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How to run a secure online exam: a practical checklist

An online exam is only as secure as the way you run it. No software can make cheating impossible, and tools that promise it usually create new problems: false accusations, stressed candidates and support calls in the middle of the exam. A better goal is an exam that is fair, hard to game and easy to defend if someone asks what happened.

This checklist follows an exam from preparation to results and shows where ExamQR helps at each step.

1. Decide the stakes and the rules first

A weekly practice test and a certification exam need different levels of control. Decide before you build anything:

  • What happens if a candidate loses connection, runs out of time or leaves the exam window?
  • Which extra checks, if any, will you use (screen monitoring, face check, a locked browser)?
  • Who decides when something looks suspicious, and what evidence do they need?

Tell candidates in advance what is monitored and why. If you turn on face check, make sure you have the consent the law requires. In ExamQR, screen monitoring and face check are off unless you switch them on for an exam, so you can use them only where the stakes justify it.

2. Give every candidate a different paper

The cheapest protection is a paper that cannot be copied from the next screen. ExamQR shuffles questions and answer options for each candidate, and can draw papers from your question bank according to a test structure (for example, so many questions per topic and difficulty). Candidates see the same content in a different order, so sharing "the answer to question 7" does not work.

For this to work, write questions that survive shuffling: avoid "all of the above" and "both A and B", and do not refer to "the previous question". Our guide to fair test shuffling goes deeper.

3. Control who is sitting the exam

  • Use a candidate list. Add candidates or import them from a spreadsheet, so every sign-in matches a real person on your list.
  • Choose the join method. Candidates sign in with their ID, or join by scanning the room QR code.
  • Watch for a second device. ExamQR detects when another device signs in with the same candidate and shows it to supervisors live.

4. Reduce the room for mischief on the device

On the plans that include it, you can use Safe Exam Browser with ExamQR to lock the candidate's computer to the exam. Without it, ExamQR still detects when a candidate leaves the exam window and records an alert with the time. Check the pricing page for the plans that include Safe Exam Browser integration.

5. Supervise live, and keep your options open

The supervisor console shows every candidate's state in real time. During the exam a supervisor can:

  • add time for one candidate or a group, for example after a technical problem;
  • send a message to a candidate or the whole room;
  • allow re-entry after an interruption, or apply a penalty;
  • review alerts such as leaving the exam window.

Alerts are information, not verdicts. A candidate may leave the window because of a notification or a flaky connection. Look at the pattern and the evidence, then decide. ExamQR deletes proctoring alerts and screenshots automatically 90 days after the exam, so export anything you need to keep longer.

6. Plan for things going wrong

  • Run a rehearsal. Try the exam with a handful of candidates on the same kind of devices and network they will use on the day.
  • Agree accommodations early. You can give a candidate extra time as a percentage of the exam duration, individually or from a spreadsheet, and a supervisor can add more during the exam.
  • Have a fallback for unreliable networks. If a lost connection is not acceptable in a room, run that exam on the offline exam server over your local network instead. We describe how in offline exams on a local network.

7. After the exam: grade, review, improve

Objective questions are graded when candidates submit, and essays are marked by your team. Export score sheets and statistics, then look at the difficulty and discrimination of each question. Questions that nearly everyone gets right, or that strong candidates get wrong more often than weak ones, deserve a second look before the next exam.

The short checklist

  • Decide the stakes, the rules and who judges incidents.
  • Tell candidates what is monitored.
  • Shuffle papers per candidate and write questions that survive shuffling.
  • Use a candidate list and watch for second devices.
  • Add a locked browser or screen monitoring only if the stakes need it.
  • Rehearse, agree accommodations and prepare a fallback.
  • Review alerts as evidence, export what you need within 90 days, and use the statistics to improve the next exam.

You can try all of this on the Free plan with a small group of candidates. See online exams for the full feature list.

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