Examity is an online proctoring solution that gives students the flexibility to take exams remotely. It provides teachers, schools, and students with the tools they need to prevent cheating and to preserve integrity. Examity service is paid for by the university.
Using Examity for Students
- onQ Examity Student Quick Guide for Live Proctoring (PDF, 1.6 MB)
- onQ Examity Student Quick Guide for Automated Proctoring (PDF 1.5MB)
- When you complete your exam or assessment, you may be observed by a live proctor, or you may have a completely automated experience where your exam/assessment is recorded from start to finish to make sure that no one has any unfair advantages while testing
- Your instructor will be notified of any suspicious activities and will have video evidence of your session
- Your instructor will advise you of the level of proctoring involved for your exam.
The Examity service features a full integration with onQ, the Queen's Learning Management System (LMS), facilitating the setup of exams by allowing the direct transfer of course, exam, and student enrolment data to the Examity system.
- The first step is to set up a profile. It takes less than five minutes
- It is recommended that you set up your Examity profile as soon as your instructor posts the Examity link in your course. To set up your profile, you will scan your Queen’s student card, do a face scan, establish your challenge questions and type your digital signature
- Next, test-takers schedule an exam
- On test day, test-takers identities are authenticated by the proctor. You will be required to authenticate yourself by showing your Queen’s student card and face. You will also be required to show your surroundings by rotating your computer 360 degrees and/or using a mirror. These activities could be done either with a live proctor or in a completely automated fashion with no live person on the other end
- The 10-minute authentication process does not cut into your exam time. The timer on your exam does not start until you have begun the test
- As soon as the validation process is complete, test-takers can begin their exams. After the final question, test-takers simply submit their exams
- You will be expected to provide either your Queen’s Student Photo ID card or a government-issued photo ID at the beginning of each exam session. If using government-issued ID you should protect your privacy by covering information other than name and photo
- This ID must be the same ID you have used in setting up your Examity profile
- See the onQ Examity Student Quick Guide (PDF, 1.6 MB) for support with setting up your Examity profile
- If your preferred name differs from the name on your ID, you will still be able to write the exam. Your exam will not be interrupted due to the names not matching
- Students without either of these accepted ID formats will not be permitted to proceed with the exam
- Information about student identification and how to replace lost or stolen cards can be found on the Student ID page
- You can take your exam in a room of your choosing, but you must always be alone in the room for the duration of the exam. It is your responsibility to notify others in your environment that they should not enter the room during your exam
- Your desk and immediate exam writing area must be cleared of any unauthorized resources, such as books, papers, and other items that might compromise the integrity of the exam writing
- You cannot take your exam while on a bed
As with in-person exams, instructors are responsible for setting the rules for remotely proctored exams – these rules are communicated to Examity for application during the exam session and will be used to determine what kind of event is flagged as a potential infraction.
Examples of events or behaviours that may be flagged for review include, but are not limited to:
- Presence of others in the room
- Presence of prohibited resources (e.g., notes, devices, etc.)
- Looking away from the monitor for prolonged periods (e.g. reading unauthorized materials off-screen)
- Leaving the room or moving out of view of the webcam
- Students are allowed washroom breaks – such breaks will be flagged to mark them; not to indicate that there was a potential infraction
- System changes (e.g. use of unauthorized applications)
- Unauthorized hardware (e.g. extra monitors)
It is the responsibility of the instructor to review any flagged events and to determine if an academic integrity infraction has occurred. Following university guidelines, the infractions may be resolved by the instructor or through your faculty or school adjudication process. Please refer to the Queen’s University Senate Policy on Academic Integrity Procedures – Requirements of Faculties & Schools (PDF, 120.5 KB) for more information on academic integrity violations and adjudication procedures.
The Examity proctor team is comprised of strong communicators, technical trouble-shooters, and well-focused college professionals. Each Examity proctor has been interviewed by a member of Examity's senior management team.
Examity proctors are randomly assigned to exams. You may get the same proctor more than once, but you may also have a different proctor for each test.
Questions about exam content cannot be addressed by a remote proctor during exams. If your instructor has indicated that they will take questions (e.g., via email) during the exam, contact your instructor as necessary. If your instructor is not available to take questions, state your assumptions in your answers, if possible, and contact your instructor after the exam.
During exams longer than one-hour, brief washroom breaks will be permitted and noted by the remote proctor for the instructor’s later review. It is recommended, however, that students take any required breaks prior to the start of the exam. Note that after returning from a washroom break, you may be asked by the remote proctor to perform a new room scan, including a re-inspection of the desk space, through a 360-degree room pan and desk sweep.
Live Proctoring: Notify the proctor prior to exiting the online exam session. Inform your instructor as soon as possible. Your instructor will then follow the procedures for your faculty to determine if you are able to write a deferred exam.
Automated Proctoring: Close the online exam session. Inform your instructor as soon as possible. Your instructor will then follow the procedures for your faculty to determine if you are able to write a deferred exam.
Consider using Examity computer readiness check to test your system.
It is important that you check your system’s readiness well in advance of your exam, so that you will have enough time to obtain any additional hardware (e.g., webcam, microphone, etc.) or software that you require, as receipt of orders for such items could be severely delayed during the global pandemic.
If your internet connection does not meet Examity's requirements, consider contacting your Internet Service Provider (e.g., Cogeco, Bell, etc.) to enquire about increasing your connection speed.
