Not by Education Alone. Where else can proctoring be used?
Despite the stereotype, proctoring technologies are not sought after solely by educational institutions running exams. Online Proctoring technologies can also be successfully applied in other areas, and here are some examples.
Pre-Employment Testing
When a candidate is applying for a position that requires special knowledge and qualification, they may be offered a skill test. For example, accountants are some of the most tested in interviews. Other financial specialists, as well as lawyers, translators, IT developers, engineers, etc., are often assessed as well.
Nowadays, employers are increasingly using computers for skill assessment. Generally, it is relatively easy to monitor just one person. But what if we need to conduct mass testing for a large company when individual employees have a lot of opportunities to cheat? The solution is proctoring systems able to determine exactly how honest a candidate is during the test. Any prohibited activity can be tracked by a cyber proctor and a human supervisor. Highly sensitive technology reduces the human factor, and the professional reveals minor violations that AI cannot catch.
As a rule, the HR department analyzes the candidates’ results with the highest scores, and proctoring technology can reveal if they really passed the tests on their own. Based on this information, HR decides who should be invited for an individual interview.
Training and validation of employees
The responsible departments also need to check the staff’s knowledge and competencies during training and skills upgrading. For instance, in manufacturing and critical infrastructure sectors, such as power plants, including nuclear ones, transport, construction, etc., employees must pass exams regularly to be admitted to work. In these areas, lack of qualification can lead to enormous negative consequences and even innocent victims.
In some cases, a specialist cannot receive a work permit without a special license. For example, to work as a psychologist in the US, apart from a Bachelor or Master’s degree one also needs to have a year or two of assistant practice and to pass an exam.
Examus proctoring technologies can help determine the employees’ competency with exams, making cheating impossible. With proctoring, companies can be sure that they are hiring candidates who honestly passed all certification tests and have required competency and skills. Thus, as a result of strict but fair selection, the world receives only qualified specialists.
Cybersport
In esports where big money is riding on, it is essential to ensure that the victory is fair. The whole tournament reputation depends on it. If the protocol says that the player must go through all the tasks from start to finish on his own, this must be controlled. It would be a challenge without a proctoring system since, after the start, the participant can pass the joystick to a more experienced player and get an illicit advantage. Or do the same to have rest and reduce tension while the other participants have to stay focused for several hours in a row.
Examus proctoring system can solve this problem. As in the exam, before the competition starts, the personality of the participants is identified. Throughout the game, players are controlled not only by a cyber proctor based on AI technologies but also by a person who monitors a cyber proctor performance. Together they track whether the same players are in the webcam field of view and any strangers or voices in the room.
New products presentation
Proctoring can also be used during new product presentations. For example, movie studios usually do previews for focus groups before film distribution. Usually, after the preview, they receive an evaluation from the participants but have no information about their unconscious reaction. Using AI and computer vision, Examus proctoring systems can analyze the participants’ level of involvement from their facial expressions, gaze direction, how often they get distracted and look away or at their smartphones. The same method can be used at presentations of other products such as commercials of different companies (from consumer goods to real estate agencies), computer games, technical devices, etc.
Thus, proctoring can be used in education and in many other spheres of our life. There is no doubt that over time the number of areas involving AI monitoring technologies will only increase.
