We sat down with Justin Depuydt, Director of Strategic Partnerships at Proctorio, to discuss online assessment security, new features in proctoring technology and the delicate balance between preventing cheating and creating positive exam experiences. Prefer video? Watch the interview here.
Let’s start with the basics. Can you tell us about yourself and your role at Proctorio?
I’m based in Scottsdale, Arizona, just outside of Phoenix. If you’ve heard of it, you probably think it’s very hot. It is! Today happens to be a beautiful day, though. In October, we’re finally getting into some reasonable temperatures.
My role at Proctorio is officially Director of Strategic Partnerships. What that really means is that I get involved with a lot of the innovation around where we’re going with the product and with assessment security in general. I network extensively with our partners and people using the tool, trying to figure out how we can continually stay ahead of the curve to meet needs and solve the challenges people are facing.
What does a typical day look like for you?
Frankly, a lot of it has to do with time zones. We’re almost in Pacific time here, so we’re sort of at the end of the world, time-wise. My day usually starts with opening my email, and the whole rest of the world has already had a chance to hit me with everything they’re facing. I’m playing catch-up!
That’s usually most of my morning, and then later we have a lot of meetings and syncs internally with product and different people in the organisation. We’re constantly discussing what we need to develop, improve or change, and what’s working. Personally, I’d rather have the emails come in later in the day, but the great thing is that I have a lot of content to take into those later meetings with our engineers and product people, really informing where we’re going.
What’s the most surprising thing about your role that people wouldn’t expect?
I studied music and my first career was in theatre arts. Now I go to conferences and speak on AI and technology from a place of expertise. It’s not what I originally trained for, but AI didn’t even exist as a field of study when I was in university.
What’s given me this expertise is my position at Proctorio combined with my background in education. I’d been working with AI in education long before it became the hot topic it is today. In this role, I have constant interface with the technology and the real challenges people are facing with AI implementation. I’ve made it a priority to really understand this field and that experience has given me insights that I can use to help others navigate this space.
How does the integration between Proctorio and Cirrus work from your perspective?
There’s something special about this particular partnership. I manage all of Proctorio’s integration partnerships, which is a couple of hundred custom integrations. The way our integration is built, you can configure it however you want and give your users any sort of access or non-access to Proctorio’s features.
The way we built Proctorio, and when we create our own integrations, we try to give our users maximum flexibility. We don’t put people on rails and say “this is how you should monitor or lock down an exam”. We give them all the options and let them choose.
“The Cirrus integration fits hand in glove with the way Proctorio is designed. Cirrus has created an integration that gives people all of the same flexibility that we intend from the product side.”
Justin Depuydt, Proctorio
In this respect, the Cirrus integration fits hand in glove with the way Proctorio is designed. There are maybe a couple of others that do something similar, but Cirrus has created an integration that gives people all of the same flexibility that we intend from the product side. I know it’s more work on your end for your engineers, but that’s my favourite part about the integration.
What does that flexibility actually mean for somebody sitting an exam?
Let me talk about both the exam creator and the test taker.
For the exam creator, it’s about looking at each exam and deciding what you actually need. Maybe it’s a low-stakes exam that’s more formative than summative. How much friction do we want to introduce? Do we just want to get students familiar with taking the exam online?
These decisions matter because you want to avoid exam day challenges you didn’t anticipate and keep the test taker’s blood pressure down. I was also a teacher for a while and no teacher wants people to do badly. We want people to do as well as they can, so we actually want to reduce barriers where possible.
Compare that to a high-stakes exam where you really need security. There, maybe you do put in the maximal features. From the test-taker experience, it would be frustrating to take a fairly low-stakes exam but be asked to download software, configure settings and jump through hoops for what’s basically a middle-of-the-road assessment.
The flexibility means you can deliver a more pleasant experience where it makes sense.
