(lockdown browser and monitor)
In face to face courses, you are able to proctor your exams in person. In online courses, this is not an option. For milestone exams (chapter tests, mid-terms, and finals), you may choose to require that your students take the exam in a testing center (like the one here on campus or some other institution’s testing center). Other instructors use third-party proctoring services (like ProctorU, where students pay to have an exam proctored remotely in real time). Another option is to use Respondus tools when deploying an exam, which is available at no additional cost. Respondus Lockdown Browser was a powerful tool in the days when we only had one computer at home. Alone, it prevents the user from opening up other browsers or tabs to search for answers on the Internet. Nowadays, phones, tablets, and laptops are pervasive, rendering this tool somewhat useless on its own. However, when used in conjunction with Respondus Monitor, once the student launches an exam, s/he will be photographed, asked to hold up an ID, asked to film the testing environment, and snapshots are taken intermittently of their activity during the exam. Monitor documents the test taking experience and automatically flags suspicious activity. But unlike with some live, human proctoring options, you will need to review these recordings yourself (after the fact) to make the case for cheating.
Of course, you will want to list a built-in or external webcam as a required course item (just like a textbook or other course materials) should you decide to use Monitor in your online courses. What’s more, since your students already have webcams (because they are required in your course), you may also want to have them do other things with their camera (use them in Zoom meetings, record and share presentations, etc.). In general, it is a best practice to have a very diversified gradebook so that no one grade item impacts the course grade too heavily. However, if you must use high-stakes tests in your courses, try not to use publisher-provided test banks, as those are often freely available to students online (not to mention they are not written in your own voice and, therefore, very unsettling to the learner). Limit your general testing window to only a few days (three days, for example), and limit the allowed duration of your tests. Configure your tests in Blackboard to pull from a pool of questions, and randomize the questions, answers, and sections of the exam so that no two instances of the test are exactly the same. Write questions that test for higher-order thinking (as opposed to memorization), and only use plausible detractors.