With a steadily increasing number of online courses, CAT has been making changes to the way high-stakes exams are proctored at a distance balancing the students’ convenience with a need for exam security and integrity.
Playing It Safe at a Distance: Proctored Distance Learning Exams
The Assessment and Testing is located in University Center Building C, Suite 1200.The impact of this increase is felt across the board: Departments put greater emphasis on developing strategies for teaching online and FSU resources and infrastructure are being expanded to meet increasing needs for technical support. Office of Distance Learning offers increased telephone and electronic trouble-ticket support and is posting timely information on the Blackboard Support tab.
One major challenge of online education is ensuring its academic integrity. The University must ensure that all work for an online course is actually done by the student who is enrolled, including assignments and exams. High-stakes exams such as midterms and finals that typically account for 20% or more of the final grade are especially critical in this context. In order to ensure the security and integrity of these critical exams, instructors of online courses collaborate with the Assessment and Testing to have their high-stakes distance learning exams proctored in professional testing centers. In order to be able to manage an increasing number of proctored distance learning exams, CAT has been implementing electronic solutions that make the process more efficient and reduce errors and delays.
Assessment and Testing has a distance exam proctoring qualification process to ensure that all available proctors meet the technical and procedural requirements to serve the needs of FSU distance students. For details, please see our Policy and Procedures for Approving Proctors.
Electronic Exam FormatsIn the past, paper versions of exams were sent to the proctoring sites via courier services and returned to CAT for distribution to the instructors. This process was not only costly and resource intensive, but was also error prone and delayed the timely return of exams.
Two changes were made over the past semesters to improve this process:
CAT recently implemented an online form that students use to indicate their proctor selection. This reduces the possibility of errors and speeds up the process.
For more information about proctored distance learning exams, please see Proctored Exams for Distance Learning Courses on this web site. For questions, please contact Anna Ledbetter (645-8747).
| Upcoming Important Deadlines | Date |
| Online course evaluation reminders are sent out to students | Wednesday, 4-20-11 |
| Last day to administrate paper-based course evaluations | Friday, 4-22-11 |
| Last day for students to submit online course evaluations | Friday, 4-22-11 |
| Deadline for returning completed paper-based course evaluation forms | Friday, 5-06-11 |
| Administrators and instructors may access course evaluation individual reports and summary reports online | Friday, 5-13-11 |
| Public may access SUSSAI reports and university-wide summary reports online | Friday, 5-13-11 |