Biometrics
is the newest tool colleges and universities are using in the battle against
online cheating. Instead of using passwords and personal identification numbers
to authenticate a student taking an exam, biometrics involves gestures and
writing patterns which can’t be duplicated.
The
technology requires students to write a series of letters and numbers into a
designated box. The gestures used must match previously entered examples and
handwriting habits before the student is allowed to take the online test.
The
technology was 99% effective in third-party testing, triple the rate required
by the National Institutes of Standards and Technology, according to a report
in eCampus News.
In addition, a study from eduKan, a consortium of Kansas community colleges, saw an 80% reduction in
test-proctoring costs.
“It’s
a real budgetary issue for colleges,” said Jeffrey Maynard, CEO of BiometricSignature ID, the
company that developed the system used in the eduKan research. “So it’s not
just a more reliable way to protect against [cheating on exams], but it makes
perfect financial sense.”