“It's not that I want to see the student's bedroom...”: Instructor Perceptions of e-Proctoring Software

The COVID-19 pandemic motivated higher education institutions to adopt the use of e-proctoring software as a means to maintain academic integrity. This study explores the tension between student privacy and academic integrity from instructors’ perspective. Through semi-structured qualitative interviews with 19 university instructors, our findings delineate the competing factors influencing instructors’ adoption or avoidance of e-proctored assessments: academic integrity, the online remote format, logistical considerations such as class size, departmental policies, and privacy considerations. We analysed instructors’ specific privacy attitudes towards e-proctoring, and perspectives regarding student privacy and institutional data protection practices. Lastly, we evaluated instructors’ appraisals on the efficacy of e-proctoring software. E-proctoring was presented to instructors as the straightforward solution, but we found instructors’ experiences to be complex, leading them to exhibit conflicted views on whether e-proctoring accomplished its goals. Most instructors deprioritized privacy considerations when deciding whether to adopt e-proctoring but viewed academic integrity as the topmost inviolable priority. Overall, we provide insight into a detailed landscape showcasing the complexities of managing privacy and competing priorities within higher education from the instructors’ perspective.