If you have an exam scheduled through ProctorU, make sure you’ve read through the ‘Taking online exams’ Canvas site ahead of time to ensure you’re prepared and set up to take your online exam. We strongly encourage you do a practice test – so you can test out your computer and internet, and so you know what to expect when your real exam starts.
Setting up your room for supervision
Try to be in a quiet room by yourself with no interruptions. If you live with other people, let them know ahead of time that you have an exam, and ask them not to disturb or interact with you until you’ve completed it. If you share an internet connection with anyone, ask them to avoid using it at the scheduled time of the exam.
If you can, position yourself in a place where your back is against a wall. You should have a clear desk with no books or notes and make the area as tidy as possible. If the room is dark, you may need a lamp.
During the exam
During the exam you’ll need to stay seated and visible through your webcam but you can of course stretch and take your time to think.
If you need to go to the bathroom during the exam you can, but the action of leaving the room will be recorded and reviewed, so try to go beforehand. If you’re doing a Live+ exam you may want to communicate this to your proctor using the chat option.
If your proctor thinks that an integrity breach has occurred during a Live+ exam, they will give a verbal warning. The exam will not be stopped, but the incident will be reported to Educational Integrity.
We know that under the current lockdown situation, finding a quiet place without any disruptions might be tricky. We’ve asked ProctorU to relax their guidelines for reporting disruptions to your environment. If someone walks into your room to ask you what time dinner is for example, or your children run through the background, this is fine, as long as they are not interacting with you to an extent that would affect the academic integrity of your exam.
How does ProctorU handle my privacy?
It is important that you have confidence that your privacy is safeguarded. Thorough legal, cyber-security, privacy and capability analysis was carried out by relevant University units before the University entered into an arrangement with ProctorU.
ProctorU will only require your basic student information (name, email address and phone number) and in most cases will not require access to your computer during an exam. An online proctor will not be able to access your computer without your express permission.
More details about ProctorU’s privacy and security can be found on our Privacy and security FAQs.