An email from Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Academic) Grady Venville to all ANU staff, addressing the response of the ANU community to the rollout of invigilation software Proctorio, has been shared to the ANU Schmidtposting Facebook group this evening.

The email highlights that each course convenor will have the chance to receive training in the Proctorio program before deciding if it will be implemented for use for end of semester exams. Venville emphasised the need to provide students with the ‘certainty of academic rigour that underpins all ANU degrees’ and stated that the university ‘makes no apologies for upholding our high academic standards.’

Venville further stressed that the university has listened to students’ concerns and addressed them, and that students had been consulted ‘every step of the way’ about what Proctorio means for them, and how it will be used. According to the Deputy Vice-Chancellor, arrangements have been put in place to ensure students with access and equity concerns will have their needs met.

The email also mentioned that ‘a small group of students are running a campaign against the use of Proctorio’ and that they have shared materials that are both untrue and unfounded. Venville expressed her disappointment and stated that this is a ‘clear breach of our student code of conduct.’ Venville stated that the university will continue to provide transparent and clear information to the university community, and that it is important that the courses that require invigilated exams will be able to hold them, even in the midst of the ‘unusual circumstances we are in’.

More information about how the university will be conducting invigilated exams online, as well as the privacy and security assessments, can be found on the ANU website here.