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posted by martyb on Wednesday March 06 2019, @12:25AM   Printer-friendly
from the taking-a-look dept.

The Danish Ministry of Education has developed a "digital exam invigilator" to be used by students in the equivalent of high schools ("gymnasiale uddannelser"). The purpose is to be able to detect cheating during written exams. The program:
  - captures all keystrokes (keylogger)
  - captures a screenshot every minute and whenever you switch tasks
  - a list of all open webpages
  - network configuration
  - which programs are running
  - whether it's is running in a VM
  - contents of the clipboard
  and sends this to a central server during the exam. The data is kept for 4 months.

The initiative is getting a lot of criticism.
  - In 2017 there was 229 suspicions of cheating out of more than 200.000 students, so this initiative may be out of proportions.
  - The program is only available for Windows and MacOS. No support for Linux or ChromeOS.
  - It may be possible for a 3rd party to do a MITM-attack and take over the students' PCs.
  - If a student is unable or unwilling to install the program he can perform the exam under "extended surveillance" (good old-fashioned humans watching) at the school's discretion. Some schools deny students this option and instead just fail them.
  - The program will likely collect private information.

The schools do not provide computers for students because they cannot afford it. So its BYOD. On some schools (eg. some vocational schools) Linux is quite common. Some schools have trouble affording the extra human invigilators.

So soylentils: what would you do given the constraints? What do other countries do? Ignore the risk of cheating? Spend money on human invigilators?

All sources are in Danish as this news has not hit the international scene (yet). Sorry.
Danish Ministry of Education page on the program: https://www.stil.dk/uvm-dk/gymnasiale-uddannelser/proever-og-eksamen/netproever/den-digitale-proevevagt
Short analysis by security expert Peter Kruse: https://www.dr.dk/nyheder/indland/den-digitale-proevevagt-overvaagnings-kritiske-elever-faar-ministeriet-til-rette
A Reddit thread on the subject: https://www.reddit.com/r/Denmark/comments/avovqx/staten_har_nu_krav_om_at_vi_installerer_et/
A discussion on version2 (an EE and CS site): https://www.version2.dk/artikel/digitale-proevevagt-totalovervaagning-elevers-computere-midlertidigt-trukket-tilbage-1087609


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  • (Score: 2) by The Mighty Buzzard on Wednesday March 06 2019, @04:06AM (3 children)

    by The Mighty Buzzard (18) Subscriber Badge <themightybuzzard@proton.me> on Wednesday March 06 2019, @04:06AM (#810563) Homepage Journal

    If you're capable of finding out what you don't know within time constraints of the test, does it matter? You're at the very least going to be better at whatever you do than the dipshits who wrote this piece of garbage.

    --
    My rights don't end where your fear begins.
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  • (Score: 2) by c0lo on Wednesday March 06 2019, @09:06AM (2 children)

    by c0lo (156) Subscriber Badge on Wednesday March 06 2019, @09:06AM (#810643) Journal

    If you're capable of finding out what you don't know within time constraints of the test, does it matter?

    What if one picks the correct answer by chance from the internet?
    E.g. assuming you could now, how willing would you be to have a surgery with a doctor that passed exams like this?

    --
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday March 06 2019, @10:35AM (1 child)

      by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday March 06 2019, @10:35AM (#810653)

      Would you be willing to undergo surgery by a doctor whose only "experience" on that is information he digested from books or digital resources, even if that knowledge is reliably tested in exams?

      I certainly would hope that whoever does their first surgery has before assisted many other surgeries led by experienced doctors. After passing that test, I wouldn't care too much whether a single question of an exam years ago was answered correctly by pure luck.

      • (Score: 2) by c0lo on Wednesday March 06 2019, @11:58AM

        by c0lo (156) Subscriber Badge on Wednesday March 06 2019, @11:58AM (#810668) Journal

        After passing that test, I wouldn't care too much whether a single question of an exam years ago was answered correctly by pure luck.

        Not pure luck, mate, but cheating before picking an answer at random.

        So, not a care you say? Even after knowing that, deep down inside his subconscious, that surgeon has the willingness to cheat when it comes to what he perceives is a risk to his skin in the game?

        --
        https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford