A recent legal ruling in Ohio found that Cleveland State University (CSU) violated a student’s Fourth Amendment right by requiring a scan of their environment (room scan) prior to the completion of a remote exam. In light of this ruling, the following provides guidance about how to approach remote testing.
Consent:
You should obtain consent from students well in advance of room scans. A best practice is to build a quiz or assignment in UB Learns asking students to express consent for room scans as part of the proctoring process during any remote testing within the course. A large part of the Ohio ruling hinged on the student not providing consent.
Advance Notice:
Students should be given ample advance notice of all remote assessments requiring room scans. This could be partially satisfied by the consent agreement mentioned above and reinforced prior to each assessment. In the Ohio case, the student was given only two hours’ notice, which was deemed insufficient.
Allowing Alternatives:
Your notice to students about room scans should allow for choice. You might include a statement similar to, “If you are not willing to agree to a scan of your testing environment, contact me immediately for an alternative solution.” This alternative solution may be an option for the student to test in person or an alternative assessment.
Zoom Focus Mode
When completing environment scans over Zoom, protect student privacy by using the focus mode feature. Focus mode allows the host and co-host to view all participants' videos while other participants in the call can only see the host and co-hosts' videos. Focus mode should also be employed throughout the entire proctoring period when using Zoom. Find more information and how to update your Zoom settings on the Zoom support website.
