Best Practices for Remote Proctoring

5 min. readlast update: 10.17.2023

Online exam proctoring helps improve online teaching and learning for exam takers and administrators. Below is an outline of best practices we recommend following when deciding when and how to use remote proctoring services. 

Is proctoring right for your course?

  1. Be mindful of the variety of living situations of your students. Honorlock exams can be taken 24/7/365. If you are aware of a student’s situation, you can provide the live test proctor with accommodation instructions that allow other people to be in the room and to expect voices and sound. For more information on how to provide accommodations, visit our KnowledgeBase article, Accommodations with Honorlock
  2. If you have students in your course who use assistive technology, similar to above, indicate this in the accommodations section of your exam settings. Assistive technology gives each student a fair opportunity to engage with all software and hardware in the course. Honorlock’s online proctoring software is innovative and fully ADA accessible and compliant with Section 508 of the Americans with Disabilities Act. 
  3. We recommend checking institutional guidelines on proctoring. Your institution may have certain guidelines for proctoring or feature usage. Please defer to your institution on any limitations to take into consideration with your proctored exams. You can always reach out to your designated Customer Success Manager (CSM) on any guidelines you want to ensure you follow for your exam. Keep in mind the Proctor Settings and Student Guidelines are tailorable and easily adjusted. For more information on what each setting means, use this article How to Use Honorlock (Facult) to access the respective article for your LMS.
  4. Ensure your third party exams integrate with Honorlock. We support multiple third party platforms, for more information on how to set up your third party exam, visit this article Create a Third Party Exam

Prior to your first proctored exam:

  1. Go over this article, How to use Honorlock with your students. We encourage you to assign a practice exam using this, Create a Practice Exam in Canvas, so students can gain familiarity with Honorlock’s LTI. Note: you can set-up the practice exams to mirror the same settings that will be utilized on the actual assessment.
  2. Include information about Honorlock in your syllabus. Recommended verbiage can be found here, Honorlock Suggested Syllabus Verbiage. Additional information about Honorlock for students can be found here, Honorlock Student FAQ. 
  3. Respond to any student privacy concerns with an open dialogue in your course prior to the start of the semester/quarter. For more information on student privacy resources, visit this resource, Student Privacy Resources. Additional information on what students can expect during a proctored exam can be found here, Preparing for a Proctored Exam & What to Expect. 
  4. Familiarize yourself and students with what a room scan is here at, Completing a Room Scan Using Honorlock, and what they can expect from it. 
  5. It’s important for students to understand how their exams will be proctored and what settings will be used. Honorlock advises using similar settings for every exam so students know what to expect and are familiar with functionality. We also recommend setting up your practice exam to mimic the same settings throughout the semester/quarter. An example of Standard Exam Guidelines language can be found here at, Honorlock Standard Exam Guidelines.
  6. Let students know in advance what in-exam flags are and the purpose of Honorlock’s flagging. We recommend sharing this KnowledgeBase here, In-Exam Flags, with your students. 
  7. Academic integrity goes beyond proctored exams. Creating a culture of academic integrity in your classroom can support positive decision making during exams. Check out our blog article here, How to Create a Culture of Academic Integrity , on some helpful tips to improve the academic integrity within your classroom. 
  8. We have ongoing educational webinars available every semester, including one for every supported LMS, be sure to register using this, Upcoming Honorlock Webinars. If you do not find what you are looking for, please take a look at our library of previously recorded webinars found here, Recent Faculty Webinar Recordings, or please reach out to your CSM and/or Support Chat.

On-going Best Practices :

  1. Never share the access code or password for any of your proctored exams.
  2. Stay up to date with the latest release updates and information found here, Honorlock Release Notes.
  3. Do not add emojis to your exam name, special characters are not supported and will not allow students to begin the assessment.
  4. Check out this article, Profile Management and Best Practices, for information on how to manage your profile.
  5. Our Support Team is available 24/7/365. Please let your students know that if they face any technical issues, they can reach out to our Support Team at any time of day.  

Honorlock works hard to ensure students and faculty have a positive learning experience with our LTI. We fully support and believe the best determiners of whether or not online proctoring is best for a course is up to the institution and faculty of courses.  

Was this article helpful?