Online universities have become commonplace as students seek handy, flexible learning methods. They are especially popular among nontraditional college students, like new dads and moms who need to take classes at their tempo or complete-time experts who need to take nighttime guides to improve their careers. Western Governors University (WGU), a nonprofit online university based in Salt Lake City, was established in 1997 by 19 governors of western U.S. States to create a professional team of workers. The college now serves folks who need to take online classes, grading them with a competency-based gadget that requires them to illustrate they’ve discovered the desired substances.
But how do educators make sure students aren’t dishonest about their ways to ranges if all classes and assessments are conducted remotely? Maureen O’Brien, WGU’s director of evaluation administration, recently advised PYMNTS on how the college verifies its students and how it balances the need for authentication readily available.
Trust, But Verify
One of the most important forms of education-associated fraud is as simple as it’s miles normal: college students send someone else to take exams for them. This fraud played a large role in this year’s publicized university admission scandal. Wealthy parents took advantage of lax authentication procedures and paid surrogates as much as $75,000 to take college admission tests for their children. This hassle is exacerbated in internet surroundings, in which personnel cannot physically check identity techniques.
WGU utilizes several methods to make sure check-takers are who they say they are.
“To get into the tr”ing out, they log in with their sign-on credentials, [including] their unique consumer ID and password,” O’Brien said. “Th” O’Brien expos” a central authority-issued photo ID [to a proctor on a webcam], and the name has to match the name within the scholar account.”
Students can, without problems, offer those statistics to accomplices; however, verification measures are also necessary. WGU used to depend upon keystroke biometrics, which verifies users by studying typing patterns and pass-referencing them with college students’ amassed rstudents”Brien stated thatO’Brienpplication had many flaws and did not suit the university’s wishesuniversity’sin its termination. “We got a lot of fa”se positives, as it turned out humans typing once they’re now not carthey’reexhibit] different behavior from after they’re burdened,” they’re.
The university began utilizing a webcam-primarily based system in 2015. WGU students have been issued an external webcam that they must apply in preference to their laptops’ built-in laptops. The cameras meet certain dimensions and specifications, enabling proctors to screen test-takers, affirm their identities, and ensure they’re not cheatinthey’reagree that the “external webcam gives us the best view of the trying-out environment,” O’Brien stated. “”iO’Briene proctor”greets the pupil. Then, they do a 360-diploma test of the surroundings, so the scholars can’t have notes planted at the wall.”
Digicam’s audio is” Digicam’srtant in the prevention of cheating. Proctors can pay attention to what’s happening in the test-taker’s surroundings and ensure that the student doesn’t have an off-doesn’t accomplice telling them the solutions. “The proctor can li”ten to what’s happening in what she room,” O’Brien said. “If, “O’Brien says, “there’s or something, the proctor can usually halt the examination and inquire with the student or do a further test.”
Stress-Free Studi”s
Authentication precautions like those may also lead to greater secure checks, but they can also make already stressful conditions even more taxing. “We don’t need it to” bedon’tusive or traumatic,” O’Brien said. “We”rO’Briens … [ma”We’re certain that it’s a continuing ait’sirst-class revel for the students. As exceptional as it could be, anyway, because they’re certainly they’re even as they’re examithey’reGU’s Take a Brea” WGU’sam, which earned a Nonprofit Innovation Award from the U.S. Distance Learning Association, reduces pressure on students by allowing them to take one 10-minute smash each hour without compromising security.
Students who want a spoil click a button that alerts the proctor, which blocks entry to the examination for the following 10 minutes and stops them from having access to questions they already spoke back or skipped. “You can’t burst off,” tacan’twreck, have a look at, go returned and answer a question,” O’Brien defined. [O’Briengram] at t”e start got here out of an accessibility requirement; however, all our students gain from it.”
Verification through “gh Stylometry
WGU is investigating several technologies for stability verification, which is quite simple to use and a priority for the college. Facial and voice recognition might extend to presenting seamless verification methods. However, O’Brien believes that O’Brien’s intention is verification through the check substances.
“Some style. “I try analysis, which would be fantastic – to recognize that, sure, that is constant with how this pupil has been writing,” O’Brien said. “Y”uO’Brienount on”using the quit of their degree software; they could be advanced from how they started, but there would probably be a sure basic fashion that you may say, yes, that’s them.” Indithat’s stylo”entry evaluation remains a dream, but it is probably important for seamless person verification as technology grows superior.