My prof gave me zero because ProctorU Review+ said that I was talking | Hacker News Reader

My prof gave me zero because ProctorU Review+ said that I was talking

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61 pointsafandian26 comments

I give ProctorU a zero for employing Flash and having their database leaked online.

https://www.hackread.com/online-exam-tool-proctoru-breach-da...

ProctorU says she's talking. She WAS talking. The professor didn't watch the flagged video, though.

Proctoring software doesn't say "fail". It just flags parts of the video for human review. Shitty teachers should be blamed.

I don't understand the hatred for such software. The alternative would be to take exams at testing centers or campuses.

Personal real world experience (I'm an OMSCS student): I was taking a ProctorTrack-proctored exam in a company meeting room. A colleague of mine hadn't read the company chat where I told I was not to be disturbed, and knocks on the door multiple times. I had to tell him to go away.

After the exam, I immediately contacted my teachers explaining what happened. Zero problems.

Another time, after starting the exam I realized I was in a bad body position (3-hours exam, I was in bed since the bedroom was the least cluttered room) and my back was hurting. I changed position by trying to keep my face in the webcam at all times (but for sure I failed for some seconds) , and again I contacted my teachers afterwards. Zero problems.

I'm sure my video was flagged both times.

If the results are that unreliable, can you imagine how many false positives it must raise? And how much load that must put on the supervising staff who likely haven't got as much experience? It almost seems structurally determined to produce low quality results.

> I changed position by trying to keep my face in the webcam at all times (but for sure I failed for some seconds)

Honestly, even having to attempt that sounds pretty dystopian.

> Honestly, even having to attempt that sounds pretty dystopian

What's the alternative? A local testing center?

Accept that these are extraordinary times and pause. Don't just jump to skeuomorphs. There are surely other options, such as open-book exams, coursework, teacher assessment, predicted grades, deferred assessment?

> Accept that these are extraordinary times and pause.

I can agree. But what has this to do with ProctorU? Is it ProctorU's fault that a school enrolled with them? And then that a professor didn't use their platform properly?

I've seen so many of these stories that penalize people because of skin colour, neurodiversity etc, that I felt it was time for a discussion on HN.

I feel for everyone on the recieving end of ProctorU or ProctorIO or similar. The teachers are in an unfamiliar high-stress situation and they are sold the promise of tools to make skeuomorphic translations into remote work.

> teachers are in an unfamiliar high-stress situation and they are sold the promise of tools to make skeuomorphic translations into remote work

I don’t blame the professor using the tool. I blame them for reporting it as academic dishonesty without attempting to do any diligence whatsoever. That’s lazy behaviour totally lacking in integrity.

> I've seen so many of these stories that penalize people because of skin colour

Wow, that’s terrible. Do you happen to have a link to a specific story? I’d be interested in reading about it.

https://venturebeat.com/2020/09/29/examsofts-remote-bar-exam...

This isn't just a professor, or non-tech-savy user problem. Amazon's AWS certification tests are equally idiotic. You have to pick up your computer and display that your environment is "clean" of any tech devices, they monitor your computer, and will watch for any sign that there's another person or device in use. I've heard of a lot of false positives (which require another sweep of the room) from my colleagues forced to take the test.

do you have any more insight on what the cert tests involve? I would hope there's no need to download any kind of monitoring software or anything.

Even the CKA exam administered by the Linux Foundation involved a invasive browser extension and similar monitoring. They support linux atleast, but only Chrome/Chromium. Can't find a link to the browser extension, but it shares the screen in a persistent manner from what I remember.

They have similar clear desk policy: https://docs.linuxfoundation.org/tc-docs/certification/lf-ca...

According to the comments apparently already appealed and reversed.

Bad prof didn't review the actual footage before the sanction.

My dad is a professor and I feel like he would have made this mistake too. He’s a good guy just really not tech savvy. I imagine if a red flag popped saying “this student broke the testing protocol” he would be much more likely to dish the standard punishment than try to use the confusing software to get to the bottom of it.

I get that, my dad is an engineer and these days they use pretty complicated modeling software, so he just a ignores it and improvised material choices/dimensions and such during construction. I mean it’s not like it’s reasonable to expect trained professionals to know what they are doing or educate themselves on how the software they use works.

I've heard engineering defined as something like "using a proven set of techniques to solve a number of well described problems" .

With covid there's a load of new difficult problems to solve, all of the usual in person tools are now prohibited, and staff are (at least in some places I heard) at risk of losing their pensions if they strike.

I think the software probably did what it's designed to do, right? She talked, it said she was talking. I haven't seen the interface, but I doubt it said (or cared) that she was talking to herself.

The entire point of these tools is that the prof or a TA or someone should have reviewed the video.

Blame the wielder of the tool, not the tool.

I'd label the salespeople "wielders" not over-pressured teachers.

It’s been years since I’ve used ProctorU. Is it automated now? When I used it someone watched me via webcam for the entire duration of the exam.

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