INTRODUCTION:

It is convenient to conduct online exams. As a private learning center or

educational institution, you don’t need to worry about location constraints
as students can do the exam anywhere. Provided that they have access to
a computer with an internet connection, it is also relatively easy and cheap
to conduct online exams. However, with added convenience come
increased challenges, and the most common one is cheating.
DISCUSSION:
he purpose of exams is to evaluate the student’s ability fairly. If the exam’s
fairness is compromised, the exam results would be inaccurate in reflecting
their actual ability. Besides the wrong evaluation of students’ learning
progress, cheating also poses other concerns that you need to be aware of
as an educational institution.

One of the main concerns is content leakage, which is the unauthorized

distribution of the exam documents such as questions bank to third parties.
When that happens, it can hinder the integrity of the online exams and your
unique content. There might be various reasons why content leakage
occurred, and it may be due to a lack of supervision or faulty in the tools
used during online exams. Nevertheless, those can be the contributing
factors that might have further perpetrated students to cheat.

Screen sharing to another computer

It doesn’t take much for a student to do screen sharing during online

exams. Because the exams are conducted remotely, the student can have
a friend to log in from another computer elsewhere to access the exam
questions and provide assistance or answers

Using advanced electronic devices

High-tech devices are not only for secret agents on espionage missions–
they’re also used by students to cheat during exams.

Keeping notes on smartphones and using mobile apps

Students have been using smartphones to keep exam-related notes such

as formulas and definitions that they can secretly look up to during online
exams

CONCLUSION:
The most common solution is to use exam proctoring software. It is
specifically designed to enable students to take online exams securely with
features such as automated monitoring, ID verification, and computer
lockdown. However, there might be technical complexities and high costs
associated with this solution. 

As an alternative to exam proctoring software, some schools have adopted

a more convenient and affordable way to test students. For instance,
questions can be sent via document attachments securely by email.
Students can then be supervised throughout the exam duration using a
webcam from the moment they access the questions

RECOMMENDATIONS

To protect the integrity and increase security of online exams, a possible

way is to add a document security solution like Digify into the mix:

 Limit who can access the question and revoke access anytime. You
can also add email verification as an extra layer of security to ensure
authentication.
 Self-destruct the exam documents within a set time to maintain the
fairness of the exam duration for all test takers.
 Prevent unauthorized access and distribution of the exam questions
with restricted forwarding and downloading. 
 Reduce the document viewing area with screen shield and
watermarked filter to discourage screenshots during online exams.
 Identify suspicious third-party assistance with tracking logs that
reveal the location and IP address of the user.