I think online protocring is a terrible idea. It is invasive, discrimatory, and doesn't work. It reveals things about a students living conditions they might reasonably want to remain hidden. It relies on having access to a device with a functioning web cam, and good enought internet for it to work properly. As the end of all that, a webcam can't capture you typing on your phone on your lap anyway. Or having someone stood behind your screen helping you.

In fact, I don't really like the idea of synchronous remote exams. It is really not fair to ask some students to sit an important, stressful, multi-hour exam in the middle of the night. Not does it really work for students who might share a laptop with another hosuehold member who needs it for their job, or has unreliable internet.

I think the simple fact of the matter is that it is not possible to prevent cheating while assessment has to be online, other than through the use of one-to-one oral exams and many of the things people are despirately trying just make life harder and less fair for everyone without actaully preventing cheating.

If your questions are theory based, then surely you can tell if a student is cheating, becuase in order to paraphrase another student sufficiently for you to not pick it up, they would have to understand what they were paraphrasing?

I think online proctoring is a terrible idea. It is invasive, discrimatory, and doesn't work. It reveals things about a students living conditions they might reasonably want to remain hidden. It relies on having access to a device with a functioning web cam, and good enought internet for it to work properly. As the end of all that, a webcam can't capture you typing on your phone on your lap anyway. Or having someone stood behind your screen helping you.

In fact, I don't really like the idea of synchronous remote exams. It is really not fair to ask some students to sit an important, stressful, multi-hour exam in the middle of the night. Not does it really work for students who might share a laptop with another hosuehold member who needs it for their job, or has unreliable internet.

I think the simple fact of the matter is that it is not possible to prevent cheating while assessment has to be online, other than through the use of one-to-one oral exams and many of the things people are despirately trying just make life harder and less fair for everyone without actaully preventing cheating.

If your questions are theory based, then surely you can tell if a student is cheating, becuase in order to paraphrase another student sufficiently for you to not pick it up, they would have to understand what they were paraphrasing?