That same flexibility is essential for providing proper accommodations. Say you have a student who needs adjustments because of a disability or specific learning requirement. With the Cirrus integration, you can turn off particular features that would prevent fair assessment for that individual and create their own customised version of the exam. So you’re maintaining security for the majority whilst ensuring equitable access for students who need accommodations. Most integrations force you to choose one or the other, but you shouldn’t have to.
You’ve recently released a few new features. What are you most excited about?
This last year has been quite exciting in terms of product development. One feature I’m really pleased with is our new Alerts system.
Here’s the problem it solves: traditionally, you might have a student who doesn’t generate many flags during an exam. Maybe they’re sitting still, looking at the screen, doing everything right. But at one point, they pull out their phone to look something up. Now in the review centre, you’ll see these little icons next to recordings that indicate “something specific happened here that you should probably look at”. We’re highlighting those single significant events that matter, even when there isn’t a pattern of suspicious behaviour.
As people use different methods to try to circumvent restrictions, we’ve got better at detecting these discrete incidents. The alerts draw your attention directly to them and they’re easy to search through.
The practical benefit is huge. Instead of having to review every exam thoroughly or trying to spot that one crucial moment in hours of footage, you can quickly move through the most important material. You’re not wasting time investigating minor issues that don’t actually matter. It’s a much more targeted approach to exam review.
What kind of activities would set off those alerts?
The most obvious one is a mobile phone. If I pick my phone up, that’ll create an alert. So you know, “hey, maybe this person didn’t do anything else that was flagged, but they had a mobile phone in the image.” That’s just one really big thing.
A couple of others we’ve teased out are different types of AI use. We detect specific types of AI that come up on exams, and we put an alert for that so you know to jump on it. Because with some technologies, if somebody is using AI, they could just use it and maybe it doesn’t pick up a lot of flags if they’re not using it all the time. But they used it at least once, and that’s a big one.
You mentioned a few other new products as well?
The other products are Mobile, what we call the Companion App, which is advanced security. It’s an application that downloads and locks out an entire device.
Mobile is actually one I’m excited about, because it’s a naturally secure environment. I think it’s surprising to people that it’s really pleasant for users to take a mobile exam, and a mobile device is very secure naturally.
Live is my baby. I was part of the inception all the way through to delivery on that one, so I’ve been really excited about it. Live proctoring isn’t new, lots of people are doing it. We’re automated proctoring, that’s really our business. But what we’ve done differently is create a platform that you can use to monitor your own exams – with your own staff. That was the core idea.
“We’re passing the platform over to you, which means you can bring in your own invigilators and run live proctoring yourself. It’s more secure and massively cheaper because a lot of institutions already have staff who can do this.”
Justin Depuydt, Proctorio
We’re passing the platform over to you, which means you can bring in your own invigilators and run live proctoring yourself. It’s more secure and massively cheaper because a lot of institutions already have staff who can do this. We’re just giving you the tool.
What’s the ideal use case for Proctorio Live?
It’s very useful for institutions that see the need for live proctoring but don’t want to spend a fortune on it.
What’s important to understand is that Live operates on top of our standard automated proctoring. You’re still getting all of that, the AI detection, the results in the review centre, the full recording and reporting. But now you’ve also got a proctor watching during the exam who can chat with candidates, view their webcam and screen in real time, and even pause or end sessions if needed.
There are two main reasons to have someone watching live, and it’s actually not primarily to catch cheating because the AI is handling most of that.
The first advantage is you can stop something in the moment. There are certain situations, content protection especially, where you need to intervene whilst it’s happening. Maybe you find evidence of it afterwards, but the damage has already been done. A live proctor can stop it right then.
The second advantage is student support. Test takers have legitimate questions during exams. Technical questions, clarification on wording, or simple things like “can I go to the restroom?” Our technical support team can’t answer those kinds of questions, but your proctor can.
When you have a proctor there, they can present themselves as “I’m here to support you, I’m here to help you. When you have a question, reach out to me and I will help you whilst making sure you don’t break our rules.” That improves the whole exam experience.
