OFF-CAMPUS ONLINE PROCTORED EXAMS

If you are living far from the MSU campus at the time of the exam, beyond a reasonable commuting distance (1 hour drive time) AND not enrolled in a regular MSU course meeting on MSU's campus, you may choose to have your exams administered using an online video proctor. Your enrollment will be verified and if you are in a regular (non-online) MSU course, you must take your exams at MSU (if you are close enough to travel here for classes, you are close enough to take our two exams here). If you do not meet these criteria or wish to take your two exams at MSU, you should enroll in section 730.

If the above criteria are met, you must enroll in section 731. Students enrolled in section 730 will take their exams at MSU.

Hardware requirements for online proctored exams include a modern, good computer equipped with:

• Computer must be either a laptop or a desktop (no tablets or chromebooks)
• A reliable high speed internet connection at the time of the exam (if you don't have access to this, for whatever reason, you should not enroll in the course). Minimum speed of 2.0Mbps download and 2.0Mbps upload. You can check your speed here: http://www.speedtest.net/ If you do not reliably have these speeds, you will have to take your exams at MSU in East Lansing on the scheduled dates.
• Speakers (built-in or external)
• Microphone (built-in or external)
• Web camera
• Windows or Mac operating system
• Browser with pop-up blocker disabled: (Internet Explorer, Safari, Chrome or Firefox)

Online exams will be proctored by an online proctor/monitoring service called Examity (www.examity.com). All access to examity and your exams will be done in Lon-Capa. In order to arrange for your online proctored exams, you will need to do an initial set-up of your Examity Profile. You will be able to set up your profile after open add ends in the afternoon of May 17 (when it's available, you will receive an mail confirming its availability). Initial setup involves two steps as follows:

• In the "Contents" of the course in Lon-Capa, click on "Go to Examity Dashboard(for online exam students only)"
• Click on the "Initial Setup of Examity" link. This will bring you to your Examity dashboard where you must create a profile.
• Click on the "My Profile" icon to create a profile. Here you will:
  • Identify your time zone. Within EXAMITY only, your self selected exam times will show up as your local time based on the time zone you enter in this step. All other times associated with this course a published as Eastern time (i.e. in Lon-Capa and in this syllabus)..
  • upload a scan or photo of a picture ID, such as a driver's license or student ID. This must be the complete ID not just a picture.
  • Select three security questions from a given set and provide answers to them
  • Enter your biometric keystroke signature. All you have to do is enter your first name (no caps), your last name (no caps) and your first and last names (no caps or spaces)
  • Later, when you take your exams, your identity will be verified with your uploaded picture of your photo ID(you will need to reshow via your webcam to your online proctor) and one of your security questions (please remember your responses). Finally, you will be asked for your biometric signature.
  • If you receive all three green check marks, you are done setting up your Examity account. You can click logout now.
• The next step is to schedule your exams

Scheduling your exams(must have already created a profile)

You will be able to schedule your time slot for the midterm exam on Friday morning, May 25 and you will be able to schedule your time slot for the final exam on Thursday, June 7.

• In Lon-Capa, open your Examity Dashboard
• Click on the "Schedule Exam" picture and select a time slot
  • Exam 1 is one hour long and you can schedule your exam start time anytime between Wednesday, May 30 at 6PM eastern time and Thursday, May 31 at 5:00PM eastern time.
  • Final Exam is two hours long and you can schedule your exam start time anytime between Wednesday, June 27 at 7:00PM eastern time and Thursday, June 28 at 5:00PM eastern time
  • The granularity is 30 minutes, meaning you can choose start times on the half hour or the hour.
  • Examity has a large number of exams to proctor each day, but a finite number of employees and a finite amount of computational resources to do so. Please be patient and have several time slots ready on your schedule when selecting a start time. Times slots are filled on a first come first serve basis.
  • If your exam is scheduled successfully, you will receive a confirmation message from Examity.
  • If you scheduled your exam more than 24 hours in advance of the exam, you will not be charged any proctoring fee. The MSU Physics department will pay this cost. However, if you schedule it less than 24 hours in advance of the exam, you will have to pay the cost of the exam as an on-demand proctoring fee. There is no reason to wait this long, as the scheduling will be available to you weeks in advance of each exam.

