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Comment by barry-cotter | Hacker News Reader

> proctoring services have tiny incentives to catch cheaters. Cheaters have massive incentives to cheat.

If they don’t catch them they don’t have a business model. They have one job. The University of London, Open University and British Council all have 50+ years experience on proctoring university exams for distance learning students and it’s not like Thomson Prometric haven’t thought about how to do it either, even if they (mostly?) do computerised exams.

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The problem is that the business model is that when you outsource compliance (in this case that might be catching cheaters), the important thing is to be able to say that everyone did their best, and you don't necessarily need to do your best to say that.

Well, if they don't catch someone. They don't have much incentive to avoid false positives. Catching someone who did not cheat but failed to follow all the draconian rules, is probably a lot easier than to catch an actual cheater.

And I daresay most of the corporate certs from companies like Microsoft and Red Hat are probably have pretty well-proctored exams too. To what degree their processes are applicable to a University environment I don't know.

I took one last year. Microsoft offer a choice of remote proctoring or in-person at a Pearson VUE test centre. I chose the latter.

You put your stuff in a locker. They compare your face to some official photo ID and take your photo. You sit the test. They print out your results along with your mugshot. That's it. It was very painless.

Teachers typically also have years, sometimes decades, of experience running exams. Yet I've never seen a teacher that is any good at stopping cheating. And that's in person for the class that they are teaching.

> Teachers typically also have years, sometimes decades, of experience running exams. Yet I've never seen a teacher that is any good at stopping cheating. And that's in person for the class that they are teaching.

The difference is running exams is a small part of a teacher's job, and almost certainly not the part they're passionate about.

Also proctors demand things I've seen no teacher at any level demand (or be able to demand).

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