Students report that crying during exams activates schools’ anti-cheat software
By Ryan General
Students in remote classes have taken to social media to protest against some teachers’ use of anti-cheating software during exams, with some claiming that crying during exams activates them.
In recent years, a growing number of teachers in the U.S. have become dependent on artificial intelligence-based tools to virtually proctor students by monitoring faces and tracking eye movements.
Last month, students began to speak out after University of Kentucky professor Josef Fruehwald said in a viral TikTok video that he wouldn’t trust professors that use tracking software on students.
The post apparently struck a chord among many students who are now criticizing the tools for their alleged drawbacks.
“I tried so hard to fight against having to use these, my school outright denied me and I ended up being constantly flagged bc of horrible anxiety,” one user claimed.
“One of my French exams got flagged for cheating because I was crying for the whole thing, and my French prof had to watch 45 min of me quietly sobbing,” another user wrote.
Fruehwald then took the discussion further on Twitter, noting that he “seems to have broken the dam of all this traumatic surveillance.”
“My husband has two classes left for his BFA, and one of them is a math class that requires an assessment test before enrolling,” wrote a Twitter user. “He should have graduated two years ago, but he couldn’t take the friggin math class because THE SOUND OF HIS LAPTOP’S FAN SET OFF THE PROCTOR SOFTWARE.”
Last year, software provider Honorlock drew heavy criticism after three University of Wisconsin-Madison students with darker skin tones claimed that the software failed to recognize their facial features and paused their exams.
In Vietnam, a group of researchers developed an online exam monitoring system that similarly detects eye movement and face direction. The online exam system, named EduExam, can be used for different exam types for students of all school levels.
Their version of the technology implements the recognition of different sounds as well as the use of messaging or internet searches. Suspicious actions, such as taking screenshots and copying and pasting during the exams, can also be detected.
Meanwhile, tech giant Samsung has developed a similar system called PROBA, a tool that identifies cheaters by detecting movements in the students’ head, eyes and body.
Featured Image via F1 Digitals
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