I have issues with procotoring in general. Exams should be opportunities for learning not a way to police learning and students. But proctoring by video camera is quite different from proctoring in person in a large room.
When taking a test remotely, students are often at home, in their personal space, sometimes in their bedrooms. We shouldn’t expect students can safely allow cameras into this space (or that they should be required to). It’s invasive and reinforces inappropriate power dynamics.
Proctoring by video puts the proctor 1-2 feet from the students taking a test, often with the proctor staring (or appearing to stare) directly at a student’s face. It’s intimidating and goes well beyond the usually more passive role of a proctor in a large testing environment.
Proctoring more generally, but especially the absurd conditions of having a proctor staring directly at a student’s face, has a direct negative effect on exam performance. And it especially disadvantages disabled and other already marginalized students.
There are lots of reasons to limit the use of remote proctoring software, but manual proctoring by Zoom is not a good alternative. We need to ask deeper questions about why teachers and educational institutions think they need proctoring in the first place.
Start by trusting students means rethinking what exams are for.