And you decide how it works. You can assign as few or as many invigilators as you need to each exam schedule. Want one proctor monitoring 50 students for a low-stakes exam? Fine. Need a 1-to-1 ratio for high-stakes assessment? You can do that too.
There’s a gallery view that lets you see multiple candidates at once, and you control who watches whom. You’re able to sort assignments, decide how many students each proctor monitors, and adjust the setup for different exam types. It’s completely flexible..
When you’re talking to new customers, what’s the thing you most often find yourself explaining?
Two things come up most often.
The first is understanding how academic dishonesty actually happens. There’s a lot of misinformation and general misunderstanding out there. Everyone knows students are using AI, but the real question is how are they using it? What does that actually look like in practice?
For exam creators and platform partners, we can provide much more specific guidance because we see patterns across thousands of exams. We’ll sit down and walk through scenarios: “If they’re doing this, here’s what you need to do. If you’re seeing this behaviour, here’s your response.” It’s not as simple as hitting a “stop AI” button. It requires understanding the specific methods being used and implementing the right combination of features to counter them.
The second thing, particularly from American college students, is privacy concerns. I don’t hear this much from our European users, interestingly, but in the US we often hear “Proctorio is invading my privacy” or “you’re taking my data.”
Here’s what I’d say to that: we’re an established company with legal obligations to regulators. Our privacy policy isn’t marketing copy, it’s a binding document. We’re obligated to follow it because we operate in regulated markets. We are not a company that profits from data mining. That’s not our business model.
When we say we’re not doing something and we’re legally not allowed to do it, we have to stick to that. But beyond the legal obligations, if you understand the underlying technology, you’ll realise we actually can’t access your data even if we wanted to. Someone can’t buy Proctorio tomorrow and say “great, now give me all the user data.” It’s all encrypted in a way that prevents us from accessing it. It’s not just policy, it’s architecture.
What’s your advice for institutions when it comes to preparing students for proctored exams?
If you’re an organisation where students take multiple exams with you, you’ve got an advantage that one-time testing organisations like certifying bodies don’t have: multiple opportunities to prepare students. If you’re only seeing candidates once, there are other ways to address this, but it’s more challenging.
For institutions with regular students, we really advocate strongly for early, open communication. Talk to them in advance about proctoring. Make sure they clearly understand what’s going to happen, what to expect, why it’s in place.
Where possible, help educate them more broadly too. Do a session on AI literacy, how the internet and privacy law actually work. When students have that context, a lot of the fears and misconceptions disappear.
Practice tests also help enormously. Let students experience it in a low-stakes environment first. They get used to the technology, they ask their questions, they realise it’s not as intimidating as they thought. We’ve got loads of information on our website too that addresses specific concerns people might have.
My advice to institutions is simple: take a bit of time to have genuine, open conversations. Don’t just tell students “this is what’s happening.” Create space for them to express their concerns and worries, and then address those concerns properly. That dialogue matters.
What’s keeping you up at night when it comes to online assessments? What trends are you watching closely?
What’s happening is there’s a societal attitude shift. There’s some really good research out there now about what happens when you ask people “do you consider this activity cheating?” and how that has shifted over time.
As the technology that makes it easy to cheat becomes more prevalent and easier to use, you start to feel like everyone’s doing it, and then you start to lose your sense that actually this is a fraudulent or unauthorised action.
You’ve always had your 10% who were going to find ways to cheat the system. And then you have your 10% of people who, no matter what they’re presented with, will never cheat because they’re inherently there to learn. They wouldn’t do that because they feel it works against their own interests.
And then most people are sort of in the middle somewhere. What some people have termed “the persuadables”, I call it the “soft middle”. Those are the people who are shifted back and forth depending on the culture around it. And that’s the thing that I think is the biggest concern, because it actually bears on a larger piece of society.
“People are losing the sense that academic fraud is even wrong. When even good, honest students start thinking ‘great, I don’t need to study for that exam’, they’ve lost sight of why they’re there in the first place.”
