Presentation at SURFnet webinar October 2013

1. BYOD for exams
Ingrid Melve
SURFnet webinar
Trondheim, 2013-10-11

3. Overview
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 pre-study done by Evry
Ongoing discussions
16. oktober 2013
SLIDE 3

5. 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. Taskforce: digital school exams
Revised mandate: Digital exams
Practical large scale solutions (As Soon As Possible)
Requirements for digital exams
Collaboration with digital assessment commission
Deliverables
Best Current Practice for student BYOD on exams
Best Current Practice for exam rooms (power, network, security)
Best Current Practice for digital exam life cycle

14. When do we need digital exams? Now
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

15. 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

17. 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

18. Digital exam mode: alternatives
Domain policy
lockdown, not
BYOD
Virtual desktop
(VDI) or terminal
server
Lockdown
browser
environment
Virtual learning
environment,
exam mode
Based on
institution owned
equipment
Recommended in May be combined
combination with with VDI or
lockdown browser 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 Low software
installation
requirements

19. Report: Large scale digital exams
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)
Recommende further investigation of two solutions
•
•
Microsoft Hyper-V with XenDesktop + Lockdown browser
Inspera Assessment 2.0

22. Cheating on your exams
Restricted use of sources
Clear policies
Post information about requirements
and regulations
Limit access
Train exam proctors
Monitor physical and network use
Monitor PC activity, logging
Restrict communications
Monitor communications
Restrict access
Authentication: who was the
student?
Checking identity
Surveillance and audit
Plagiarism
Automated checks for plagiarism
Citation practices
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 (avoid Office files as end product)
Possibility for other formats, for example
•
•
Programming exams: program files
Economics: spreadsheets
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: Clear way exam mode
Physical location: clear away
power cables and network
Remove network restrictions
Remove logging
Students (and their devices)
must exit exam mode

29. Further work
Investigate
recommended VDI or terminal server solution
lockdown browser mode solution
VLE/LMS solution
Formal requirements documents: Best Current Practice
Prepare for one or more national procurements
Prediction: More digital exams next semester
We are running out of time