connections…? What if the student is not comfortable showing their household to the proctor or me?”<\/span><\/p>\n

Hou had heard from other universities that their proctoring systems had given false positive results to students with learning disabilities for having different eye movements when they work on an exam.<\/span><\/p>\n

However, Wise Education President Ian Hartley said the company has researched body movement extensively.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve got a very advanced AI algorithm,\u201d said Hartley. \u201cWe\u2019ve trained on hundreds of thousands of photos and scenarios in the real world. It\u2019s detecting all the things that you\u2019d want while eliminating false positives.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Hartley assured that the company was built on prioritising student privacy and students are made fully aware they are being filmed by giving their consent while using the program and Wise Proctor is not downloadable software that has access to your computer at all times<\/span><\/p>\n

For professors who have chosen not to use the new system, some have altered how they give quizzes and exams entirely.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI realized that the traditional way of testing \u2026 may be testing more on students’ ability to take tests or perform under stress, than on their knowledge in chemistry,\u201d explained Hou. \u201cSo I made my big exams open-book, and rewrote the exams so that they contain more open questions where students have to explain and show their \u2026 understanding of the materials.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Additionally, Hou acknowledged that some students might see her as a \u201cpush-over\u201d and cheat on exams, but she reported a vast majority of her students are not like that.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI choose to trust my students, and if someone is going to cheat, they will eventually get the consequences later in their lives,\u201d said Hou.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Contact the author at scarpenter18@mail.wou.edu<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Western expands pilot of new online proctoring system Wise Proctor<\/p>\n

Sydney Carpenter | News Editor<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1094,"featured_media":17142,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[143,538,539,146,145,541,540,39],"class_list":["post-17159","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-news","tag-online-school","tag-proctoring-systems","tag-sydney","tag-sydney-carpenter","tag-wise-education","tag-wise-proctor","tag-wou"],"modified_by":"The Western Howl","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17159","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1094"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=17159"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17159\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/17142"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17159"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17159"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17159"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}