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.

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

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

7. BYOD on campus

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

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

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

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

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

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

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!

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

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