This document discusses considerations for implementing digital exams where students use their own devices. It outlines different types of exams that could be taken digitally, as well as challenges around ensuring security and preventing cheating. Solutions for enabling "exam mode" on personal devices are presented, including using virtual desktops, lockdown browsers, or domain control. A report on evaluating technical solutions for large-scale digital exams is summarized, and a checklist of factors to address before, during, and after exams is provided. The document advocates for further work to investigate recommended virtual desktop and lockdown browser approaches.
BYOD for exams: leaving students to their own devices
1.
2. Digital exams: when students are left to
their own devices
TNC2013, Maastricht, 2013-06-05
Ingrid Melve, Uninett
3. Presenting
Bring your own device to campus
Bring your own device to your exam
Checklist for digital exams
Working group report
Investigating exam from security perspective
BYOD technologies available today
Results from study done by Evry
Ongoing discussions
Further work
4.
5. Digital exams?
Exam types
Oral
Skype, video conference, web meeting
Digital exam may be stored and reviewed
Home exam
Submission in VLE/LMS or other
solutions
Similar solution for non-exam
School exam
Essay form or answering questions
Multiple choice
Programming, using other software
(excel etc)
Other exams, case based or practical
8. Power to the students
Wireless networks
Physical locations for exams vary: on campus, in sports
facilites, conference halls «anywhere indoors with large
surface»
Ad hoc networking: need to extend eduroam/Wifi coverage
Ensure reliable backend fiber from base stations to campus
Restricting access
Pushing access restrictions at edges (virtual desktops, client
firewalls)
Access restrictions at network layer – per exam
Power supply
Rough estimate: 75W/student (3000 students = 225 kW)
Ad hoc power supply, need to rig fast
9.
10.
11. Taskforce: use of student PCs
on digital school exams
Mandate
Find scaleable technical solutions for digital school exams
ASAP
Networking the local projects and people
Discuss technical solutions for “school exams”
Technology for exam mode on student devices
(PC, Mac, tablets)
Virtual desktops, domain control, bootable USB sticks, lockdown
browser
Security and access restrictions
Deliverables
Checklist for digital exams
Investigating maturity of technology solutions (with the
help of Evry)
Collating results from the local projects
12. What do we need for digital exams?
Working group on national level for local projects
University projects: hundreds of students/day do digital
exams
College projects: tens of students/day do digital exams
Sharing pain, sharing gain
Based on project result, checklist
Preparation before exam start
Exam day
Technical solutions
Support solutions
Tidying up after exam day and input to exam workflow
13. Check list before the exam day
Managing student expectations
Test exams
Responsibilities: bring your own device (and power
supply)
Prepare student devices
Controlling hardware and devices
Software requirements
Logging
Support and organizational systems
Usability
IT support team available
Test exam, organizational learning systems
14.
15. Exam mode
Configure equipment and environment in exam mode
Students must release private devices to controlled exam mode
Exam is a controlled exercise
Audit is required of security system (holistic, not just ICT)
Exam mode has max stressed out users: usability
Exam mode
Total control over the device: subject to university domain
policy
Virtual machine on the device: exam mode, with extra
surveillance
Lockdown browser:
Test exams are important tools for IT, security and end
user
16. Domain policy
lockdown, not
BYOD
Virtual desktop
(VDI)
Lockdown
browser
environment
Virtual learning
environment,
exam mode
Based on
institution owned
equipment
Recommended in
combination with
lockdown browser
May be combined
with VDI or
LMS/VLE
Often used for
term papers, lack
some functionality
Secure controlled
environment on
device
Secure controlled
environment on
device
Secure controlled
environment on
device
Does not support
extended security
mode on device
Easy to prepare
various
configurations
Requires
changes to
existing licensing
model and
software install
Requires
software
installation
No software
requirements
Digital exam mode: alternatives
17.
18. Report: Large scale digital exams (1)
Study on available technical solutions for large scale
digital exams
Requirements gathered from Norwegian universities
Thanks to NTNU, UiA and UiO
Report (Myhre&Brede, Evry) April 2013
Yes, large scale VDI is possible today for digital exams
Cloud server solution
Clients available for PC, Mac (and tablets)
Further investigation of two solutions
Microsoft Hyper-V with XenDesktop + Lockdown browser
Inspera Assessment 2.0
19.
20. Report (2): Ranking solutions
1. Inspera Assessments
2.0
2. Hyper-V with
XenDesktop
3. Hyper-V with XenApp
4. VMWare Horizon View
5. Microsoft VDI
6. Microsoft RDS
7. Windows To Go /Boot
from USB
Criteria:
Scaling
Client support for
PC, Mac and tablets
Cost and cost models
Stability
Supporting software
variations
(programming, spreadsh
eets etc)
Skill required for local
support and operations
Integration
21.
22. Cheating on your exams
Restricted use of sources
Clear policies
Limit access
Monitor physical and network
use
Restrict communications
Monitor communications
Restrict access
Authentication: who was the
student?
Checking identity
Surveillance and audit
Plagiarism
Automated checks for
plagiarism
Citation practices
Post information about
requirements and
regulations
Train exam proctors
Monitor PC activity, logging
Restrict exam area
Block line of sight
Restrict network access to
permissible sites on exam
network
Restrict access to exam
network only
Check for plagiarism
23.
24. Cheating: the security view
Paradox: students need access to (limited) information
resource, but should not be able to communicate
The Internet was built for communication,
now we need to turn off the most useful features
Monitor and audit
Exam is controlled environment, audit documentation vital
Users (students) are max stressed
Ability to process input goes down significantly, may forget to
bring PC or power or student ID
Exams are time limited, and uptime must be 100%
Storage and backup are vital, snapshots used to increase
uptime
We love proctors!
25.
26. Handing in exam
Document formats
PDF for text documents
Possibility for other formats, for example
Programming exams: program files
Economics: spreadsheets
Avoid Office files as end product
Anonymization: stripping metadata in files
Final version submitted: close exam mode
Remember receipt for student (with copy of exam)
Submitting as file across the network to storage
27. Checklist: after the exam
Clear away exam mode
Physical location: clear away power cables and network
Remove network restrictions
Remove logging
Students (and their devices) must exit exam mode
Outside taskforce mandate
Grading and workflow for involving external grading
and/or audit
Administrative work: who passed exams etc
Feedback to students
Archiving
28.
29. Further work
Investigate
recommended VDI solution
lockdown browser mode solution
Formal requirements document
Shared procurement? Awaits working group decision
Prediction: More digital exams next semester
We are running out of time
Notas del editor
Digital exams – when students are left to their own devices. Building support infrastructure for secure BYOD environmentsUniversities are the largest bring your own device (BYOD) institutions in the world, since millions of students bring their own devices to their campus every day. For some use cases there is a need for the university to control the client environment the student operates in. Building BYOD solutions for large scale student use with control over clients changes the current infrastructure. This presentation looks at the requirements for network and security infrastructure needed for digital exams in a BYOD environment.
Universities are the largest bring your own device (BYOD) institutions in the world, since millions of students bring their own devices to their campus every day. For some use cases there is a need for the university to control the client environment the student operates in. Building BYOD solutions for large scale student use with control over clients changes the current infrastructure. This presentation looks at the requirements for network and security infrastructure needed for digital exams in a BYOD environment.