Five layers of defence.
Pick the height that fits the stakes.
In the AI era a written assignment proves nothing; a question answered live, in a shape a chatbot cannot answer, from your own material, still does. Most proctoring throws everything at every quiz. EdProcto is a stack: the template is the first defence, then five levels of security, each measure switched on by itself with its own consequence, off until the stakes need it.
- A photo and an ID at the start
- Faces and gaze watched
- Voice and typing rhythm compared
- Webcam and microphone on
- The screen shared, other apps noticed
- Photos, and a phone watching the room
- Full screen required
- Copy, paste and print off
- Right-click and shortcuts off
- Leaving the tab is noticed
- Each time logged with its time
- Nothing is blocked
- Nothing watches
- Answers still marked by rule
- Results still analysed
Nothing.
For Practice, homework, a warm-up.
Leaving the tab is noticed and logged, each time with its time. Nothing is blocked.
For A weekly check; a quiz with low stakes and honest students.
All of Light. Full screen is required; copy, paste, right-click, printing and keyboard shortcuts are off.
For A unit test; anything counted towards a grade.
All of Medium, with the webcam and the microphone on, the screen shared and photographed, another app or window on it noticed, a photo every few minutes, and a phone on the desk watching the room.
For A midterm, a final, a certification that matters.
All of Strict, with a photo and an ID card at the start, more than one face, no face and eyes off the screen noticed, a voice sample to compare with every spoken answer, and the rhythm of the typing kept with each answer.
For A high-stakes exam taken at a distance, where identity has to be certain.
The template is
the first defence.
A question that has to be heard, clicked or spoken cannot be pasted into a chatbot. Shape defeats cheating before anything at runtime has to.
There is no text to paste into a chatbot, and no second hearing.
A hotspot question has nothing to copy. The student has to know where to click.
Speaking an answer in your own voice is not something a chatbot does for you.
Procto AI writes each student their own questions on the same concepts, so there is no set to share.
A question whose answer is in your handout and nowhere else is harder to look up.
The same quiz in a different order on every screen; a neighbour’s answers are no help.
A time-locked question has to be read and answered, not photographed and forwarded.
Each answer reveals the next part of the scenario; there is nothing to look up ahead.
Every measure, by itself.
22 measures, and every one runs today. Each is off until you switch it on, and each carries its own consequence for a violation: log it, warn the student, reduce the score, end the quiz, flag for review.
| Measure | What it notices | Today |
|---|---|---|
| Webcam on | The camera stays on for the whole quiz, and the student sees that it is. | Off; logs when on |
| A photo every few minutes | A still every few minutes, kept with the attempt for review. | Off; logs when on |
| A phone watching the room | The desk, the screen and the room, from a phone the student stands beside them. | Off; logs when on |
| Microphone on | Sound in the room: a second voice, a phone call. | Off; logs when on |
| Screen recording | What is on the student’s screen: shared for the whole quiz and photographed for the record. | Off; logs when on |
| More than one face | A second face in the frame. | Off; logs when on |
| No face in view | The student leaving the frame. | Off; logs when on |
| Eyes off the screen | Eyes away from the screen for longer than reading a question takes. | Off; logs when on |
| Full screen | Leaving full screen, which is how a second window is opened. | Off; logs when on |
| Copy and paste off | Copying a question out or pasting an answer in. | Off; logs when on |
| Right-click off | The menu that opens a search. | Off; logs when on |
| Keyboard shortcuts off | The keyboard shortcuts that switch window, open a tab or take a screenshot. | Off; logs when on |
| Printing off | Printing or saving the page. | Off; logs when on |
| Browser extensions | Browser extensions that read or answer the page. | Off; logs when on |
| Other apps closed | Another app or window on the shared screen: a messenger, a chatbot. | Off; logs when on |
| Leaving the tab | Leaving the quiz’s tab, however briefly, and for how long. | Off; logs when on |
| VPN | A connection through a VPN, which hides where a student is. | Off; logs when on |
| One device only | The same student on two devices at once. | Off; logs when on |
| Location logged | Where the connection came from, kept with the attempt. | Off; logs when on |
| Voice match | A voice sample at the start, beside every spoken answer, for you to compare. | Off; logs when on |
| Typing rhythm | The rhythm of the typing in each answer, kept for you to compare across the quiz. | Off; logs when on |
| Answers too fast or too slow | A question answered faster than it could have been read, or far slower than the rest. | Off; logs when on |
Why a stack, and not a session.
Proctoring grew up as a session: a person or a program watches a candidate for the length of an exam, the recording is reviewed afterwards, and the penalty is a conversation. It is expensive, it is the same for every exam whatever the stakes, and it treats every student as a suspect for the whole hour. Most quizzes are not that exam. A weekly check needs nothing but a noticed tab; a midterm needs a clock and full screen; a licensing paper needs more still. One setting for all of them is wrong for most of them.
EdProcto separates the measures. Each is switched on by itself, each with its own consequence: log it, warn, reduce the score, end the quiz, or flag the attempt for review. The browser enforces the ones it can see (the tab, full screen, copy and paste, the menu, printing, shortcuts) the moment they happen and records each with its time; the server applies the reductions when it marks, so a student cannot edit their own record. The camera, the microphone, the shared screen, a phone watching the room and the identity checks at the start run in the same way, and their photos and samples are kept with the attempt for you to read. The named levels are only presets over the same switches, and every one is off until the stakes need it.
The first defence is not a measure at all but the question. A shape with nothing to paste, a clip heard once, a click on a diagram, a spoken answer, a memory after a reveal, defeats the chatbot before anything at runtime has to. A page that carries no answer key defeats the second device. Shuffling per student defeats the shared sheet. Only after those do the heavier measures come in, and only when the stakes call for them. The student is told every measure that is on before they begin, and no flag becomes a penalty the instructor did not set.
Questions.
- Does EdProcto stop cheating?
- It makes cheating harder than knowing the material, which is what a test needs. The template takes away the text to paste; the security measures notice and record what happens; the log is yours to judge. No system stops everything, and none should decide a student’s fate on its own: every flag is a record for your review, never an automatic penalty unless you set one.
- Are students told what is on?
- Yes, before they begin. The pre-flight screen lists every measure that is on with its consequence, asks for consent, and states the house rules. A student who declines does not start.
- What happens on a violation?
- What you chose for that measure: log it, warn the student, reduce the score, end the quiz, or flag the attempt for your review. Each measure has its own consequence, and the default for every one is to log it.
- What is recorded?
- The events of the measures you switched on, each with its time: leaving the tab or full screen, a blocked copy, paste, menu, print or shortcut. Where you switch them on, the photos from the webcam, the shared screen and a phone watching the room, the photo and ID card from the start, a voice sample and the rhythm of the typing are kept too. All of it stays with the attempt for you to read.