- Device: Desktop computer or laptop
- Tablets, Chromebook, and cell phones do not meet our requirements
- Operating System:
- MAC: OS X 10.5 or higher
PC: Windows Vista or higher - Examity does not support Linux or Chrome OS
- MAC: OS X 10.5 or higher
- Browsers: Browser with pop-up blocker disabled (Google Chrome is recommended)
- Camera: A working built-in or external webcam and microphone
- Internet: Internet speed must be at least 2 Mbps download and 2 Mbps upload. Hot spots are not recommended
Your course instructor(s) cannot offer any assistance with technical issues related to the Examity platform.
For any technical issue with the Examity platform, Examity offers technical support 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. If something goes wrong either before or during an exam, you can connect with the Examity support team by email (support@examity.com), phone (1-855-392-6489) or their live chat, available from your Examity Dashboard.
If Examity cannot resolve your issue, you or your proctor could connect with the Queen’s IT Support Centre via chat or phone (613 533-6666). THE ITSC offers extended hours over the exam period.
Security and Privacy
Examity is a third-party, cloud-based service provided by Examity, Inc. When using Examity, you are connecting to the third-party service. Queen’s has conducted a privacy and security review of Examity and has entered into a binding agreement with terms that address the appropriate collection, use and disclosure of personal information in accordance with Ontario’s privacy legislation.
Examity collects personal information when you set up your profile. For Queen’s exams which are handled through onQ, Single Sign-On (SSO) is used to authenticate you as a Queen’s student and get you to the Examity portal. From there, you set up your profile by entering your name, taking a facial scan, and uploading your photo ID. Any government-issued photo ID will work; however, Queen’s strongly recommends you use your Queen’s-issued student photo card. You select and answer three unique security questions, and enter a biometric keystroke signature.
Examity collects personal information when you write your exam—specifically, your exam responses and snapshots or a full recording of your exam session.
Examity and Your Financial Information
Although Examity’s “Information we collect” notice talks about accessing your financial information, the agreement between Queen's and Examity differs from the default statement Examity posts on its website, and does not involve collecting any financial information from students. Since students at other institutions pay for Examity services personally, it collects their financial information. Queen’s pays for Examity students for its students, and no financial information is collected from Queen’s students.
Queen’s has reviewed Examity’s privacy and security policies and controls and is satisfied that Examity has a high level of security and meets requirements of Ontario’s Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act (FIPPA). In addition, Queen’s has a legally binding agreement with Examity to use your personal information only for the purpose of providing the service. The terms Queen’s has negotiated are more stringent than, and take precedence over, the information posted publicly on Examity’s website.
A summary of the University's Privacy and Security Terms is available on the OUR Access and Privacy Policy page.
Storage of Personal Information
Your personal information is stored in Canada, on Canadian servers under the control of Examity and subject to regular third-party security audits. Nevertheless, the platform is hosted in the United States and so data will travel through the United States. Queen’s has conducted a security review and is satisfied that all data is encrypted in transit and at rest. Additionally, our agreement stipulates that Examity must comply with Canadian privacy legislation, including the Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act (PIPEDA) which is the federal law that applies to private sector organizations operating in Canada.
Queen’s has negotiated a legally binding agreement with Examity. Under the terms of the agreement, recordings captured by Examity are available to the university and the instructor for thirty days after a recording is made and archived for an additional thirty days. Recordings flagged for a potential academic integrity violation will be retained in Examity for twelve months. After these time periods have passed, recordings are permanently deleted. Queen’s has also stipulated in the agreement that Queen’s can request permanent deletion of any personal information, including exam recordings and student profile data, at any time.
Access to Your Exam Video and Personal Information
Examity shares information with its third-party service providers solely for the purpose of processing and storing exam data in fulfilment of its agreement with Queen’s. Examity is contractually bound not to share any information, including student personal information, with any other third parties.
For instances where Examity proctors need to access your computer screen, such as to troubleshoot technical issues or enter an exam password, they will always request permission first and will only gain access to the mouse and keyboard. If you grant access, you will always have the ability to revoke privileges. In addition, any access granted will be automatically disabled at the end of the proctoring session.
Depending on your faculty, an instructor and/or exam team may review your video. Generally, only videos flagged by Examity are reviewed. If an instructor or exam team is concerned that there has been a departure from academic integrity, your video may be downloaded to serve as evidence in an investigation, and will be handled in accordance with your faculty’s academic integrity procedures.
Instructors
For general support with using Examity with onQ courses*, please consult the onQ Examity Instructor Quick Guide (PDF, 1.3 MB).
*For support with using Examity in Elentra courses, please contact the BHSc Support Team.
The choice of platform has been made at the faculty level. Please contact your department head to discuss platform choice. For more information about exams for staff and faculty, go to the staff and faculty page.
Refer to Examity service overview page
This choice of level is currently made at the faculty level. Please contact your department head to discuss further.
Examity software includes a workflow for test providers. The test rules page enables instructors to customize the test experience just like they would in the classroom. For example, instructors can determine the length of the exam, and create specific rules for what a test-taker can and cannot have with them during the test. The rules page also enables instructors to select the security level and indicate unique accommodations, such as extended time allowances for specific test-takers. See the onQ Examity Instructor Quick Guide (PDF, 1.3 MB) for support with setting up an exam with Examity.
When setting up your exam in Examity, ensure that you enter any necessary accommodations for students by selecting 'Yes' from the Special Accommodations drop-down menu and entering the relevant accommodation information in the comment box. Please see the onQ Examity Instructor Quick Guide (PDF, 1.3 MB) for step-by-step instructions.