The Cave Newspaper
BY THE CAVE HILL GUILD OF STUDENTS Volume 2 Issue 2 Thursday, November 4th 2021 MONTHLY RELEASE
“We all have moments where we would like to speak on a certain topic but never had a designated medium to share our opinions publicly. This column will be your safe space to voice your opinions on matters affecting you here at Cave Hill.”
“Greetings Blackbirds! As midterm season winds down, congratulations on making it this far! Pick up The Cave Newspaper today for updates on the biggest campus news you missed while studying.” — Divedi Ramdass
Publications Committee Editor
RESPONDUS ON US FEATURED STORY
A secure testing environment for a smart campus, or a total invasion of privacy? These recent weeks have been very unsettling for students required to use the Respondus Lockdown Browser & Monitor for tests, midterms, and other online examinations. The Respondus Lockdown Browser is a tool utilized for online proctoring of students. The main functionality of this tool is to lock down the user-interface of a computer to prevent multitasking and application switching. The Respondus Monitor on the other hand is an instructor-enabled feature which records the student’s examination environment through their webcam and microphone for later review. The University of the West Indies Cave Hill Campus stresses on the fact that this software is indeed the industry standard for online testing and proctoring, however, a certain percentage of the student population still disagrees with this examination method and claims it should be reevaluated. Many complaints have been
made about the software’s compatibility with specific laptops, its tendency to crash, as well as the obvious invasion of privacy. As much as some students understand the concept of emulating the physical face-to-face setting, they prioritize their right to privacy which some might say is being “violated” by the university. Additionally, due to the softwares requiring the student’s personal
anti-virus software to be disabled, persons feel uncomfortable with the activity being monitored on their personal device. Some of the lesser concerns are centered around the strange requirements for the testing environment, such as being awarded a failing grade for making unnecessary movements on camera or even sitting too close to windows.