As a continuous improvement effort to identify and authenticate students in online courses, Mason's Architectural Standards Review Board has approved BioSig—biometric software that uses gesture recognition to authenticate student identity.
Students write a passcode and the system verifies this is the student who created the passcode, thereby addressing some concerns about privacy, filming, and religious concerns about removing head coverings for video surveillance.
BioSig is an identity verification tool: it is not a proctoring tool. The pilot will take place this fall in all Wiley-supported programs, along with a few Stearns-supported classes. The goal is to implement BioSig university-wide in spring 2022 (depending on how the pilots go) and eventually required in all online asynchronous courses. Faculty training will be provided in the form of webinars and on-demand training, as well as documentation that shows faculty how they can set it up in Blackboard for their courses.
Student support will be given at orientations and in each course that uses BioSig.
September 02, 2021