According to the article, not all of the nearly 100 students involved were attempting to cheat, as some photos depicted students posing with test booklets, but administrators will still concerned about the breach.

“Most of the images discovered so far contained only students posing with a closed test booklet, blank answer documents or answer documents with a message written on them,” the state Education Department said in a release quoted by the L.A. Times. However, some images “appeared to contain test questions or completed answer documents” from both the annual achievement tests and the state’s high school exit exam, which is required for graduation.

Modern cell phones with Internet connectivity pose an interesting challenge to educators due to their compact size and advanced data capabilities.

At ProctorU, it is company policy that exam candidates turn off and remove cell phones from their work area before beginning a test. Online proctors also require test-takers show them their work space by panning their webcam around the room 360 degrees and showing all desk surfaces. During the exam proctors watch for eye and body movement consistent with looking down at a cell phone or other materials in order to ensure the academic integrity of the exam. Proctors can also prevent students from taking screen shots of the exam by monitoring the test-taker’s computer activity. For more information on how online proctoring works, visit our website.

The president’s policy aims to reduce the cost of college tuition by tying it to three main factors:

• Setting a responsible tuition policy
• Providing good value to students
• Enrolling and graduating large numbers of low-income students

While this plan will likely be debated and somewhat marginalized as a campaign tool, we at ProctorU always welcomes an initiative that aims to make higher education more accessible.

Kassner will take part in a panel discussion entitled “Harnessing Technology to Protect Institutional Integrity.”  The forum, called Pirates and Pretenders, will focus on financial aid fraud and student verification.

ProctorU specializes in online proctoring and identity authentication. Each and every time a test-taker shows up for an exam, they must pass the tech firm’s three-step authentication process. Below is a brief description of how it works.

“While we acknowledge the benefits of our modern world in February, let’s not let the passion for digital learning pass with the month. Use this month as a springboard for innovation. Today’s students are curious, and eager to learn. Their desire, coupled with today’s technology, equals immeasurable learning opportunities,” Dr. Tommy Bice, Alabama’s superintendent of education said in a press release.

Wikipedia will stage an online protest to a proposed anti-piracy law by shutting down the English version of its site for 24 hours and Google’s homepage will include a link declaring its opposition. The moves are in opposition to the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA), which threatens eCommerce and free speech on the Internet. ProctorU also opposes this legislation, for multiple reasons listed on a previous post. Most importantly, ProctorU management believes SOPA will unfairly censor legitimate websites and could be used to invade individual privacy.

Download the free study from The Sloan Consortium, here.

Services like ProctorU, which promotes academic integrity in online education through proctored testing, helps increase the value and credibility of online education by making it more difficult to cheat on exams. For more information about academic integrity, please watch our webinar from 2011, here.