Photo of Honorlock’s homepage on a student’s computer. Photo credit: Lily Pace | Lantern Reporter
Ohio State may be saying goodbye to Proctorio, but is just getting to know Honorlock.
Ohio State’s Office of Technology and Digital Innovation (OTDI) announced on April 10 that its contract with Proctorio will not be renewed and that starting in summer 2024, all programs will transition their software to Honorlock, a modern AI tracking software for monitoring test takers.
Honorlock — which was developed by two doctoral students at the time, Adam Roth and Elena Sobolevain 2014 – similar to online proctoring software SupervisionHonorlock uses a combination of AI software and live test proctoring to monitor exams and send alerts about potential problems, according to its website.
Students, faculty and instructors were able to participate in a request for proposal (RFP) committee sponsored by OTDI to test various proctoring tools. After a representative from nearly every college on campus tested five different proctoring services, the group collectively chose Honorlock, Travis Ritter, director of learning systems at OTDI, said in an email.
“The committee rated Honorlock highly for many reasons, including vendor support and user guides, useful reporting features, and a search-and-destroy feature that scans the web and sends removal requests to any sites that contain questions from the evaluation conducted,” Ritter said.
Given this technology, students may be concerned about the possibility of a violation of their privacy, which was argued in a 2022 lawsuit against Cleveland State University over the use of Honorlock’s room scanning feature, according to previous lantern reportingDespite these concerns, OTDI conducted a privacy and security risk assessment of Honorlock and no red flags emerged, Ritter said.
Honorlock offers systems such as Live Proctoring, which allows a person to monitor students’ exams by tracking key characteristics such as eye movement and scanning examinees’ rooms before their assignments begin. Ohio State has currently decided to opt out of that program, Ritter said.
“Honorlock works similarly to Proctorio in that the system uses AI to flag behaviors that could be considered cheating,” Ritter said. “For example, if it detects that the examinee is wearing headphones.”
Although this feature is similar to Proctorio, Honorlock cannot determine whether a student has cheated. websiteInstead, Honorlock marks moments during the exam for the instructor to review later and “does not kick the examinee out when a challenge arises,” according to website conditions.
Alexander Steenrod, an Ohio State University graduate and RFP committee member, said he voted in favor of the Honorlock program. Despite his involvement with the committee, Steenrod said he still believes in-person exams are the ideal testing experience for students.
“No matter how unique and adaptable a proctoring system may be, I think we forget the human factor: frequent recordings can make examinees very nervous,” Steenrod said.
Randi Honkonen, director of marketing communications at OTDI, said the committee also “recommended that the university launch educational campaigns on academic integrity to help familiarize students and faculty with the tools.”
Ohio State follows a growing trend of other universities adopting the Honorlock program, from the University of Cincinnati to Georgia Tech, according to Honorlocks website.
“We regularly reach out to partner institutions that use the tools we studied to hear their feedback and learn how they use the tools in their institutions,” Ritter said.
For more information about the Honorlock program, visit OTDI website.
