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Remote exam checklist for instructors: before, during, after

A printable checklist for an exam that students sit at home: thirty checks in four lists, a note to send the day before, and what to do in five emergencies.

The EdProcto editorial teamWritten and checked against the research it cites. Last checked . How the guides are made

Guides · Integrity and cheating · · 13 min read

What should an instructor check before, during and after a remote exam that students sit at home?

A remote exam checklist for an instructor has four lists. Two weeks before, set an open-book paper, a fixed duration inside a generous window, a practice run and a written rule for lost connections. The day before, send one note and preview the paper. During the sitting, keep one channel and an incident log. Afterwards, apply one rule to everyone alike.

A remote exam checklist is what an instructor needs when the students are at home and the exam still has to count: a lecturer with a class abroad, a teacher in a closure week, a trainer with a scattered cohort. Most of what goes wrong is known beforehand and settled before the day.

This guide is a checklist first: thirty checks in four lists, short enough to print. It is published by EdProcto, the paper in its examples; see the pages for universities and for teachers. Where another guide explains a check, the check links there and says no more.

What went wrong in remote exams in 2020 and 2021, and what helped?

Connections, devices, rooms, time zones, adjustments and unclear rules went wrong; a rehearsal, a wide window, one channel and a written fallback helped. We read every source on 10 October 2026.

What universities and regulators reported

  • England's universities regulator, the Office for Students (2020), polled 1,416 students: in lockdown 52% had their learning affected by a slow or unreliable connection, 71% lacked a quiet place to study, 18% a computer, laptop or tablet, and 26% disagreed that their university's approach to assessment had been made clear.
  • The Bar Standards Board (2020), the barristers' regulator, put its August 2020 exams on screen; about a third were hit by difficulties. An independent review found the harm fell hardest on candidates needing a reasonable adjustment, those with little money and international students, as the Legal Services Board (2021) reported; we read that statement, not the review.
  • For schools, Ofqual (2020) found that IT provision varies widely and that internet and local networks are unreliable in places.

What students said

Elsalem et al. (2020) surveyed 1,019 medical sciences students at one Jordanian university in August 2020: 32% found remote exams more stressful than exams on campus. Of those, 78% named the duration, 76% the way they moved between questions, and over 60% the platform or the internet. Lehigh University (2020) told its faculty that students had pointed to a lack of privacy in long exams and to limited bandwidth, and students at Imperial College London (2020) asked for practice runs.

Which design choices reduced trouble

No study we read tested them; they are rules universities wrote:

  • A practice run, promised by Imperial and recommended by Elsalem et al. (2020).
  • A fixed duration inside a window. Lehigh capped open-book finals at three hours, taken at any point in 24, and offered another slot for an exam between midnight and 8 am local time. The University of Calgary (2021) made 24 hours the general window and gave finals 50% more time.
  • A written fallback. Calgary required a contingency plan in the course outline for any in-course online assessment worth over 10% of the grade.
  • One channel. The University of Glasgow (2020) staffed an exam helpdesk round the clock with 31 people; Ohio University (2020) told instructors to say exactly how to reach them.
  • Open-book questions that ask for application: check 2 below.

What do you do two weeks before a remote exam?

Settle everything a student could later say they were never told. Nine checks:

  1. Ask whether the exam must be remote.
    Browser measures record a browser, not a room: where a mark must be certain, use a supervised room with EdProcto as the paper (how much proctoring a quiz needs; the routes for a professional body).
  2. Write the paper for an open book.
    Nobody sees the desk, so ask what no page answers: open-book quizzes that still measure.
  3. Fix one duration by sitting the paper yourself.
    Students in Jordan named duration as a main cause of stress; the unit test online has a working rule.
  4. Choose the window and state the last moment to begin.
    Wide enough for the time zones on your register, narrow enough that early sitters cannot brief late ones (the lecturer's midterm has the study).
  5. Decide whether answers can be changed, and say which.
    In Jordan, how students moved between questions was a main cause of stress; no going back slows a forwarded paper, which is our reasoning, not a finding.
  6. Ask, with a deadline, who needs extra time, another slot, a device or a quiet room.
    The barristers' review found candidates needing adjustments, with little money or from abroad hardest hit.
  7. Write the lost-connection rule and book a reserve sitting.
    A rule made on the day is made under pressure: say how many lost minutes earn the reserve.
  8. Name one channel for problems, and who answers it.
    A student whose page freezes at minute forty needs one address, not three.
  9. Run a practice quiz under the real settings.
    It finds the browser that refuses full screen while nothing depends on it.

