Distance Education: Online Proctoring as a Tool for Assessing Learning Outcomes

Abstract

The educational organizations’ urgent transition to distance learning because of the pandemic has actualized the problems of assessing the results of mastering the disciplines. Online proctoring is becoming one of the leading tools for control, providing an objective independent assessment of compliance with academic ethics. The main purpose of this paper is to analyze students’ attitude towards distance learning and their ideas on the opportunities, disadvantages, and prospects of online proctoring. The pilot study conducted in the spring of 2021 was empirically based on the results of online questionnaires answered by 200 undergraduate students of various scientific specialties and humanities at Ural Federal University (1–4 years). We also used the method of semi-structured interviews with 10 students who had had an experience of a final test using online proctoring systems. The data obtained show that the main difficulties faced by students within the distance learning process are the lack of direct contact with the teacher, enormous bulks of information to be learnt independently, the increased health burden, and technical failures. Despite the emerging barriers, the young have successfully mastered the educational platforms (MS Teams, Zoom, Google Meet) and practised in passing remote credits and exams. Online proctoring narrows the chances of informal passing final exams, however forming and developing risk-taking and inventiveness among students. This can be explained both by low demand for mastering general education disciplines and by poor design of test assignments. Technical failures within testing are another problem of proctoring. For distance education, online proctoring seems a promising and in-demand tool for students to assess the results of their learning in professional disciplines. The lack of external control becomes a factor of academic dishonesty practices multiplication. The results of the study contribute to the further development of distance learning and online assessment of the quality of students’ mastering the completed disciplines.