One person types very slowly on a keyboard, while the other rams it loose. Your typing behavior is actually a kind of fingerprint, five students at Eindhoven University of Technology know. They have united in the start-up Intense Solutions and are developing a program that recognizes the tapping behavior of individuals.
No camera
With the help of this program it becomes clear whether the student himself or herself is taking an exam or whether someone else is doing it for him or her. For example, by paying attention to how long someone presses a key.
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“With this software, the student is not bothered by being monitored. There is no viewing via a camera, for example,” says Tumsa Letif, one of the inventors, to EditieNL.
Fraud lurking
Since students take exams at home, fraud has been lurking. Wilbert Kolkman, dean at the Faculty of Law of the University of Groningen (RuG), has also noticed this. “We have already handed out penalties. For example, there are students who are no longer allowed to take exams all year round. The ultimate consequence is that we will stop online exams altogether. Then everyone will be delayed.”
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With a view to the upcoming exam period, students in Groningen have received a warning by email. “We see an increase in the number of fraud reports throughout the RuG”, Kolkman tells EditieNL. “For example, you see the same answers, or someone typing 300 words in ten seconds.”
Randomisering
The university therefore has technical tricks to combat fraud. “I think the best means against fraud is ‘randomization’. We use a pool with, for example, sixty questions. Each student gets ten. And all those questions are mixed up. So you never have all the same questions and never the same order. of questions. A student cannot text to another student: what is the answer to question 4? “
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The university is also looking at the way in which students type. “This is just not as detailed as the plans of the students in Eindhoven. For example, we see it when someone types a lot in a very short period of time. But we can’t see who is typing it.”
Curious
The dean is very curious about the developments of the students in Eindhoven. “All alternatives to the privacy-sensitive camera work are, in my opinion, worth a look.”
Student Tumsa Letif has announced that he is in talks with educational institutions about the new system. “We expect to have it completed by the end of the academic year.”
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