Online Exams, Proctoring: Recommendation and Guidance

Overview

This statement, from the undergraduate faculty handbook, guides our recommendations on proctoring exams across all of Fordham’s graduate and undergraduate schools:

A university, by its nature, strives to foster and recognize originality of thought, which can be recognized only when people produce work that is theirs alone, properly acknowledging information and ideas that are obtained from the work of others. It is
therefore important that students must maintain the highest standards with regard to honesty, effort, and performance.

As a Jesuit, Catholic university, Fordham is committed to ensuring that all members of the academic community strive not only for excellence in scholarship but also for integrity of character. In the pursuit of knowledge and personal development, it is imperative that students present their own ideas and insights for evaluation, critique, and eventual reformulation. As part of this process, each student must acknowledge the intellectual contributions of others.

Recommendation

In the context of the Flexible Hybrid learning environment adopted in response to the global pandemic, this principle from the undergraduate faculty handbook applies broadly to our thinking, “ In order to sustain a climate of academic integrity, extra care should be taken to develop alternative examinations and to proctor examinations during the allocated testing period.”

Special circumstances around proctoring and assessment exist in many disciplines. If these recommendations do not suit your disciplinary needs, please contact Anne Fernald, Special Advisor to the Provost for Faculty Development for a consultation.

We do not at this time recommend fee-for-service online proctoring options (with limited exceptions for licensure requirements). These services can create a culture of suspicion antithetical to our values. Instead, we recommend that faculty explore assessment designs which trust our students while mitigating the temptation to dishonesty.

Guidance

The guidance below is intended to help faculty design effective assessments in the flexible hybrid learning environment, mindful that, for Fall 2020, instruction will be fully online after Thanksgiving.

Included are: