Online education has spiked during the past few years greatly due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. For instance, a recent study revealed that many students preferred a combination of online platforms and traditional face-to-face education.

Distance learning certainly offers significant convenience as pupils can study from home as a convenient way students can further enhance their intelligence and well-being.

Additionally, functionalities like remote wireless network security can offer bolstered internet connections. Some students, meanwhile, have voiced concerns that digital monitoring could potentially become an invasion of privacy.

COVID, Classrooms, and Concerns

Due to health concerns from the coronavirus outbreak, many educational institutions have decided to conduct online proctored exams. This situation has caused unease in some students.

Their feedback includes the required use of webcams in the new normal, which has become a source of anxiety.

On the other hand, many online instructors argue that proctored exams provide more convenience. They’re able to monitor thousands of students taking a single online exam.

The novel coronavirus and the Delta variant have indirectly boosted the demand for educational services industries. Research indicates that the global e-learning market is projected to skyrocket in the next few years.

This growth includes global spending in sectors like artificial intelligence (AI) educational technology.

Key Features of Online Proctoring Systems

Let’s look at some of the leading functionalities required to ease students’ concerns about privacy and security when taking online proctored exams.

Transparent Monitoring

Web-based monitoring systems must provide transparency through the proctored tests. One of the most crucial issues is the monitoring platform the company uses.

Complete transparency must take place during the test session. This process can help provide students with peace of mind that third parties cannot access the streaming video.

Authorised Data Collection and Usage

Online proctoring companies must use student data responsibly. These organisations should exclusively use collected data for purposes that students, parents, and educational institutions have authorised.

Companies must protect students’ privacy. Data breaches often result from unscrupulous companies sharing personal data with third parties without a green light from clients.

Unauthorised access, usage, sharing, or selling of student data can compromise the students’ privacy.

You should only consider online proctoring companies that have a strict privacy policy. This guideline should state the company’s standard operating procedures about security issues.

In recent years, the biggest sources of identity theft have included instances of companies selling clients’ data to advertisers. In terms of privacy, companies must avoid sharing students’ data without their consent.

Stable Connection

You should also look for online proctoring systems that won’t result in frequent crashes. Students can then focus on the test itself and not worry about technical issues arising when they’re in the middle of tests, like midterms or final exams.

You should look for system features that can handle unstable WiFi connections. A wide range of factors can affect wireless connectivity, such as where you live.

Issues like weak WiFi hotspot signals shouldn’t jeopardise your child’s or student’s test-taking.

Impeccable Identity Verification

Identification verification remains one of the most critical features required for seamless online education. It’s especially crucial due to the increase in identity theft and account takeovers in recent years.

A 2021 NortonLifeLock survey revealed that 45% of adults in India experienced identification risks in 2020. This finding made identity theft the top cyber security risk in the country.

Continuous identity verification is a practical and reliable way for people to prove who they claim they are. This network security feature can help prevent security breaches that involve student records and other personal data.

The ID verification process ought to be quick and easy for students to avoid hassles when studying online. Fraud-prevention systems are key components of network security to help stop identity theft.

These verification systems include powerful features that go beyond traditional authentication methods. You should look for online proctoring systems with streamlined identity verification.

It’s also critical for online proctoring companies to request the student’s consent before requiring ID verification to help maintain student privacy.

Finally, another key feature of the ID verification process is that it should be conducted quickly. For example, some online proctoring companies conduct ID verification within one minute, which is another way to reduce test anxiety.

Convenient Onboarding

Taking tests can be pretty stressful, whether it’s in a physical or virtual classroom. The onboarding process for online proctoring services must be as smooth as possible for students.

For example, convenient web-based proctoring systems don’t require students to use particular browsers or plugins. It can be a hassle to download new browsers and plugins before taking a test.

It would also help if you looked for proctoring systems that won’t cause conflicts with existing plugins.

For convenience, you should seek web-based proctoring companies that don’t require live proctors. This feature eliminates the hassles of wait times so that students can take their tests anytime and anywhere.

Online proctoring represents the future of education in the digital age. While they provide convenience and flexibility, online proctoring companies must maintain students’ privacy and security.

Game-changing test-monitoring companies can help schools and other institutions usher in virtual learning as the new normal, even post-pandemic. Test anxiety will always be a thing. It should, nonetheless, never result from the technology used to facilitate proctored examinations.