I felt this. My university has been using Respondus LockDown with a webcam to proctor many exams and it feels like a violation of my privacy to have to use that software. Not only does it feel wrong to have such an adversarial application on my personal computer, but it has also caused my laptop to the kernel; I found out I could check out laptops that I now use to take exams.

I feel significantly more stressed while taking an exam with a webcam. I don’t cheat—I don’t _need_ to cheat, and yet still feel more stressed on these exams because of how many things can go wrong. When taking math-heavy exams I would frequently get a warning from the software that my face was not in view… because I was working on my paper.

I think professors caught on. Using LockDown seemed to fall out of style somewhat for my second semester. In classes where there was no monitoring software, exams felt easier just being allowed to take them in a comfortable environment. I don’t have to think about keeping my eyes 100% on the screen the whole time and I don’t have to worry about my laptop crashing or the internet going out—I can tether if I need to. Being able to listen to music during exams was just a cherry on top.