What do you do the day before?

Send one message, rehearse once, and prepare for your own equipment to fail. Six checks:

  1. Send one note: the link, the window, the rules, the channel.
    One message is found again at 8:55. The note below is a start; what to tell students before a monitored test covers what is logged.
  2. Sit the paper yourself, from the start screen to the hand-in.
    A wrong key costs you ten minutes today, or the whole class tomorrow.
  3. Read the settings line by line.
    The minutes, the hand-in at zero, both shuffles, one attempt, scores held: one wrong switch is everyone's problem.
  4. Make the extra-time copies and send each link to its student alone.
    Extra time is the same paper under a longer limit, for those it was agreed for.
  5. Check the email addresses on your register.
    An attempt is known by the address a student types, so ask for the one you hold.
  6. Ready a second device, a phone's hotspot and a printed register.
    Your connection can drop too.

What do you do during the sitting?

Stay at the channel, watch the list, and write everything down. Eight checks:

  1. Open early and sit at the channel.
    A student locked out in the first minute should find you already there.
  2. Count the names against the register after ten minutes.
    Whoever is missing has a problem you can still solve.
  3. Read the live list every few minutes.
    Progress that has stopped, a new event, a request from another device: watching a live quiz says what each means.
  4. Answer every message, in the same words to everyone.
    A hint to one student is unfair to the rest.
  5. Log each incident: who, what, when, minutes lost.
    Tomorrow's decision rests on this sheet, not on memory.
  6. Change nothing in the paper while anyone is inside.
    An edit at minute eight splits the class into two exams.
  7. Let a student onto a second device only on their own message.
    The address at the start is typed, not checked.
  8. Close only when the window is over and the list is empty.
    A paper still open when you close can no longer be handed in.

What do you do afterwards?

Treat every student by the same rule, and release nothing until every sitting is in. Seven checks:

  1. Reconcile the register with the hand-ins.
    A paper never handed in is missing from the results, not failed.
  2. Apply the lost-connection rule to every incident in your log.
    The same minutes earn the same remedy.
  3. Mark the open answers before you read any log.
    A mark should not know who was flagged: grading open answers.
  4. Read the questions before the students.
    If most of the class missed a question, suspect the question: when to throw a question out.
  5. Read each event as a record, and ask before you conclude.
    A log says what a browser did, not why.
  6. Run the reserve sitting on a parallel version.
    The first paper has been seen.
  7. Release once, then file the marks with the incident log.
    A score seen early travels to those still to sit.

What do you send students the day before?

One paragraph, with the link under it. This note is ours: change every line that is not true of your exam. It is not legal advice.

Tomorrow's exam. The paper opens at 09:00 and closes at 13:00, UK time. You have 90 minutes from the moment you begin, so begin by 11:30. Use a laptop or desktop, one browser in an ordinary window, and the email address on the register. It is open book: your notes and the course text, no other person, no AI assistant. The page logs it if you leave the tab; I read that as a record and will ask you before I conclude anything. If your connection drops, reopen the same link in the same browser: your answers are saved and the clock keeps running. If that fails, message [channel] at once and note the time. Ten minutes lost earns the reserve sitting on [date].

EdProcto's start screen repeats the rules from the quiz's settings, for example "Time limit: 90 minutes, submitted by itself when it runs out." and "Leaving the tab: noticed and logged." Under the button: "Your answers are saved as you go. If your connection drops, open the same link in this browser and you continue where you were."

What do you do in an emergency?

Follow the rule you wrote two weeks ago, and note the time. Here are five, with what EdProcto does in each.

A student's connection drops

Tell them to reopen the same link in the same browser. Each answer was saved on the server as it was given, so the attempt returns as it stood, its clock counted from the server's record of the start. With "Full screen" on, the questions wait behind "Back to full screen", and "Reloaded the page" joins the log.

