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How Honorlock Monitors Secondary Devices

The most common incidents of academic dishonesty today relate to exam takers using a secondary device such as a phone, tablet, or laptop to search test questions and answers. There are multiple ways Honorlock is able to detect and discourage the use of secondary devices. 

Multi-Device Detection was developed to detect secondary devices. 

Here’s what happens when an exam taker does a search for a test question on a secondary device:

  • Honorlock will send an audible sound (we call it an audio watermark) through the secondary device that will be picked up through a proximity sensor through the exam taker’s microphone on the exam computer. This is an indicator that the exam taker is on a website they shouldn’t be on.
  • When this happens in production Honorlock will know what device the exam taker is using, what browser they are on, and what website they are attempting to obtain information from.
  • Honorlock captures a screen recording of the secondary device and the incident is available for review on the Honorlock dashboard.

We Flag when Exam Takers Access Cheating Sites with their Phones

Comments generated by an Honorlock proctor as part of a Live Pop-In incident are also available in real time. Videos are time-stamped to match the exam session. When a proctor observes suspected academic violations, they add a “violation” to prioritize the session for exam administrator review. 

Voice Detection

Honorlock creates a written transcript whenever a voice is detected. With our voice-detection technology, Honorlock creates a high-priority flag whenever words such as “Siri,” “Alexa,” “Cortana,” or “Google” are heard as well as any word from a dynamic list of words or phrases such as “help me,” “what’s the answer,” “cheat,” “question,” “answer,” and “copy.”

Honorlock Blocks ChatGPT Use

Honorlock has recently developed a solution aimed at identifying the use of Chrome extensions driven by AI technology to violate exam guidelines. Honorlock is now logging installed and active extensions at the start of an exam session. At the start of an exam, the exam taker will be notified to disable any unauthorized extensions. This will block/disable extensions before an exam taker can begin their assessment.