Impact of proctoring on success rates for percutaneous revascularisation of coronary chronic total occlusions.

OBJECTIVE: To assess the impact of proctoring for chronic total occlusion (CTO) percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) in six UK centres. METHODS: We retrospectively analysed 587 CTO procedures from six UK centres and compared success rates of operators who had received proctorship with success rates of the same operators before proctorship (pre-proctored) and operators in the same institutions who had not been proctored (non-proctored). There were 232 patients in the pre-proctored/non-proctored group and 355 patients in the post-proctored group. Complexity was assessed by calculating the Japanese CTO (JCTO) score for each case. RESULTS: CTO PCI success was greater in the post-proctored compared with the pre-proctored/non-proctored group (77.5% vs 62.1%, p<0.0001). In more complex cases where JCTO≥2, the difference in success was greater (70.7% vs 49.5%, p=0.0003). After proctoring, there was an increase in CTO PCI activity in centres from 2.5% to 3.5%, p<0.0001 (as a proportion of total PCI), and the proportion of very difficult cases with JCTO score ≥3 increased from 15.3% (35/229) to 29.7% (105/354), p<0.0001. CONCLUSIONS: Proctoring resulted in an increase in procedural success for CTO PCI, an increase in complex CTO PCI and an increase in total CTO PCI activity. Proctoring may be a valuable way to improve access to CTO PCI and the likelihood of procedural success

Wireless Handheld Computers in the Preclinical Undergraduate Curriculum

This report presents the results of a pilot project using wireless PDAs as teaching tools in an undergraduate medical curriculum. This technology was used to foster a transition from a passive to an interactive learning environment in the classroom and provided a solution for the implementation of computer-based exams for a large class. Wayne State Medical School recently provided model e570 Toshiba PocketPCs® (personal digital assistants or PDAs), network interface cards, and application software developed by CampusMobility® to 20 sophomore medical students. The pilot group of preclinical students used the PDAs to access web-based course content, for communication, scheduling, to participate in interactive teaching sessions, and to complete course evaluations. Another part of this pilot has been to utilize the PDAs for computer-based exams in a wireless environment. Server authentication that restricted access during the exams and a proctoring console to monitor and record the PDA screens will be described in this report. Results of a student satisfaction survey will be present

Academic Dishonesty and Testing: How Student Beliefs and Test Settings Impact Decisions to Cheat

Research shows that academic dishonesty in post-secondary education runs particularly high among students in the specific disciplines of engineering, business, and nursing. The authors were interested in how student attitudes towards specific environments for testing might contribute to the prevalence or likelihood of cheating on tests and exams. It was hypothesized that while there would be no difference in their beliefs or attitudes regarding the acceptability of cheating behaviors in unproctored versus proctored settings, students would be more likely to engage in cheating behavior in an unproctored setting. Technology continues to transform the world around us at a rapid pace, allowing faculty to incorporate more technology into the classroom and to educate more students remotely via hybrid and online classes. While these opportunities have their benefits, they also present new challenges. The opportunity for cheating on tests increases, especially when exams are delivered in unproctored environments. An instrument was created to investigate the attitudes and behaviors of first- and second-year undergraduate engineering students while taking tests in both proctored and unproctored environments. In all, 734 students were surveyed from four different institutions of higher education. Students provided both qualitative and quantitative responses to questions related to their beliefs and attitudes toward cheating in today’s socially shareable society. Results indicated that both students’ attitudes and behaviors vary as a result of tests being delivered in a proctored versus unproctored environment

A derivation of the optimal answer-copying index and some applications

Multiple-choice exams are frequently used as an efficient and objective method to assess learning but they are more vulnerable to answer-copying than tests based on open questions. Several statistical tests (known as indices in the literature) have been proposed to detect cheating; however, to the best of our knowledge they all lack mathematical support that guarantees optimality in any sense. We partially fill this void by deriving the uniform most powerful (UMP) under the assumption that the response distribution is known. In practice, however, we must estimate a behavioral model that yields a response distribution for each question. We calculate the empirical type-I and type-II error rates for several indices that assume different behavioral models using simulations based on real data from twelve nationwide multiple-choice exams taken by 5th and 9th graders in Colombia. We find that the index with the highest power among those studied, subject to the restriction of preserving the type-I error, is one based on the work of Wollack (1997) and Linden and Sotaridona (2006) and is superior to the indices studied and developed by Wesolowsky (2000) and Frary, Tideman, and Watts (1977). We compare the results of applying this index to all 12 exams and find that examination rooms with stricter proctoring have a lower level of copying. Finally, a Bonferroni correction to control for the false positive rate is proposed to detect massive cheating

