Besides providing distance learning education, the university is implementing an examination system that employs the Examus solution.
Examus Proctoring is a technology for remote control and verification of online exams. The technology is based on artificial intelligence and computer vision that helps to identify and analyze the behavior of students in terms of standards of examination.
“In the COVID-19 pandemic, we, like many other educational institutions, faced the need to transition into an online format of learning. In the new reality, it is crucial for us to keep a fair system of student control and assessment, especially during the examination period. After all, the qualification of future specialists is at stake. We faced the problem of finding a suitable service that would fulfill all the needs of our institution: from providing online lectures to analysis of big data that emerged with the transition to remote learning. Examus was the only solution that met our requirements. We conducted the winter examination 2020-2021 using this service and reached 9,628 students. We plan to replicate this successful experience on an annual basis,” said Mukatayev Nurlan Serikovich, head of the IT department at ENU.
During online examination, the service facilitates the task of the instructor by gathering information on academic honesty and behavior of the student: it monitors the direction of an individual’s gaze, recognizes emotions, analyzes sounds in the room, records violations on the video and prepares reports. Moreover, when the student enters the exam, the service identifies his face with the help of a video camera and compares it to registration data. The final decision on the evaluation of the student’s exam performance is to be made by the instructor. In case of violation, like switching an active tab or a student going out from the exam, the system notifies the proctor, who monitors the examination process, to make sure the incident occurred and to take a corresponding decision.
In the framework of implementing the Examus system at ENU, we used the processing power of the Microsoft Azure cloud platform, which provides reliability and fault tolerance of the solution, as well as the possibility of storing data on servers located in data centers without the need of using local capacity.
“The high-quality distance examination process significantly broadens the geographical reach of university applicants as well as opportunities for future education and knowledge assessment. In partnership with Microsoft, we strive to facilitate the transition of educational institutions to a hybrid format and to ensure their smooth and efficient operation including online format,” said Mariya Mashkeyeva, head of business development.
In addition to online examination, the solution allows organizing the admission process remotely as well as holding international olympiads and competitions.
“Today digital technologies offer unlimited educational opportunities. Microsoft’s modern solutions provide opportunities for educational institutions to introduce innovative learning tools and approaches and to maintain high-quality educational services regardless of the working environment, whether offline or in online format,” said Nurlan Zhanybek, the head of Microsoft’s education sector in Kazakhstan and the CIS countries.
