Why semester exams need more than a test link
A semester exam is much more than a long quiz. Thousands of candidates across programs and campuses sit it on a timetable with little room for error, and the results feed progression, scholarships and degrees. When a result is disputed, the appeal panel asks what happened, what was seen and who decided.
Most exam offices handle that pressure with a small team. Timetables, identity checks, invigilation, malpractice cases, marking and results fall to the same people every season, and adding an online sitting often means one more tool, one more spreadsheet and one more handover.
The threats have changed as well. Cheating has moved off the webcam, and AI assistants, screen overlays, second devices and remote-control tools get past a camera-only check. A form link with a timer can’t tell you who sat the exam, and it leaves you with nothing to show an appeal panel.
Online exam software for universities has to close that gap. It needs a secure exam, a reliable identity record, people who review what the AI flags, and evidence that still holds up after results are out.
What online exam software for universities should do
Whether you’re comparing vendors or writing a tender, these are the criteria we suggest, and they are also how Proctorly is built.
Host the exam itself
The exam should run inside the platform that proctors it, so the attempt, the answers and the evidence stay in one place. Proctorly delivers the paper in a locked browser session. Question types include single and multiple choice, numeric answers with tolerance, short answer, essay, matching, ordering, hotspot and file upload, and there is a maths editor. Questions and options are drawn at random from item pools, so neighbors don’t see the same paper. You don’t need an ERP, LMS or campus system to run an exam. See our online exam software for the full list.
Check identity through the whole session
Identity checking shouldn’t stop at a photo taken at login. Proctorly matches the candidate’s face at the start and throughout the exam and rejects photo and video replays. It captures a government or institutional photo ID when the exam requires it, and higher-stakes sittings can add an active liveness challenge. A failed check goes to a person, never to an automatic fail. Read more about identity verification for online exams.
Watch for the threats candidates use now
Proctorly detects known generative-AI tools from a maintained list, second devices in view, remote-access and screen-sharing tools, known overlay apps and AI browsers, virtual machines, browser extensions, extra monitors and attempts to leave the exam window. For exams that need it, an optional Windows desktop agent checks the computer itself for running apps, overlays, mirrored displays, USB and Bluetooth devices, VPNs and extra browser windows. Each check is a signal for review, not proof. Our online proctoring page lists each threat with an honest note on its limits.
Send every flag to a person
AI raises flags with clips and snapshots, and a trained reviewer looks at each one and records a decision with a reason. No automated flag fails a candidate or imposes a sanction. Unusual audio and movement are raised as signals for a person to review in context, because reading aloud, assistive tools, household noise and disability-related movement are not misconduct. This is the core of human review proctoring.
Keep a record that survives an appeal
Every case keeps the clips, the timeline, the reviewer’s reasoning and a tamper-evident audit trail of every view, decision and change. For an appeal, an audit or your malpractice committee, you can export one evidence pack per case.
Cover the whole exam cycle when you want it
For many institutions, proctoring alone is enough. Others want registration, timetables, halls, marking and results on the same record. The Proctorly Examination module (formerly ExaminationOS) is optional. Proctoring works without it, and a proctored exam behaves the same way whether or not the module is licensed.
Fit the systems you already have
Moodle monitoring with OAuth and LTI 1.3 is live and supports Canvas, Blackboard, and other learning platforms. If your courses run in Moodle, Proctorly can monitor an exam that stays inside Moodle, in any browser, with sign-in and exam launch through Moodle’s own login. See moodle proctoring. D2L Brightspace also connects through LTI 1.3 today. Single sign-on with Microsoft or your LMS is planned, as are ERP or student information system connections through the Examination module.
Be honest about limits
No proctoring product sees everything, and none can guarantee that nobody cheats. A camera and a screen recording cannot see every way of getting help. Ask any vendor to tell you where its view ends. We publish what each setup can and cannot observe in a coverage summary on our Trust center.
The setup we recommend for end-semester exams
For end-semester exams, we recommend the Every flag reviewed assurance level, together with the Proctorly Examination module for timetables, halls, marking and results.
At Every flag reviewed, a trained Proctorly reviewer looks at every automated flag and records a decision before it reaches you, so only reviewed cases arrive in your exam office. Reviewers work 24×7 during exams, in English, with one reviewer for every 40 candidates. They review 95 of every 100 flags within 5 minutes, and the rest are still reviewed, just later. You can set your own turnaround.
“Every flag reviewed” covers every flag. It does not mean every minute of every recording is watched. Full-session review as a separate option is planned.
Choose an assurance level for each exam
The same platform runs a weekly quiz and an end-semester paper without becoming two products. You set the level for each exam:
- Recorded. Identity check, recording and automated flags, with your staff reviewing cases in the reviewer console. Good for quizzes and internal assessments.
- Every flag reviewed. Everything in Recorded, plus a Proctorly reviewer who looks at every automated flag and records a decision. Good for end-semester and entrance exams.
- Live pop-in. Everything in Every flag reviewed, plus a proctor watching a group who steps in by chat or audio when a signal fires. Good for higher-stakes sittings.
- Live dedicated. A proctor watches a small group for the whole exam, with a live check-in and identity confirmation. Good for certification and licensing.
For practice tests, record-only sittings capture the session without raising flags. If you’d like our people to run the live levels for you, see live proctoring.
Proctoring for universities that review in-house
Some institutions prefer their own trained staff to do the review. At the Recorded level, the reviewer console opens each case at the flagged moment, with webcam, screen and events on one timeline. Decisions take one key and require a reason, and escalation takes one step. Each candidate’s review priority score shows the signals behind it and is labeled a priority for review, never a finding.
On exam day, the exam-day control room shows your office every online sitting live, including who has started, who has been flagged and who needs help. Before anything is flagged, gentle on-screen reminders tell a candidate to stay in view, and every reminder is logged.
Whichever way you review, your institution names who makes the final decision and how candidates appeal.
The exam cycle on one record
With the Proctorly Examination module, your exam office works from one record from registration to result, so an appeal can trace every step. There are fewer handovers between spreadsheets, vendors and the exam office, and accreditation evidence builds up from marks you already record. Learn more about our exam management system.
Before exam day
- Curriculum and rules. Programs, courses, outcomes and the examination rules that apply to them.
- Question bank and papers. Questions mapped to course and program outcomes and Bloom’s levels, blueprints, AI-drafted questions approved by a moderator, and a sealed paper vault with timed release. See the question paper generator.
- Timetable. Automated timetabling with clash detection.
- Registration and fees. Online registration and fee collection with payment-gateway reconciliation.
- Eligibility and hall tickets. Rule-based eligibility, with hall tickets issued automatically.
Until the sitting starts, a sealed vault with timed release keeps papers out of inboxes and shared drives. For a wider plan, read our guide on how to prevent an exam paper leak.
On exam day
- Online candidates sit in a locked browser session on a laptop, desktop, tablet or phone, in Chrome, Safari, Edge or Ulaa, with randomized questions and section timers.
- Hall operations cover centers, rooms, seating that keeps likely collaborators apart, invigilator allocation, attendance and answer-book tracking.
- Incidents from halls and online sittings go into one malpractice workflow.
After exam day
- On-screen marking. Script digitization with chain of custody, anonymous marking, multi-pass valuation with variance rules, AI mark suggestions where the evaluator has the final say, and a face check on the evaluator while marking. Read more about on screen marking.
- Results. Grading rules, SGPA and CGPA, an exception center, committee approval and controlled publication.
- Revaluation. Requests with payment, tracked through to a new result.
- Credentials. Transcripts and degrees with QR verification.
- Accreditation analytics. Outcome attainment, progression audit and accreditation evidence, with questions answered in plain language.
Online, in the hall, or both
Most universities won’t move every paper online, and they shouldn’t have to. The Proctorly Examination module lets you run the same exam in a center and online, with one seat plan and one set of results. Online candidates are proctored on the Proctorly core, and hall candidates are managed through hall operations and your invigilators.
To be clear, we don’t offer proctoring inside the exam hall itself yet. In the hall, your invigilators remain the supervision, and Proctorly handles the seating, attendance, answer books, incidents and marking around them.
How a flag becomes a decision
An appeal panel will ask about this process, so here it is in full.
- Flag. During the exam, AI raises a flag with a clip, a snapshot and the events around it.
- Review. A trained reviewer opens the case at the flagged moment, decides whether it is an incident, and records why.
- Case record. Confirmed incidents appear in the candidate’s case record with the evidence, the timeline and the reviewer’s reasoning.
- Committee. Confirmed incidents go to a recorded committee decision, and no penalty is applied before it.
- Export. Your institution can export the evidence pack for an appeal or an audit.
Five evidence labels (Observed, Suspected, Blocked, Unobservable, Unavailable) are planned to keep a technical failure in its own category and out of the integrity score. So are a notice to the candidate when a case is opened and a reconsideration step. If your institution uses “unfair means” rules, our guide on exam malpractice explains how to align them with online evidence.
For your role
Controller of Examinations
You own the exam cycle, the results calendar and the malpractice process. Proctorly gives you an exam-day control room for every online sitting, flags that are reviewed before they reach you, and a malpractice workflow that ends in a recorded committee decision. With the Examination module, the timetable, hall tickets, seating, marking and result publication sit on the same record, so you can see where each program stands against the results date. If a result is challenged, the evidence pack is one export away.
