BYOD for exams

Ingrid Melve

SURFnet webinar

Trondheim, 2013-10-11

10. april 2023

Overview

Bring your own device to campus

Bring your own device to your exam

Checklist for digital exams

Working group report

Investigating exam from security perspective

BYOD technologies available today

Results from pre-study done by Evry

Ongoing discussions

SLIDE 3

Exam types

Oral

Skype, video conference, web meeting

Digital exam may be stored and reviewed

Home exam

Submission in VLE/LMS or other solutions

Similar solution for non-exam

School exam

Essay form or answering questions

Multiple choice

Programming, using other software (excel etc)

Other exams, case based or practical

BYOD on campus

Power to the students

Wireless networks

Physical locations for exams vary: on campus, in sports facilites, conference halls «anywhere indoors with large surface»

• Ad hoc networking: need to extend eduroam/Wifi coverage• Ensure reliable backend fiber from base stations to campus

Restricting access

• Pushing access restrictions at edges (virtual desktops, client firewalls)

• Access restrictions at network layer – per exam

Power supply

Rough estimate: 75W/student (3000 students = 225 kW)

Ad hoc power supply, need to rig fast

Taskforce: use of student PCs on digital school exams

Mandate

Find scaleable technical solutions for digital school exams ASAP

Networking the local projects and people

Discuss technical solutions for “school exams”

• Technology for exam mode on student devices (PC, Mac, tablets)• Virtual desktops, domain control, bootable USB sticks, lockdown browser• Security and access restrictions

Deliverables

Checklist for digital exams

Investigating maturity of technology solutions (with the help of Evry)

Collating results from the local projects

Taskforce: digital school exams

Revised mandate: Digital exams

Practical large scale solutions (As Soon As Possible)

Requirements for digital exams

Collaboration with digital assessment commission

Deliverables

Best Current Practice for student BYOD on exams

Best Current Practice for exam rooms (power, network, security)

Best Current Practice for digital exam life cycle

When do we need digital exams? Now

Working group on national level for local projects

University projects: hundreds of students/day do digital exams

College projects: tens of students/day do digital exams

Sharing pain, sharing gain

Based on project result, checklist

Preparation before exam start

Exam day

• Technical solutions• Support solutions

Tidying up after exam day and input to exam workflow

Check list before the exam day

Managing student expectations

Test exams

Responsibilities: bring your own device (and power supply)

Prepare student devices

Controlling hardware and devices

Software requirements

Logging

Support and organizational systems

Usability

IT support team available

Test exam, organizational learning systems

Exam mode

Configure equipment and environment in exam mode

Students must release private devices to controlled exam mode

Exam is a controlled exercise

Audit is required of security system (holistic, not just ICT)

Exam mode has max stressed out users: usability

Exam mode

Total control over the device: subject to university domain policy

Virtual machine on the device: exam mode, with extra surveillance

Lockdown browser:

Test exams are important tools for IT, security and end user

Domain policy lockdown, not BYOD

Virtual desktop (VDI) or terminal server

Lockdown browser environment

Virtual learning environment, exam mode

Based on institution owned equipment

Recommended in combination with lockdown browser

May be combined with VDI or LMS/VLE

Often used for term papers, lack some functionality

Secure controlled environment on device

Secure controlled environment on device

Secure controlled environment on device

Does not support extended security mode on device

Easy to prepare various configurations

Requires changes to existing licensing model and software install

Requires software installation

Low software requirements

Digital exam mode: alternatives

Report: Large scale digital exams

Study on available technical solutions for large scale digital exams

Requirements gathered from Norwegian universities

Thanks to NTNU, UiA and UiO

Report (Myhre&Brede, Evry) April 2013

Yes, large scale VDI is possible today for digital exams

• Cloud server solution• Clients available for PC, Mac (and tablets)

Recommende further investigation of two solutions

• Microsoft Hyper-V with XenDesktop + Lockdown browser• Inspera Assessment 2.0

Cheating on your examsRestricted use of sources

Clear policies

Limit access

Monitor physical and network use

Restrict communications

Monitor communications

Restrict access

Authentication: who was the student?

Checking identity

Surveillance and audit

Plagiarism

Automated checks for plagiarism

Citation practices

Post information about requirements and regulations

Train exam proctors

Monitor PC activity, logging

Restrict exam area

Block line of sight

Restrict network access to permissible sites on exam network

Restrict access to exam network only

Check for plagiarism

Cheating: the security view

Paradox: students need access to (limited) information resource, but should not be able to communicate

The Internet was built for communication, now we need to turn off the most useful features

Monitor and audit

Exam is controlled environment, audit documentation vital

Users (students) are max stressed

Ability to process input goes down significantly, may forget to bring PC or power or student ID

Exams are time limited, and uptime must be 100%

Storage and backup are vital, snapshots used to increase uptime

We love proctors!

Handing in exam

Document formats

PDF for text documents (avoid Office files as end product)

Possibility for other formats, for example

• Programming exams: program files• Economics: spreadsheets

Anonymization: stripping metadata in files

Final version submitted: close exam mode

Remember receipt for student (with copy of exam)

Submitting as file across the network to storage

Physical location: clear away power cables and network

Remove network restrictions

Remove logging

Students (and their devices) must exit exam mode

Checklist: Clear way exam mode

Further work

Investigate

recommended VDI or terminal server solution

lockdown browser mode solution

VLE/LMS solution

Formal requirements documents: Best Current Practice

Prepare for one or more national procurements

Prediction: More digital exams next semester

We are running out of time