Online proctoring is software, usually backed by a person, that checks that the person sitting an online exam is the one who registered, and that they do not cheat. Proctoring means supervising an exam. In an exam hall, an invigilator does this. In an online exam taken at home, a remote supervisor and software watch the candidate instead, through the webcam, the microphone and the screen.
It works in three stages. Before the exam, it checks identity. The candidate holds an ID card up to the webcam, and software compares the photo on the card with the face on the camera. This is identity verification. Liveness detection checks that a living person is in front of the camera, not a photo or a recorded video. The candidate then turns the webcam slowly around the room, to show that there are no notes and no other people.
During the exam, a locked browser stops the candidate from opening other apps or tabs. AI software analyses the video and the sound. It flags events that may mean cheating: a second face, a voice, a phone in view, or the candidate looking away from the screen for a long time. A flag is not a decision. After the exam, or sometimes live, a human proctor reviews each flagged clip.
Here is a typical case. A candidate in Shillong sits a two-hour certification exam from home. The software flags three events. At 0:42, it sees a second face: her younger brother walked behind her for four seconds. At 1:05, she looks away from the screen for 15 seconds. At 1:31, it hears a voice reading out part of a question. A human proctor watches the three clips. She clears the first, because the brother said nothing and did not look at the screen. She clears the second, because no device or paper was in view. She reports the third. The exam body then decides what happens to the attempt.
Proctoring has costs. A slow internet connection can drop the video and stop the exam. AI flags can be wrong, and some candidates find it intrusive to be filmed at home. This is why a person, and not the software alone, should make the final decision.
Online proctoring is used wherever an exam is taken outside a hall: for certification exams on an exam delivery platform, term exams in an online degree programme, scholarship tests on online coaching platforms, and hiring tests on a coding assessment platform. On coding tests, it now also checks for answers that an AI model wrote.