If that device is gone: where the quiz asks for an email address and limits retakes, as it does unless you change it, a second device under the same address is refused with "This quiz is already open under that email address." In "In the quiz now" the student's last event reads "Asked to open on another device". Press "Let back in": their next start opens the same attempt, once, logged "Reopened on another device".

The clock runs out while they are away

With "Submit by itself when time runs out" on, the page hands in the moment it is opened again. A hand-in over two minutes late changes no answer: the attempt is marked on what was saved in time, and its record gains "Handed in after the time ran out" and "Answers sent after the time ran out were set aside". Until then the row shows "over time" in "In the quiz now". Your rule says whether that paper stands or the student sits the reserve.

A student reports a wrong question mid-exam

Thank them, and send everyone the same sentence on the channel: answer it as printed, and it will be reviewed. Afterwards, the question with the wrong key shows how to check it. With scores held at "When released", the remedy reaches every paper before any result does.

Two answers look alike

Likeness is a reason to look, never proof. Open both attempts: each shows the answers, the time on each question where questions come one a page, and any "Security events". Ask first whether the question invites that wrong answer. Then have each student, separately, talk you through it, and decide under your institution's procedure.

The platform is unreachable

Open the results page on your second connection to see whose side it is. If nobody can reach it, a student handing in reads "Handing in did not go through: the server could not be reached. Try again." Answers saved earlier stay on the server, and an open page sends what was typed since with its next change or the hand-in. Tell students on the channel to keep the tab open and note the time. If the gap outlasts your rule, or runs past the end of the time, move everyone to the reserve sitting.

How does EdProcto cover each list?

EdProcto is the best tool for a remote exam one instructor runs alone, because what this checklist guards is held on its server, not on a student's page: the questions arrive only when an attempt begins, the start time is the server's, each answer is saved there as it is given, and a held score stays there until you release it (why it is built this way).

List In EdProcto, by its labels
Two weeks before "Minutes overall" starts at 45. "Submit by itself when time runs out", both shuffles and "An account is needed to take it" start on, and "Whole-quiz retakes" at "None". Set "Show the score" to "When released" and decide on "Allow going back to change an answer".
The day before Your run under "Preview as student" stays out of the results. "Duplicate this quiz" makes the extra-time copy, with a link of its own. The link can go out early: it answers "This quiz is not open" until you press "Publish & share".
During the sitting "In the quiz now" shows "Student", "Progress", "In for", "Events" and "Last event", refreshed every few seconds. "Let back in" sits under "Another device". You end the window with "Close the quiz".
Afterwards Each attempt lists "The record of this attempt" and the answers to grade. "Release the scores", then "Yes, release them", shows the results; "Hold them back again" withdraws them. "Download the marks" gives a spreadsheet file.

Six integrity measures run in the browser: "Leaving the tab", "Full screen", "Copy and paste off", "Right-click off", "Keyboard shortcuts off" and "Printing off". Each carries the consequence you pick: "Log it", "Warn the student", "Reduce the score", "End the quiz" or "Flag for review". For a sitting at home we would keep "Log it", since a notification can trip a measure. The Exam preset switches all six on, with no going back and scores held (the three presets).

Free takes thirty students a quiz at Light integrity, the logged tab. Tutor takes 100 at Medium and saves the Exam preset. Educator takes 500 and adds the full analysis. Pricing has the figures. Nothing here rules cheating out; an event in the log is a record, never proof; and each score waits for you to release it.

Quick questions

What belongs on a remote exam checklist?

Four lists: what to settle two weeks before, what to send and test the day before, what to watch during the sitting, and what to apply to everyone afterwards.

How long should the window for an online exam be?

Long enough for every time zone on your register, with one fixed duration inside it. Lehigh University (2020) allowed three hours at any point in 24; Ohio University (2020) suggested two hours inside six.

What happens if a student loses their connection during an online exam?

In EdProcto the answers given are already on the server, and the same link in the same browser reopens the attempt, its clock still running. A second device under the same email address waits for "Let back in".

Which EdProcto plan does a remote exam need?

Free holds thirty students a quiz at Light integrity, Tutor 100 at Medium, Educator 500.

References

Integrity

Five levels, from none to a full proctoring stack, each measure switched on by itself with its own consequence.

Light on Free, Strict on Educator

See the five levels

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