Historical Analysis of California Community College Decisions on Whether to Adopt Online Proctoring Software During the COVID-19 Pandemic

Abstract

This study examined California Community Colleges' administrator decisions about online proctoring software during the COVID-19 global pandemic between March 2020 and June 2022. Understanding how decisions were made, by whom, what information was considered, and how information was evaluated can support more informed decision making regarding academic surveillance software during and outside times of crisis. Using a qualitative research methodology, data were gathered through one-on-one interviews with 11 administrators and three distance education coordinators. The findings indicated colleges considered four factors when adopting and continuing online proctoring software: (a) cost and ease of implementation, (b) faculty concerns about preventing academic dishonesty, (c) software usage data, and (d) student experiences. Given these four factors, colleges either prioritized faculty concerns about maintaining academic honesty in distance education and continued using online proctoring software or prioritized the student experience with the software and discontinued funding it. Most colleges relied on existing shared governance structures and decision-making processes when reviewing online proctoring software for continued use. Colleges with institutional equity initiatives that included the active participation of the academic senate and chief instructional officer discontinued the software. The findings suggested two recommended actions. First, colleges should institute a process for evaluating educational technology to align with federal guidelines and fully support equitable student experiences including accessibility, usability, security, and privacy. Second, colleges must shift their focus from using technology to prevent academic dishonesty and instead engage in institutional conversations about academic honesty, its meaning, and how to maintain it. v 1 Chapter 1: Introduction On March 20, 2020, former California Community College State Chancellor Eloy Oakley issued Executive Order 202001 granting 114 system colleges the ability to convert in-person classes to emergency temporary distance education in response to the COVID-19 global pandemic (Oakley et al., 2020). Maintaining instructional continuity while ensuring the safety of 2.1 million students was a paramount concern (California Community Colleges, 2020b;Jimenez, 2020). In striving to meet both objectives, the State Chancellor's Office engaged with colleagues at its California Virtual Campus Online Education Initiative (CVC-OEI) to expand the use of an already designated set of technology tools to support all schools during the crisis (Gomez, 2020).The tools included an online proctoring service, Proctorio, which the CVC-OEI had been funding since 2017 (CVC, 2019). Proctorio integrated with Canvas, the course management system adopted by the system in 2015 (Klein, 2015). Colleges were offered no-cost access to Proctorio through 2020 and a potentially discounted rate after that. Those with little experience with online proctoring software were assured Pr...