In response to the COVID pandemic, many pharmacy-based educational institutions are looking for new ways to increase the proportion of offline vs online courses that they offer. Traditionally, the ratio has been in favour of offline courses due to the lack of technology. However, new developments in IT spurred by COVID-19 are making online learning experiences that surpass traditional learning methods.

Much of the student face-to-face tutorial aspects of traditional courses can easily be dealt with using a remote discussion tool, such as Zoom, WebEx or Microsoft Teams. These services enable multiple students to attend online tutorials and get live feedback from tutors which is highly valued by students (see adapted learning hierarchy above). The issue, however, arises not in the teaching of the subject but in the assessment of what has been learned. Gone are the days of ushering groups of students into a large hall to take an exam. So then, how can students be remotely and securely assessed?

Simultaneous video proctoring

One quick and easy way would be to conduct the exams as they have been in the past, using the same technology which enables online tutorials. This would mean a tutor hosts an online chat and watches the user as they take the exam via a webcam. A key issue here is that exams are often conducted in bulk to reduce the amount of post-exam cross-talk. This would affect scalability as there are inherent limitations of simultaneous live feeds.

Furthermore, with this type of live solution, how does the examiner know the person typing the exam answer is actually the person on the video? The examinee could be showing their face to the camera but someone else could be typing in the text for the exam. There are hundreds of exam-taking services online which students could use to hire a remote professional to take their exam for them, here are just a few:

• https://www.takemyonlineexams.com/ – a service based out of New York will sit an online exam for as little as $30.
• https://www.wetakeclasses.com/ – offers an open service to users covering most science-based topics.
• https://takemytests.com/ – can be used by professionals who need to take on an online psychometric exam for a job interview.

In recent years, new techniques have been used to combat some of these issues including IP restrictions and Two-Factor Authentication. However, none of which can guarantee 100% security.

So what would the attributes of the most secure system look like?

• ID verification – when dealing with the web there is a hierarchy of user ID verification options. Solutions are often weighted against each other by the ease of use versus the level of security they offer. Ideally, the highest class of verification would be the use of a smartphone which would scan data from NFC enabled passports, link this to phone-based biometric scanners which would then generate a QR passcode upon activation and allow the student to enter an online exam.
• Live vs recorded proctoring – once the verified student has entered the exam, live proctoring would be preferable, however, as previously mentioned this may be difficult to scale. Therefore, the solution would need to have both a live function where multiple examiners could invigilate multiple student groups and a recorded function where the exam attempt can be reviewed afterwards.
• Third-party exam taker avoidance – having a video trained on someone’s face does not mean that they are actually typing the data into the examination system. Some online solutions require the use of a second camera (or mirror), situated behind the user to encapsulate the examinee. However, this has inherent hardware limitations. A best of class solution would combine remote face proctoring with screen capture technology which would ensure student compliance.
• Exam question rewriting – as to ensure human answers. Imagine a student answering a question such as what is the main side effect of NSAIDs, the student could do a quick Google search to get the answer. Factual recall questions should be removed in exams and replaced with scenarios which require the student to formulate the best answer. Good examples of this are eMCQs which were recently released in the GPhC pharmacist Registration Assessment (pharmacist pre-reg exam).

At Voyager Medical we are currently designing a new examination module which sits in our pharmacy quality management system- hubnet.io, if you are interested please contact us.