Babysitting.....Wait......I Mean, Proctoring For the Afternoon

In my job, it is necessary to act as a proctor for a series of exams.  Now, I don't always have to be the proctor, there are plenty of other people that end up being scheduled to proctor these exams.  I come in when the scheduled person is not available, or, as in today's case, when no one was scheduled.

For the most part, proctoring an exam is very simple, at least here.  The exams are given online and no exam is exactly alike.  That means that two people sitting right next to each other could be taking the same exam and not see the same question.  And because it's basically a timed exam, there isn't enough time to cheat.  And yet, there needs to be a proctor in the room to ensure that no one is cheating or talking to their friend in the next seat.  That would be bad.  It would also be bad if they were using their notes or a cell phone that happened to contain answers.  I suppose that's one thing I do get to do during the whole proctoring process - make sure that people don't talk.

But, as the title of this blog suggests, it's more like babysitting.  You would hope that students that get this far in life would not be willing to cheat on an exam that counts for fifteen percent of their grade.  Then again, what do I know?  I haven't tried going to Nursing School.

Luckily, most of the things on my TODO list consisted of online activities, whether they were answering e-mails, accessing and administering course evaluations or editing webpages.  I was able to tackle each of these items during the proctoring because I could access everything I needed online.  This comes in handy for just such a day when I have to be away from the office for an extended period of time - or I just want to go on vacation and still check up on the office to make sure it hasn't burned down.

It may be very quiet in the testing lab and there's no one to talk to, except via email, but I suppose it can be a good place to contemplate things as well.  Sometimes having quiet time is a good thing.  Make an effort for quiet time in your busy lives.  It might turn out better than you think.  And it doesn't have to be three hours like I have today.  It could be as little as thirty minutes.  But it should be at least thirty minutes or you may not get anything out of it.

Well, back to paying attention.


Until tomorrow.