What does "Went Offline" in the Proctoring report mean?
"Went offline for 120 seconds" means that the candidate was not connected to the internet for 120 seconds
When a candidate is being proctored via AutoProctor, AutoProctor continually pings a server from the browser where the test is being taken. This ping happens at regular intervals (say, every 5 seconds). So, if a candidate starts a test at 11:00 and finishes it at 11:10, then the server should receive a ping at 11:00:05, 11:00:10, 11:00:15, .., 11:09:55. If we see a few pings missing, we can infer that internet connectivity was lost.
For eg, if there were no pings at 11:00:30, 11:00:35 and 11:00:40, but there was a ping at 11:00:45 the report will say "Went offline for 10 seconds from 11:00:30 to 11:00:40".
How did the candidate attempt the test even though it says they were disconnected?
Especially if your questions show up all at once, the candidate doesn't need to be connected to the internet to answer them. You need the internet only if you want to load the next question, or if you want to submit the quiz. In the time gap, the internet connection may have been lost. Even if the questions show up one-by-one, the candidate doesn't need to be connected to the internet unless they are navigating to the next question.
The report says that the candidate was offline, but I see that proctoring (like tab switch and multiple face detection) happened during that time period.
AutoProctor is awesome like that All the code that AutoProctor needs to detect violations is downloaded before the test starts. So, even if the candidate turns the internet off, proctoring actually continues. You can test this yourself. Attempt our demo test and midway through the test, turn your internet off and deliberately commit violations. Once you submit the test, in the report, you will see these violations show up!
In other words, not just does AutoProctor detect candidates going offline, it continues to work even when the candidates are offline. Amazeballs!
If a proctoring report says that a candidate went offline, can we conclude that they cheated?
No. We can only say definitively that the candidate didn't have internet connectivity. Whether that was because they turned internet off to cheat, or their internet suffered from a genuine problem isn't something that we can determine. We leave it to you to judge that.
How does AutoProctor track internet connectivity?
When a candidate is being proctored via AutoProctor, AutoProctor continually pings a server from the browser where the test is being taken. This ping happens at regular intervals (say, every 5 seconds). So, if a candidate starts a test at 11:00 and finishes it at 11:10, then the server should receive a ping at 11:00:05, 11:00:10, 11:00:15, .., 11:09:55. If we see a few pings missing, we can infer that internet connectivity was lost.
For eg, if there were no pings at 11:00:30, 11:00:35 and 11:00:40, but there was a ping at 11:00:45 the report will say "Went offline for 10 seconds from 11:00:30 to 11:00:40".
FAQs
How did the candidate attempt the test even though it says they were disconnected?
Especially if your questions show up all at once, the candidate doesn't need to be connected to the internet to answer them. You need the internet only if you want to load the next question, or if you want to submit the quiz. In the time gap, the internet connection may have been lost. Even if the questions show up one-by-one, the candidate doesn't need to be connected to the internet unless they are navigating to the next question.
The report says that the candidate was offline, but I see that proctoring (like tab switch and multiple face detection) happened during that time period.
AutoProctor is awesome like that All the code that AutoProctor needs to detect violations is downloaded before the test starts. So, even if the candidate turns the internet off, proctoring actually continues. You can test this yourself. Attempt our demo test and midway through the test, turn your internet off and deliberately commit violations. Once you submit the test, in the report, you will see these violations show up!
In other words, not just does AutoProctor detect candidates going offline, it continues to work even when the candidates are offline. Amazeballs!
If a proctoring report says that a candidate went offline, can we conclude that they cheated?
No. We can only say definitively that the candidate didn't have internet connectivity. Whether that was because they turned internet off to cheat, or their internet suffered from a genuine problem isn't something that we can determine. We leave it to you to judge that.
Updated on: 10/16/2024
Thank you!