Online courses have become a staple in higher education, with more than half of college students enrolling in at least one online class in 2022. With this shift to remote learning, there comes a pressing need for secure online testing options to uphold academic integrity. With feedback and support from our instructors, we’ve made improvements to WebAssign to help you monitor your online exams.
Expanding secure online testing options in WebAssign
To support you in delivering more secure online exams to your students, WebAssign is expanding its LockDown Browser capabilities to include the integration of Respondus Monitor for fall 2025 classes. Respondus Monitor is an automated proctoring solution that records students via webcam during online exams and provides instructors with valuable analytics to flag areas of concern. This feature will be optional.
We chose to integrate Respondus Monitor due to its popularity in the higher ed proctoring software market. Plus, Cengage instructors we surveyed identified Respondus as their preferred solution, making it a logical choice for improving the integrity of online assessments.
Key features of the Respondus Monitor integration
- Customizable Monitoring Settings: You can tailor the monitoring experience. For example, you can require students to show their ID or check their testing environment before starting the exam.
- Webcam Recording: The integration allows for live recording of students during assessments, ensuring a secure testing environment.
- Access to Proctoring Analytics: You’ll receive comprehensive proctoring results, complete with a Review Priority feature that highlights potential areas of concern, helping you determine which exam results need further review.
- Seamless Integration: This integration simplifies the process, allowing students to navigate easily from their Learning Management System (LMS) to WebAssign for their exam without disruption.
Ways to purchase Respondus Monitor
You and your colleagues will choose how to approach purchasing Respondus Monitor. The options include:
- Institutional Site License Via Respondus: If your institution already has a Respondus site license, you will be able to connect that license with WebAssign. Then, you can enable Respondus Monitor for whichever assignments you choose. Students will not have to do anything, as access is already paid for by the institution.
- Individual Student Purchase: After selecting the individual student purchase option, you can enable the Respondus Monitor for assignments. The first time the student goes to take their test with Respondus Monitor, they will be prompted with a paywall that leads to the Respondus eCommerce site. Once they pay the fee they have unlimited access to take as many tests with Respondus as the instructor creates for that course.
As online education continues to grow, institutions and instructors continue to explore new and innovative ways to uphold academic integrity in their courses. With the integration of Respondus Monitor in WebAssign, we’re partnering with you to alleviate these concerns – giving you more options to enhance the security of online testing in your courses.
Curious about what else is new in WebAssign? Watch this video to get a tour of the latest updates.
