April 13, 2021
Dear Colleagues,
The University of Oregon will discontinue use of remote proctoring solutions that rely on artificial intelligence at the close of spring term 2021. We made the decision after careful consideration, weighing the needs for effective assessment tools against student privacy concerns. The ProctorU Record+ contract that UO approved for use over the past year will cease to be available to UO faculty in June immediately following spring final exams. The scope of this decision reaches beyond the use of this specific service to include any tool that relies primarily on AI surveillance.
We appreciate the significant academic integrity concerns faculty have raised as we navigate the ongoing impacts of the COVID pandemic and remote instruction—your efforts to ensure students are truly learning and authentically assessed matter. For many faculty, this has meant developing new assessment strategies and using new tools.
The Office of the Provost wants to assure you that it is here to support you and to elevate a culture of academic integrity on our campus. To assist you, we have developed several action items and resources that will surely have a positive impact in our quest to improve academic integrity. They include:
- Collaborating with Student Services and Enrollment Management, the Office of the Dean of Students, and UO Libraries on a new Canvas module about academic integrity that will become a required part of IntroDUCKtion's suite of engagements and that all new undergraduate students will complete. This will establish early on that creating a strong culture of academic integrity at UO is a collective, university-wide project.
- Offering, with our campus partners, Academic Integrity at UO, a compilation of resources that give clear instructional advice on communicating about integrity, designing assessments, and reporting misconduct. You’ll also find student-facing materials that you can import directly into your Canvas course.
- Inviting faculty who want to move away from high-stakes exams to apply for a stipend-supported opportunity to develop new approaches to assessment as part of the 2021 UO Summer Teaching Institute. Learn more and apply.
As a reminder, when considering assessment strategies it is current policy that faculty use only university-approved, FERPA-compliant software and cloud-based services for course activities involving the storage and transmission of student data (see data security chart here). Zoom proctoring is discouraged. Instructors are reminded that Academic Council requires the availability of make-ups or alternatives to exams in response to our COVID-19 pandemic context; that many students have AEC-approved and legally mandated testing accommodations; and that a wide range of behaviors consistent with academic integrity may be visible in testing situations that reflect, for example, environmental factors or the neurodiversity of our students.
In fall, faculty can expect expanded proctoring capacity for fully online courses through the UO Online Exam Center. UO Online will increase the number of seats available in the existing Exam Center in Knight Library and consider expansion to other locations on campus. We hope these offerings feel supportive of your aspirations to assess students well, and affirm the foundational values of our academic community to build and represent knowledge ethically. Please send an email to execviceprovost@uoregon.edu if you want to share additional ideas for resources that the Office of the Provost might provide.
Sincerely,
Patrick Phillips
Provost and Senior Vice President
Janet Woodruff-Borden
Executive Vice Provost for Academic Affairs