Proctoring is intended to prevent fraud during remote exams. But this TikTok clip appears to show how easily the surveillance technology can be bypassed.

Tiktokvideo-proctoring-exam-cheating

In a video shared on TikTok, a Canadian student shows how you can cheat during a remote exam without being caught out by the proctoring software. Still, ProctorExam – the company that handles online proctoring on EUR’s behalf – has a few tricks up its sleeve to discourage this kind of fraud.

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The clip was recorded by a Canadian student studying in Guelph, an hour’s drive from Toronto. It was subsequently published on the studenten.memes Instagram account. The software used in this video is different to ProctorExam, the service used at EUR. Still, it basically works on the same lines: students are filmed while sitting the exam and are unable to leave the browser environment on their computer.

In the clip, the Canadian student shows how he is able to hoodwink the surveillance software with the aid of a telephone, a video cable, a TV and a few clever housemates. The cable duplicates his screen on a nearby television set, allowing his housemates to read the questions along with him. They google the answers or look them up in the course books, and send them to the student via a chat app. He has positioned his mobile against the right-hand corner of his laptop screen, meaning it’s out of sight of the webcam. This allows the student to secretly copy the answers from his incoming messages.