Justin Depuydt, Proctorio
This goes beyond just assessment security. It raises a fundamental question: what’s the point of assessing people in the first place? We’re trying to validate that people actually have the skills and knowledge society needs them to have.
The problem isn’t simply that the percentage of unqualified people might grow. We’ve probably always had some doctors, engineers or teachers who didn’t fully earn their credentials. That’s not new.
What’s concerning is the cultural shift. People are losing the sense that academic fraud is even wrong. When even good, honest students start thinking “great, I don’t need to study for that exam”, they’ve lost sight of why they’re there in the first place. They’re not just undermining the assessment, they’re undermining their own education.
Do you see a solution for that?
The International Centre for Academic Integrity is one non-profit organisation. I’m sure there are others trying to address that. But it does take coordination between the various pieces of the puzzle. We can provide technological solutions, but there are things that educators can do. There are things that different types of bodies can do.
We all took exams and had questions where we were like “what is the point of this question?” It’s a test validity problem. So I think solving that can help.
Instead of it just being “hey Proctorio, we’re the police, we’re gonna catch you”, it’s important that people know there could be a negative consequence. But it’s also important that people are given a reason to want to have the knowledge. A reason so they’re actually excited to go take an exam just to prove they have the knowledge they believe they have and to be able to do the job well.
So, not an easy solution, but a comprehensive one that we all have to kind of work on together. You know, we’re starting to see a lot of demand for products like ours in the hiring sector, which is good because I think what we need to see from society is also a demand that the people providing services know what they’re doing. That they’re actually trained and know what they’re doing. I think pressure from that side can help square the circle.
We’re seeing a lot of regulatory changes around AI, data privacy and accessibility. What do you think people should be most focused on?
The EU AI Act is rolling out across Europe and that’s a good thing. These regulations establish important standards for AI systems and you should make sure any vendors you’re working with are following them. If you’re creating exams, these rules apply directly to you. Compliance isn’t optional.
We’re getting a lot of questions from clients asking, “Can you send us documentation showing you’re complying with these regulations?” And our answer is: absolutely, yes! We’re happy to provide it because we’re already meeting these standards.
But here’s what you need to know: not every vendor can say the same. So don’t take anyone’s word for it. Ask for proof. Test your vendors on compliance and make sure they can back up their claims with documentation.
You’ll generally see two types of responses. Vendors like us will say, “Great question! We’re already compliant and here’s the documentation to prove it.” But some vendors might give you a more hesitant response like, “Well… is that really that important?”
If you hear that second response, consider it a red flag.
Let’s look ahead. Without giving away all your secrets, what can customers look forward to in the next six months?
Our engineers will kill me if I put any dates attached to anything! But our goal over the next three to six months is to offer more self-service to people. We want people to be able to sign up and try Proctorio without needing a sales call, similar to how you’d buy Adobe software. This especially helps smaller organisations who just want to explore the platform.
The other significant development is our new administrator dashboard. Right now, if you want to know how many exams were taken last month, or compare usage across departments, or understand flagging patterns, you have to ask us. That’s changing.
The dashboard will give you direct access to all your data. You’ll be able to view exam volumes, add and manage accounts and track whatever metrics you need against usage, against number of exams and so on. Over time, we’ll keep building out more data visualisation and reporting capabilities from that platform. Basically, we’re putting you in control of your own data rather than making you wait for us to pull reports.
Last question. If you could give one piece of advice to organisations delivering digital exams today, what would it be?
You have to hold two things at the same time. You are trying to protect the integrity of your exam and make sure people aren’t cheating, but you also want to help people have a good exam experience because they’ll perform better and you’ll get more accurate results.
Two things can actually create bad results on your tests. One of them is people are cheating, but another is people do know the material but they’re so stressed out that they don’t demonstrate that. So any time you have the flexibility to create an exam environment that feels safe and comfortable for examinees, that will really help them.
“We talk so much about how to prevent infractions that it’s easy to forget about the many, many legitimate test takers who are just trying to make their way in the world. Those people’s experience deserves our time and attention.”
Justin Depuydt, