Digital Smarts - Lawmakers Look into Proctoring Software Bias

For those fortunate enough to not have had their education derailed by the coronavirus pandemic, remote proctoring may be a foreign concept. It some cases, it literally involves a stranger watching you take a test through your webcam as a way to guard against cheating. In other instances, an opaque computer-vision system attempts to detect "abnormal exam-taker activity" — whatever that may mean. Now lawmakers have vowed to look further into possibly discriminatory glitches including allegations that web cams have trouble clearly seeing or “registering” black and brown students’ faces unless the lighting is just right, a perceived lack of transparency, and concerns that teachers are basing cheating accusations on what may be flawed technology.