| dc.description.abstract | In today's world where everything is increasingly done on computers, university
exams are traditionally lagging behind and are still conducted using pen and
paper for the most part. Recently, however, NTNU has started a slow migration
process towards digital exams using Safe Exam Browser and Inspera Assessment on
private devices brought by the students on the exam day.
Digital exams have the potential to resolve some of the issues with old style
pen and paper exams, however, that is not without bringing its own set of
problems into the mix. In this thesis, I look at specifically how digital exams
using Safe Exam Browser and Inspera Assessment software might enable students to
cheat on the exams in ways that were not possible on pen and paper exams.
The main focus is on the interactions between the three components Safe Exam
Browser, Inspera Assessment and the students own computer to look at both
technical and theoretical ways that students can cheat during digital exams at
NTNU. And where possible, I provide solutions/mitigations to any problems I do
discover.
The current solution employed by NTNU to facilitate digital exams for students
does have several problematic security vulnerabilities. There are several ways a
student can manage to cheat on a digital exam that they would not be able to do
using a traditional pen and paper exam. However, the work to improve digital
exams are important, and there are definitely improvements that can be made.
While it's true that the current implementation is problematic, with
improvements to Safe Exam Browser and Inspera Assessment as well as the setup
used by the university it's entirely plausible to make digital exams almost as
secure as traditional pen and paper exams. | |
