Enhancing Academic Integrity and student well-being: Insights from Panopticon-Based Proctoring in Online Courses

In light of the surge in online course enrollments that occurred during the COVID-19 pandemic, this study aimed to explore a specific aspect of online learning: the impact of online proctored exam environments on students' psychological stress, perception of fairness, and academic performance.By constructing an online proctored exam environment analogous to the traditional on-site setting based on the panopticon concept, we sought to understand how this shift affected students.The research involved an experimental design with 59 students from a pool of 400 at a Korean university participating in both online and on-site exams to compare the effects of different proctoring environments.Findings from a paired sample t-test analysis indicate significantly higher levels of psychological pressure (t = -2.213,p = .031)and an enhanced sense of proctoring among students in the online environment compared to those in the on-site environment (t = -2.459,p = .017).Furthermore, their performance in exams was notably impaired in the online setting.Additionally, students perceived the online exams as less fair and believed that cheating was more likely to occur in online than in on-site exams.These insights highlight the need for further refinement in the adoption of online proctored exam environments, highlighting that they are not yet an adequate substitute for traditional on-site exam settings.This crucial study elucidates the nuanced challenges and perceptions of fairness associated with online examination systems, a topic of growing importance as online education continues to become increasingly prevalent.