  Taking your exam(must have already scheduled your exam)

  • The midterm is one hour long and the final is two hours long
  • Before you start the exam, you need to do the following:
    • Find a quiet room where you will be alone for the duration of the exam.
    • Eliminate all possible distractions. No TV, no background music, no cell phones, no head phones are allowed while taking the exam.
    • If you are going to use a laptop, plug it in to an outlet, don't run it on battery.
    • If you have a choice between wired and wireless network, go with the wired network: it provides a higher speed and a more reliable connection than wireless. Avoid wireless keyboards and mice if possible.
    • Make sure your handheld calculator has fresh batteries and it works.
    • Have several pens or pencils, your one-page two-sided help sheet of original hand written notes for the midterm (two for the final) and BLANK scrap paper ready.
    • Close all applications on your computer to maximize your computer's power and minimize your distraction.
    • Start a fresh browser session with only one single tab. No youtube, ebay, google, email or instant messaging are allowed while taking the exam. The proctor will warn you, if you start to browse the internet while taking the exam and will notify me of this as a possible violation of MSU's academic integrity policy. Browsing outside of Lon-Capa or in other folders outside of the exam in Lon-Capa during the exam will result in a penalty grade of zero for the exam.
    • You are now ready to start.
      
  • Logon to Lon-Capa and click on the item "Start Midterm exam with Examity" for the midterm or "Start the Final Exam with Examity" for the Final Exam. You may be asked to wait a minute or two at this point, please be patient.
  • The exam folder will be locked and only the proctor can unlock it. Clicking on the exam folder will not open it.
  • Citrix GotoMeeting software will be installed on your computer. Once this is done and it is ready, you will be connected with your proctor via audio.
  • Your proctor will ask you to share your web camera. Once this is done, you and your proctor will see you. You will not see the proctor while taking the exam.
  • All the steps might take several minutes and you can start logging in 10-15 minutes before your scheduled time. If you are a couple minutes behind schedule, do not panic! you will be permitted to start a couple minutes late and once you start the exam you will have 60 minutes for the midterm (120 minutes for the final).
  • Before starting the exam, you will need to verify your identity.
    • Identify yourself by stating your name, showing your ID to the camera, entering your biometric keystroke you set up when creating your profile and answering one of the security questions you set up when you created your profile..
    • The proctor will not allow you to start the exam if you answer your security question incorrectly
  • The proctor will read the rules for the exam and you will have to say "Yes" indicating you agree to each of them.
  • You will then click on a set of "Agree" buttons and asked to show your work area with your web cam. The only items allowed on your work space are:
    • a calculator
    • your double sided, original handwritten set of notes (one for the mid term, two for the final)
    • BLANK scrap pieces of paper
  • For troubleshooting purposes, your proctor may ask you to release control of your computer. Please lift your hands away from the keyboard and mouse and allow the proctor to take over.
  • Go back to the original LON-CAPA TAB
    • Click on the Midterm Exam folder (or final Exam folder)
    • Click on the first problem (not the exam cover sheet) to start the Lon-Capa proctor validation process
    • You proctor will now need to take control of your computer. He/she will enter in the proctor name ("examity.proctor") and the password to unlock your exam and then return access to your computer.
    • Lon-Capa will inform you the folder is available for only a limited time
    • Click on the "Show resource" button and Lon-capa will show you the first question.
    • Once you start your exam, a timer starts in Lon-Capa and this timer cannot be stopped. The timer will be displayed in the upper right corner of the Lon-Capa window.
    • When the time is up, the contents of the exam folder will become hidden to you.
    • During the exam, the video from your camera and all the activities on your desktop are monitored and recorded. You will stay in your chair for the duration of the exam. You can use the green LON-CAPA arrows to move forward and backward between the questions of the exam. You cannot leave the exam folder, because the folders in front of it and after it will be closed. You are not allowed to open any other computer applications or browser tabs during the exam. When the timer goes down to zero, the contents of the exam folder will become hidden. If you wish to finish your exam early, you can click on the "Done" button in the upper right of the LON-CAPA window. You tell the proctor you are done and you say bye to each other. You log out of LON-CAPA and Examity by clicking on the "Logout" links or buttons. You close your browser, you are done.

  EXAMITY student support: 1-855-EXAMITY (1-855-392-6489) select option 1. Examity also offers help via email and chat -- both of these are linked on every examity web page.

If you are taking a regular, non-online class meeting at MSU during the session (i.e. PHY 251), you must take your exams here at MSU. Missing an exam due to not scheduling your exam through examity will result in a score of 0 for the exam.

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Last updated: March 2, 2018