Zoom Test and Exam Proctoring
Many departments rely on proctoring to help preserve academic integrity. With students now sitting tests and exams from home, faculty may wish to use Zoom for online proctoring. While Zoom may be a reasonable substitute for in-person proctoring, online proctoring impacts student privacy.
To comply with applicable privacy law, employees may only collect student personal information (including video and audio) where necessary. Consideration should also be given as to whether the proposed collection will be effective and proportional, i.e., whether the loss of privacy is balanced against the benefit gained and whether there is a less intrusive means of achieving a similar result. The efficacy of online proctoring may also be considered.
Students must also be given informed notice before or at the time of collection and the opportunity to ask questions. Any recordings made of tests and exams should be promptly deleted once reviewed for academic dishonesty, unless required for evidence. Proctoring-specific software has not been approved for use at UWinnipeg.
Academic staff who identify Zoom proctoring as appropriate for their course should use the following privacy notice as a template for providing notice to students.
Notice Regarding Remote Test and Exam Proctoring
Tests/exams are proctored through a live Zoom meeting and may also be recorded locally for later review. Proctors will be monitoring for any evidence of academic dishonesty. Each proctor will monitor a small group of students simultaneously. Students must sit and face an engaged camera to enable monitoring. Microphones can be muted. After being reviewed for academic dishonesty, any recordings made will be promptly deleted if no such evidence is found.
As part of this monitoring, please note:
- Each student’s name and everything within their camera’s view, including their face, body and background, will be visible to the proctor and to the other students within the group.
- If a student uses the chat feature, anything written will be visible to all meeting participants.
- If a student chooses to un-mute their microphone, anything said will be heard by all meeting participants.
Zoom has been configured to disable students from recording the test/exam. Information regarding Zoom’s data collection, including a link to its privacy policy, can be found at /privacy/zoom-privacy-notice.html. Student personal information is collected under the University of Winnipeg Act and 36(1)(b) of the Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act. For information regarding privacy at UWinnipeg, contact privacy@uwinnipeg.ca or call 204.988.7538.