8 min read
The Surveillance State of Education
<p id="">When COVID-19 shut down in-person education a year ago, college and university staff worried that students would cheat on their remote exams. Many required students to download and install proctoring software that “…is effectively indistinguishable from spyware,” as the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) <a href="https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2020/08/proctoring-apps-subject-students-unnecessary-surveillance" id=""><strong id="">warned</strong></a>. These technologies surveil students through their webcams, microphones, keystrokes, browsing history, and log files. The resulting data is fed into an AI, which flags “suspicious” behaviors.</p><p id="">To understand what this is like for students, I spoke to members of a student advisory board (SAB) associated with Rosalyn.ai, a remote proctoring solution (full disclosure: I’m an investor in Rosalyn.ai). This SAB, the first of its kind in the remote proctoring space, offers a student perspective on privacy, inclusion, equity, and other important issues.</p><p id="">We have learned from students that the proctoring AIs frequently mistake their innocent actions for cheating. Even worse, these facial recognition technologies disproportionately flag students of color, students with disabilities, and those who wear religious garb. Moreover, students without access to high-bandwidth internet — often living in under-resourced communities — have found that proctoring solutions crash on them and thereby interfere with their tests or lead to accusations of cheating.</p><p id="">Luz Elena Anaya Chong, an SAB member who studies international business at Texas State University, critiqued the fear-based approach inherent to most remote proctoring solutions. “If you look away, you’ll get flagged. If you do this, you’ll get flagged,” says Elena. She described the experience as “nerve-wracking.”</p><p id="">Imagine taking a two-day, 12-hour bar exam with a remote proctor. You were already nervous, but now your webcam is recording and relaying your every move, noise, and keystroke to an AI that tries to spot cheating. You’re not sure what will trigger it. Looking at the ceiling in deep thought might do it. If you’re diabetic, checking your glucose monitor could raise suspicion. Standing up to use the restroom could raise an alert, which is why some law students have chosen to urinate on themselves during the bar exam rather than risk an accusation.</p><p id="">Students tell me that situations flagged by the AI proctor are often sent to a judicial board, which can take weeks if not months to see the case. The student may be forced to accept a failed grade in the meantime, hurting their efforts to land an internship, fellowship, job, or other opportunity. It is reminiscent of the Red Scare — once the AI proctor makes an accusation, the damage is already done, even if the student is innocent.</p><p id="">In a perfect world, faculty would give proctor-free exams protected by an honor code. In reality, if there’s no proctor — or the system is too lax — the students who don’t cheat fall behind and feel punished for doing the right thing. Jessica Ramses ENG22, a systems engineering student at the University of Pennsylvania, says students want to be in an environment where “they can do their best and not fear that others are getting ahead in unethical ways.”<br></p><blockquote><em id="">“Cheating happens, especially in remote learning, but students shouldn’t spend their exams in fear of triggering an AI proctor that has no conscience and no intrinsic concern for their education.”</em></blockquote><p id="">Instead of listening to students’ concerns, many proctoring platforms have intimidated critics with <a href="https://www.thefire.org/proctoru-threatens-uc-santa-barbara-faculty-over-criticism-during-coronavirus-crisis/" id=""><strong id="">legal threats</strong></a> and <a href="https://techcrunch.com/2020/11/05/proctorio-dmca-copyright-critical-tweets/" id=""><strong id="">copyright takedown notices</strong></a>. No wonder students and faculty across the U.S. have boycotted these proctoring solutions. There seems to be no space for dialogue with the vendors.</p><p id="">Thus, this “Ed Scare” is at an impasse. <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/education/another-problem-with-shifting-education-online-a-rise-in-cheating/2020/08/07/1284c9f6-d762-11ea-aff6-220dd3a14741_story.html" id=""><strong id="">Cheating happens</strong></a>, especially in remote learning, but students shouldn’t spend their exams in fear of triggering an AI proctor that has no conscience and no intrinsic concern for their education.</p><p></p><p id=""></p>
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