A Dynamic Profile Questions Approach to Mitigate Impersonation in Online Examinations

© The Author(s) 2018 Open Access This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made.Online examinations are an integral component of many online learning environments, which face many security challenges. Collusion is seen as a major security threat to such examinations, when a student invites a third party to impersonate or abet in a test. This work aims to strengthen the authentication of students via the use of dynamic profile questions. The study reported in this paper involved 31 online participants from five countries over a five-week period. The results of usability and security analysis are reported. The dynamic profile questions were more usable than both the text-based and image-based questions (p < 0.01). An impersonation abuse scenario was simulated using email and mobile phone. The impersonation attack via email was not successful, however, students were able to share answers to dynamic profile questions with a third party impersonator in real time, which resulted in 93% correct answers. The sharing of information via phone took place in real time during an online test and the response time of an impersonator was significantly different (p < 0.01) than a student. The study also revealed that a response time factor may be implemented to identify and report impersonation attacks.Peer reviewe

Online proctoring with face analysis and object recognition using Yolo

To guarantee academic integrity, the spread of online education and tests has prompted the creation of secure and dependable online proctoring solutions. We present a comprehensive real-time online proctoring system in this study that uses gaze movement analysis, facial aspect ratio assessment, and mouth opening status detection to detect probable cheating behaviours during remote tests. Furthermore, the system uses the You Only Look Once (YOLO) algorithm to detect forbidden goods like as phones and books within the examination area.The gaze movement analysis module monitors students' eye movements during the examination using computer vision techniques such as eye tracking algorithms built in Scipy. The technology may detect instances of prolonged off-screen gazing by analysing gaze patterns, highlighting potential attempts to access unauthorised materials.The facial aspect ratio analysis component calculates the aspect ratio of major facial features using facial landmarks. This method aids in detecting anomalous head motions or changes from conventional facial expressions that may suggest dishonesty.Furthermore, the proctoring system employs mouth opening status detection, which is accomplished through the use of deep learning algorithms, to identify instances of verbal communication or whispering throughout the exam. Our method incorporates the YOLO object detection technique, in addition to gaze and facial analysis, to recognise phones and books in the examination setting. Using a pre-trained YOLO model, the system can detect and flag any unauthorised items in the area of the students. Using a broad dataset of simulated examination scenarios and real-world proctoring instances, we assess the performance of the proposed online proctoring system. The findings illustrate the system's accuracy and effectiveness in detecting potential instances of academic cheating, giving teachers vital insights into student behaviour during remote tests. Finally, our study introduces a novel technique to real-time online proctoring that incorporates gaze movement analysis, face aspect ratio assessment, mouth opening status detection, and YOLO-based object detection. This multifaceted approach helps to improve the integrity and security of remote exams in the digital education era

A mixed-method triangular approach to best practices in combating plagiarism and impersonation in online bachelor’s degree programs

This study examines the phenomenon of plagiarism and impersonation in online course assignments. Technological advancements, coupled with lower costs and accessibility, have made online courses and programs a practical option for higher education students. Unfortunately, the increasing online enrollment and advancing technology have allowed an increase in the opportunity for students to commit the act of plagiarism and impersonation in online course assignments, thus potentially compromising the academic integrity of online degree programs. This study examines the various practices and approaches of plagiarism and impersonation made available to students. Utilizing the systemic review of literature, the researcher compiles a list of 20 best practices in combating plagiarism and impersonation in online course assignments. A Delphi method approach is employed, utilizing the expertise of professors who teach in fully online bachelor’s degree programs. The 20 best practices established through the literature review will be narrowed down to ten best practices via an ordinal ranking questionnaire using a two-round format. The questionnaire distribution occurs via e-mails. Researching professors that teach in fully online bachelor’s degree programs is how the researcher will obtain the e-mails. The first-round e-mail consists of the consent form and the original set of 20 best practices. In addition, a link to the Qualtrics ranking survey will be included in the e-mail. The second-round e-mail consists of the updated 15 best practices ranked from the initial e-mail and a link to the ranking survey. After completing the second round, the establishment of the ten best practices for reducing plagiarism and impersonation in online assignments will emerge. To further validate the 10 best practices, the researcher interviews 10 professors that participated in the original Delphi study. The original consent form includes a link for the participants to access if they select to participate in the interview. After verifying the professors’ intent to participate, a consent form will be obtained. The interviews will be conducted and recorded virtually through zoom. The recordings will be deleted once they are transcribed. This study potentially benefits all online degree programs by establishing the ten best practices for reducing plagiarism and impersonation in online assignments