According to ProctorTrack.com, artificial intelligence (AI) has changed the online assessment landscape, as students and test-takers now have access to AI assistants, chatbots, browser extensions, automated search tools, and other technologies that can provide information almost instantly. As this web service notes, this creates a new challenge for universities, certification organizations, training providers, and employers conducting remote assessments given that traditional exam security often focuses on preventing access to websites, applications, or unauthorized materials. Given that modern AI-enabled cheating can involve multiple layers of technology, ProctorTrack.com notes that effective online exam security now requires more than simply watching the candidate or restricting a browser - it requires securing the testing environment itself. Because this level of security is likely to be prohibitively costly, TurnItIn.com suggests conducting efficient digital assessments without an internet connection. Put differently, now that ‘secure’ online exams are less safe against operating system-level AI misconduct, schools and universities should now be considering a fully offline exam model as an effective alternative. According to another assessment service, TurnItIn.com, that doesn’t mean reverting to handwritten assessments and grading, which many institutions cannot realistically afford given growing class sizes and resource constraints. An offline digital exam platform creates an ‘air gap’ that denies AI the three things it needs to bypass ‘secure’ online platforms: computation, connectivity, and content. As TurnItIn.com explains, "computation" requires use of a stripped-down, secure operating system with no built-in AI or extra agents. "Connectivity" means no network or internet access – cloud-based AI can’t be accessed. Lastly, "content" refers to an isolated exam window – one in which AI can’t see or capture content, and the student can’t feed content to AI. Both online services provide their respective descriptions of the problems higher ed now faces in this regard as a tool to sell their products. ProctorTrack.com offers a package that combines secure testing controls with multi-factor biometric authentication and continuous identity verification (i.e., facial recognition), while TurnItIn offers ExamSoft, which provides fully offline digital exams. The expense of these solutions will also likely be prohibitive to higher ed institutions around the country. Of course, the Turner College is grappling with the assessment of online education issues discussed above, which are undoubtedly inflating grades as we pen this post. In the Turner College itself, the problems listed above are likely impacting assessment much more widely in the Department of Management and Marketing than in the Department of Accounting and Finance for at least two reasons. First, whereas about 79% of headcount enrollments in fall 2026 courses with MGMT, MISM and MKTG prefixes fall into online course sections, only about 42% of headcount enrollments in fall 2026 courses with ACCT and FINC prefixes fall into online course sections. Second, the Turner College's new Director of Assessment, Gisung Moon, is also the Chair of the Department of Accounting and Finance, and his departmental faculty are implementing an online testing procedure involving utilization of the laptop camera facing the online student as well as the camera in the test taker's cellphone, which is situated in landscape mode several feet to one side of the student during the examination. This process was successfully piloted over summer 2026. Stay connected to Turner Business for more on this growing problem.
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