Security and Privacy Implications of Remote Proctoring for School Policies and Practices

高等教育机构已稳步扩大线上课程，尤其是在COVID-19疫情开始后。这是第一次，许多教师面临着如何有效地管理考试，测验和其他课堂作业的困境，在一个在线环境中，现场，亲自监考是不可用的。在线监考迅速成为一个有吸引力的选择，远程监控学生，同时完成一项任务。为了应对这种越来越多的转向在家学习（和测试），本项目将研究远程监考服务的安全和隐私影响，因为它们涉及到学校政策和教育实践。这项多管齐下的研究计划将研究这些服务如何影响学生，教育工作者和机构的安全和隐私。该研究计划的灵感来自于为应对COVID-19大流行而广泛采用的远程监考服务。然而，研究结果将更广泛地适用，因为机构可能会继续提供虚拟课程和在线技术服务，以支持这些课程。研究活动是多学科的，将促进教育学知识的发展，并解决源于人类行为和安全和隐私选择的漏洞。在线监督技术需要广泛的监控能力才能正常工作;这些包括用于观察行为的系统（例如，屏幕捕获和视频/音频记录）和限制行为（例如，锁定浏览和安装网络防火墙规则）。总之，这些监控和限制功能会给在此环境中完成作业的学生带来隐私和安全风险。研究活动将直接解决学生，教育工作者和机构如何理解这种接触及其影响。此外，该项目将确定有效和必要的监测和限制种类。研究活动和研究结果也将有助于基础研究在可用的安全/隐私和教育研究，考虑在线监考工具的教学法和有效性。该项目是由安全和值得信赖的网络空间（SaTC）计划，该计划资助的建议，解决网络安全和隐私，在这种情况下，特别是网络安全教育的支持。SATC计划与联邦网络安全研究和发展战略计划和国家隐私研究战略保持一致，以保护和维护网络系统日益增长的社会和经济效益，同时确保安全和隐私。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

Higher education institutions have steadily expanded online course offerings, especially after the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. For the first time, many instructors were faced with the dilemma of how to administer exams, quizzes effectively, and other in-class assignments in an online setting in which live, in-person proctoring was not available. Online proctoring quickly became an attractive option to monitor students remotely while completing an assignment. In response to this increasing shift towards learning (and testing) from home, this project will examine the security and privacy implications of remote proctoring services as they pertain to school policies and educational practices. This multi-pronged research program will examine how these services impact students, educators, and institutions' security and privacy. The research program is inspired by the widespread adoption of remote proctoring services in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. However, the findings will be more broadly applicable as institutions will likely continue to offer virtual classes and online technology services to support those classes.The research activities are multidisciplinary and will advance knowledge in pedagogy as well as address vulnerabilities that stem from human behaviors and choices in security and privacy. Online proctoring technology requires extensive monitoring capabilities to work properly; these include systems for observing behavior (e.g., screen capture and video/audio recording) and restricting behavior (e.g., lock-down browsing and the installation of network firewall rules). In combination, these monitoring and restricting functionalities impose privacy and security risks on the students who are completing assignments in this setting. The research activities will directly address how students, educators, and institutions understand this exposure and its impact. Additionally, the project will identify the kinds of monitoring and restrictions that are effective and necessary. The research activities and findings will also contribute to fundamental research in usable security/privacy and educational research that considers the pedagogy and efficacy of online proctoring tools.This project is supported by the Secure and Trustworthy Cyberspace (SaTC) program, which funds proposals that address cybersecurity and privacy, and in this case specifically cybersecurity education. The SaTC program aligns with the Federal Cybersecurity Research and Development Strategic Plan and the National Privacy Research Strategy to protect and preserve the growing social and economic benefits of cyber systems while ensuring security and privacy.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.