Best Practices for Remote Proctoring

Online exam proctoring helps improve online teaching and learning for test takers and exam 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 test takers. Honorlock exams can be taken 24/7/365. If you are aware of a test taker's situation, you can provide the live 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 test takers in your course who use assistive technology, similar to above, indicate this in the accommodations section of your exam settings. Assistive technology gives each test taker 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 and organizational guidelines on proctoring. Your institution or organization may have certain guidelines for proctoring or feature usage. Please defer to your institution or organization on any limitations to consider with proctored exams. You can always contact your designated Success Manager on any guidelines you want to ensure you follow for your exam. Remember that the Proctor Settings and Student (or Test Taker) Guidelines are easily adjusted. For more information on what each setting means, use this article, How to Use Honorlock (Faculty and Exam Administrators), 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. 

Before your first proctored exam:

1. Go over this article, How to use Honorlock with your test takers. We encourage you to assign a practice exam using this, Create a Practice Exam in Canvas, so test takers 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 test takers can be found here, Honorlock FAQs for Test Takers. 
   
   
3. Respond to any student or test taker privacy concerns with an open dialogue. For more information on privacy resources, visit these resources, Exam Taker Privacy Statement or  Test Taker Privacy Resources. Additional information on what test takers can expect during a proctored exam can be found here, Preparing for a Proctored Exam & What to Expect. 
   
   
4. Familiarize yourself and test takers 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 test takers to understand how their exams will be proctored and what settings will be used. Honorlock advises using similar settings for every exam so test takers know what to expect and are familiar with the 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 test takers 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 test takers. 
   
   
7. Integrity goes beyond proctored exams. Creating a culture of integrity in your classroom or program can support positive decision-making during exams. Check out our blog article here, How to Create a Culture of Integrity, on some helpful tips to improve integrity. 
   
   
8. We offer ongoing educational webinars, 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 Webinar Recordings, or please reach out to your Success Manager and/or Support Chat.

On-going Best Practices :

1. Never share the access code or password for any of your proctored exams.
2. Stay updated 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 test takers to begin the assessment.
4. Check out this article, Profile Management and Best Practices, for information on managing your profile.
5. Our Support Team is available 24/7/365. Please let your test takers 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 test takers and exam administrators 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 exam administrators of courses.