I was working at my desk the other day when I turned to look at my girlfriend Caitlin. Sitting across our 430-square-foot apartment, she was visibly and audibly frustrated and muttered, Shit.
She just started an online course required for graduation at the University of Georgia. I asked her whatâs wrong.
She told me she needed to put on pants before taking a practice test.Â
Her course, like many required courses for students, uses Respondusâ LockDown Browser, one of many course monitoring and test proctoring software that have become all too familiar through the COVID-19 pandemic.
It just asked her to pivot her webcam to show her immediate surroundings, so as to limit her ability to cheat. In addition to preventing her from opening extraneous tabs on her internet browser, LockDown Browser keeps her webcam on when she is accessing course materials.
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The Collegiate Live
By Breegan Petruska
As colleges across the country have resorted to online and virtual teaching, many of these schools have turned to a new browser to help prevent students from cheating. The Lockdown Browser gains access to students’ video and audio on their computer to record them during tests.
Before accessing the test, there are a number of steps the student must take inside of the browser in order to take their test. They have to be in a quiet room where no one else is present. The student must show their surrounding environment to prove that there are no phones, papers, books, etc. They must record a practice video, showing their face in a box on the screen, that will be monitored during the test, and they must show their ID to the camera to show that they are who they say they are.