1. They want to cheat and invigilation software makes it much more difficult for them to achieve without being detected. These students might have to roll up heir sleeves and start studying hard as it seems like invigilation software is growing in popularity amongst large educational institutes as a way to ensure academic integrity in their online assessments.
2. They feel anxious about being incorrectly accused of cheating. This is a legitimate worry for students but remote proctoring technology is carefully developed to only flag behaviours that indicate potential cheating. If students follow their institutes instructions, set up their exam environment as instructed and simply take their exam as intended there should be no problems. Also, lecturers are intelligent people and if they review a recording and see that a student was incorrectly flagged as cheating e.g. the glare on your glasses obscured eye movement then they will recognise the error and disregard the flagging.
3. They think being recorded is invasive. This is understandable as it does feel strange being filmed by an unknown source in your home/office but there is no one actually watching you in real time. Your recording will only be reviewed or scrutinised if your teacher or lecturer believes academic misconduct has occurred. If there is no reason to think that a student cheated e.g. no or low flagged behaviours then recordings are often not even reviewed. Therefore, if you don’t cheat then remote invigilation can in fact be less invasive than real life invigilation where a real person is watching your every move in an exam hall.
4. They have security concerns. Here at IRIS Invigilation we have stringent security protocols that we follow, IRIS invigilation values the privacy of its users and is committed to handling student data responsibly and securely. IRIS will never sell any collected data to external parties. All recordings and personal information are solely used for invigilation purposes. All staff and contractors working under IRIS invigilation must comply with Australia’s Privacy Act and this policy. You can read our full privacy policy for more information.
5. They want their data protected. The privacy and protection of students and their personal information is paramount. IRIS ensures that data security, protection laws, privacy legislation and regulation are priority. IRIS uses AWS Cloud Security to protect student data and host all data in Sydney, Australia. IRIS never shares data with third parties. The only people who have access to your data are the IRIS technical team and your lecturers.
6. They have bad internet at home and are worried this will affect their exam result. Some students live in countries where the internet is unreliable and network errors are a common occurrence. Luckily IRIS has been designed so if a student’s computer crashes or internet goes down during an exam, then the file will try to upload to the internet once a connection has been detected again. If the computer entirely crashes, then the user will have to manually upload the outstanding files via the manual upload feature in IRIS once their internet is working again.
7. They don’t have an ideal IRIS environment. Students need a quiet, private, well-lit room to take their online exam. Some students don’t have a computer at home and use their institutes in a group environment. Some students live in a large household/living arrangement and cannot find a quiet place to take their exam. If an unforeseen incident occurs while you are taking your test, such as a person entering the room, please contact your unit coordinator with details explaining the event. Students should view taking assessments with IRIS in the same manner as they would taking an invigilated assessment on campus.
8. The software is too difficult to set up. The IRIS team have worked hard to make the downloading of IRIS as easy as possible for students. All they need to do is visit the Microsoft Edge or Google Chrome store and download the IRIS extension. That’s ALL you have to do. You can’t start using IRIS until your institute send you your LMS assessment link. When you click on the assessment link IRIS will automatically pop up, follow the prompts, start invigilation and that’s it. If you run into technical problems, re-read your instructions, log out/log in again, or uninstall and reinstall the plugin. Or contact your institutions help desk. Now take your test, once you “finalise and submit” IRIS will pop up again and ask you to wait until your recording has uploaded to IRIS. Then IRIS will automatically shut down, please don’t shut it down before it has finished. That’s it you are done. If you want to delete the extension at this point you can, just make sure you have finalised your recordings first or you will lose data.
9. They worry they are being watched after their exam. Can IRIS record what I do on my computer when I’m not taking an exam? No, IRIS will only invigilate a student during their exam. The permissions they agree to are only for the duration of the exam.
10. They hate it so much they refuse to use it. If a student is taking a unit that requires the use of IRIS, they will need to use the system to access their online tests. There is a password that is auto-populated by IRIS, which will allow them to access their test in their learning management system. If they do not set IRIS up, they will not be invigilated. If they complete any assessment without the compulsory IRIS recording, they could receive a zero for the assessment.