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Protect student privacy: ban eproctoring

baneproctoring.com

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Re: Protect student privacy: ban eproctoring

#311

Recent gatech OMSCS graduate here. I fail to recognize any real issue with proctoring. I have used proctortrack and honorlock. * proctoring software can be installed before an exam and uninstalled afterwards. It doesn’t need to stay on your pc/browser, and its activation is very obvious. I have no info about permanent security issues caused by such software. * what proctoring does is mostly recording video and audio…

> proctoring software can be installed before an exam and uninstalled afterwards. It doesn’t need to stay on your pc/browser, and its activation is very obvious. I have no info about permanent security issues caused by such software. If it installs drivers, I have news for you...

It doesn’t. At least proctortrack and honorlock Don’t.

Btw: implementation details. It doesn’t invalidate all eproctoring solutions.

Re: Protect student privacy: ban eproctoring

#312

Recent gatech OMSCS graduate here. I fail to recognize any real issue with proctoring. I have used proctortrack and honorlock. * proctoring software can be installed before an exam and uninstalled afterwards. It doesn’t need to stay on your pc/browser, and its activation is very obvious. I have no info about permanent security issues caused by such software. * what proctoring does is mostly recording video and audio…

> proctoring software can be installed before an exam and uninstalled afterwards. It doesn’t need to stay on your pc/browser, and its activation is very obvious. I have no info about permanent security issues caused by such software. The permanent security issue is that violating a security assertion (eg running an untrusted program) on your machine means you can never trust that machine until it gets completely wipe…

With browser-based proctoring you are free to launch a live linux distro.

The extension will just share your screen, use your camera and mic.

Re: Protect student privacy: ban eproctoring

#313

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> * proctoring software can be installed before an exam and uninstalled afterwards. It doesn’t need to stay on your pc/browser, and its activation is very obvious. I have no info about permanent security issues caused by such software. I wouldn't trust a computer that had spyware installed on it without a full system wipe.

Are there any actual accounts of security incidents related to such software?

Spyware created by a corporation to spy on customers? That was what the Sony rootkit scandal was about: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sony_BMG_copy_protection_rootk...

> Soon after Russinovich's first post, there were several trojans and worms exploiting XCP's security holes.

Re: Protect student privacy: ban eproctoring

#314
post #66

I was recently sponsored by my employer to do a professional certification which involved an online e-proctored exam. I was asked to install the e-proctoring software on my personal computer, because corporate security policy does not allow unvetted 3rd party software onto company devices. I told my employer that's my policy too, and that I would need to be supplied with a separate laptop if they wanted me to take th…

I think most people couldn't care less about installing software on their PC. You can always dual boot and create a partition for proctored exams and wipe it (which isn't 100% the same but pretty close)

The issue is the fact that I have my camera on and there are people who I do not know who can see me and my room. I don't know how this information is being stored and who is seeing it.

Re: Protect student privacy: ban eproctoring

#315

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's a grey area. In india, the engineering curriculum includes lot of subjects that are not useful for the students but only there because some fat belly officer thought it would be "Interdisciplinary". Can you imagine teaching biology as a subject for engineers? waste of money and not what we have come to learn, or interested in. But colleges in India do that. Cheating in such subjects is fair.

It’s not a grey area, it devalues the degree for everyone and betrays you as a fundamentally dishonest and low value person.

Those subjects are not there for any meaningful purpose. Imagine having a CS degree program and teaching chemistry, physics, biology and a bunch of even lesser subjects is blatant and ignorant waste of students' money.

Re: Protect student privacy: ban eproctoring

#316

Imagine a business that sells deliverable medical testing kits. This business is the best at what they do; they sell more kits than any other organization, they cost less, they're delivered faster, and are superior in any way, shape, KPI, or form imaginable to traditional alternatives. The only issue being that each kit is in fact a bloodletting kit, and their intended use is to inform you which of your four humours…

I've been saying this for years, but academia is filled with stupid administrators who are incapable of evolving the state of teaching / learning because their salary depends on having administrative bloat.

Re: Protect student privacy: ban eproctoring

#317
post #165

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I thought of this when posting. Honestly, universities are the educational equivalent of industrial farming. We need a rethink. When I was in university (some time ago!), it was always the large courses that were easiest to game. They were also generally the subjects I was least interested in. My small comp sci courses were amazing in contrast. Easily worth the cost of admission. I think the education system would be…

Fewer courses that are also smaller? Wouldn't that mean the number of students has to go way down? Paying the same price seems unlikely.

yes, the number of students has to go down, very few people want to take these 400 person classes, these classes are only taken by people because some random department needs funding, so they require people to take classes they don't need.

Re: Protect student privacy: ban eproctoring

#318

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Are there any actual accounts of security incidents related to such software?

Spyware created by a corporation to spy on customers? That was what the Sony rootkit scandal was about: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sony_BMG_copy_protection_rootk... > Soon after Russinovich's first post, there were several trojans and worms exploiting XCP's security holes.

No. Security incidents related to eproctoring software that was willingly installed.

Re: Protect student privacy: ban eproctoring

#319

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My AP calculus teacher allowed us to use calculators on our tests. Why? Because he knew exactly how to design questions such that the calculator would switch from exact to approximation mode. So you could enter any problem on the test into the calculator, and all it would spit out is a useless answer with as many decimal places as it could handle. Of course the calculator worked fine on every homework question. But y…

I don't follow. Do you mean to say that the calculator would produce .333333333 repeating but the student was expected to write 1/3 ?

Yes, except not obvious and usually involving irrationals, so good luck figuring it out.

Re: Protect student privacy: ban eproctoring

#320
post #209

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Calculators are generally useless in Calculus. Or at least they should be. Calculus is a process, and normally you are graded on that process, not on the answer. We were allowed calculators too, but the problems were designed that anyone even mildly good at mental math didn't need them. In theory you could teach all of calculus without ever even using numbers (perhaps except 0).

It's been a while since I took calculus, but I seem to remember that a TI-89 calculator could show its steps when solving a problem.

Yep. We all had either TI-89 or -92. I used it to check myself after doing practice problems.
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