UOW says a student union claim some subjects have dropped exam surveillance tool Proctorio was “misleading.”
Last week, a Facebook post from the Wollongong Undergraduate Students’ Association (WUSA) said “under pressure from students and academic staff, some subjects and schools, e.g. MATH202 and ECTE (School of Electrical, Computer and Telecommunications Engineering) have decided to drop Proctorio for Semester 1 exams.”
A university spokesperson said that’s not the case.
“Some subject exams were initially flagged for the potential use of Proctorio before a decision was made not to use it in those exams,” the spokesperson said.
“This has simply been a case of academic staff making decisions about the appropriate method of assessment for their subject and whether this requires use of Proctorio. Academic staff made those decisions prior to the Proctorio procedures being finalised.
“The claims about the use of the learning integrity browser tool Proctorio being dropped from some subject exams are misleading.”
The union has been campaigning against the software, which UOW says is being used to monitor about 30 per cent of online exams this Autumn session.
Critics say the software compromises privacy and creates unnecessary anxiety over potential flagging of normal exam behaviour.
For his part, UOW Deputy Vice-Chancellor Prof. Theo Farrell has said Proctorio will have human oversight and will not flag normal behaviour.
Students can find privacy statements on Proctorio on the UOW exams webpage.
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