Registrar
You answer for the record long after the exam is over. Proctorly keeps a tamper-evident audit trail of every view, decision and change, and each case record holds the clips, timeline and reasoning behind it. With the Examination module, revaluation requests are tracked to a new result, and transcripts and degrees carry QR verification. Your institution sets retention for each exam policy.
Deans and faculty
Faculty build questions in an outcome-mapped bank, where a moderator approves AI-drafted questions before anyone uses them. Anonymous on-screen marking keeps the evaluator in charge of every mark, and outcome attainment builds into accreditation evidence. If you’d also like help building courses, AcademicOS offers course creation tools with an AI teaching assistant, and faculty approve everything the AI drafts.
IT and information security
Exams run inside Proctorly, so there is nothing to install on campus servers. Data is hosted in the client’s geographic location by default, and institutions can keep data in their own S3 bucket. Each institution’s data is kept separate, staff get least-privilege access, and every access is logged, our reviewers’ included. An empanelled auditor carried out vulnerability assessment and penetration testing, and a summary is available on request. See security and data handling.
Candidates, data and fairness
What candidates need. A laptop, desktop, tablet or phone with a camera and microphone, Chrome, Safari, Edge or Ulaa, and at least 512 Kbps download and 128 Kbps upload. Some exams also ask candidates to install the small Proctorly desktop app on a Windows computer, and the exam link says so. Support is available 24×7 during exams, and candidates can run a public system check without logging in.
No hidden monitoring. Candidates are told what is captured before the exam starts. We do not infer emotion, personality or intent from a candidate’s face or voice.
Data and the law. We design for India’s DPDP Act, GDPR, FERPA and biometric laws such as Illinois BIPA. Candidate recordings and data are not used to train AI models unless your institution opts in. Read more about proctoring privacy, or see our explainer on the dpdp act for universities.
Accommodations. We plan to let you record extra time, breaks, permitted assistive software and reading aloud as accommodations for each candidate, so they don’t raise the flags they otherwise would. If some of your candidates can’t use face verification, talk to us and we will plan the exam with you. See proctoring accommodations.
Explore by use case
Each use case is a set of settings on one platform, and none of them is a separate product. The pages below set out the setup we recommend and what you get.
- Online degrees and distance learning. Assess learners fairly wherever they log in from, with a setup for UGC online degree and ODL programs.
- Entrance and admissions. Screen applicants at scale without booking a center in every city. You can run an online entrance exam on the core today, and the full Entrance Examination and Selection module, from application to offer, is planned.
- Certification and licensing. Remote exams that meet the identity and evidence standard your board expects. See certification exam proctoring.
Frequently asked questions
Does AI decide whether a student cheated?
No. AI raises flags with clips and snapshots. A trained reviewer looks at each flag and records a decision with a reason, and your institution makes the final finding through its own committee. No automated flag fails a candidate or imposes a sanction. Each candidate’s score is labeled a priority for review, never a finding, and shows the signals behind it.
Do we need an LMS or ERP to run online exams?
No. Exams run inside Proctorly, so the attempt, answers and evidence stay in one place without any campus system. If you teach in an LMS, Moodle monitoring with OAuth and LTI 1.3 is live and supports Canvas, Blackboard, and other learning platforms. Exams can stay inside Moodle, with sign-in through Moodle’s own login, and D2L Brightspace connects through LTI 1.3 as well.
Can we mix hall and online candidates in one exam?
Yes, with the Proctorly Examination module. You run the same exam in a center and online, with one seat plan and one set of results, and online candidates are proctored on the Proctorly core. We don’t offer proctoring inside the hall itself yet, so your invigilators supervise hall candidates while Proctorly handles seating, attendance, answer books, incidents and marking.
Can Proctorly guarantee that no one cheats?
No proctoring product can, and you should be wary of any that claims to. Proctorly detects a published set of known threats, including AI tools, second devices, remote access and overlays. It records what happened and sends every flag to a person. We tell you where our view ends and publish a coverage summary for each supported setup.
What happens if a student’s internet drops during the exam?
The interruption is recorded as a technical gap, not as misconduct. Candidates can contact support straight away from the help link on the exam screen, 24×7 during exams. Resuming after a dropped connection with answers kept is planned, along with a separate evidence category that keeps technical gaps out of the integrity score.
How long does setup take before an exam season?
That depends on how many papers, programs and candidates you have, and on whether you add the Proctorly Examination module. Share your exam calendar and candidate numbers, and before you commit, we will propose an assurance level and a setup plan with a timeline. There is no free trial, because every exam needs setting up, but you can watch a full walkthrough first.