Remote proctored exams: Integrity assurance in online education?

ABSTRACT

After almost a year of COVID-19, distance education mediated by digital tools prevails as an ideal way to study given the flexibility, ubiquity, and a variety of tools that make the process more acceptable. Remote proctored exams have become an important tool to ensure integrity and academic honesty in distance education. This mixed methods study aimed at understanding to what extent remote proctored exams impacted the learning process of online graduate students and their academic integrity (ethics), besides the technological factor involved. Results revealed a significant impact of remote proctored exams as regards personal academic honesty because they minimized the possibility of performing acts of dishonesty. Students attributed this to a sense of obligation and the feeling of being watched, rather than internal motivation or a personal reflective process. Lack of privacy and anxiety emerged as aspects of concern for students.

KEYWORDS:

• remote proctored exam (RPEs)
• mobile learning
• integrity assurance
• educational innovation
• higher education
• artificial intelligence

Acknowledgments

We would like to acknowledge the technical support of Writing Lab, Tec Labs, Tecnologico de Monterrey, Mexico, in the production of this work.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was declared by the authors.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Sandra Gudiño Paredes

Sandra Gudiño Paredes is an assistant professor in the School of humanities and Education at Tecnologico de Monterrey University. She holds a master’s degree in technological education and a doctorate in philosophy in educational innovation. Her main work activities are teaching and researching about educational innovation and comparative education.

Felipe de Jesús Jasso Peña

Felipe de Jesús Jasso Peña is an academic librarian at Tecnologico de Monterrey University. His main work activities are teaching and library work, with an interest in the design of teaching and learning strategies that allow the integration of meta-skills in information (metaliteracy) in higher education.

Juana María de La Fuente Alcazar

Juana María de La Fuente Alcazar is the coordinator of the Master in Education program at Tecnologico de Monterrey University. Her main work activities are teaching and program management.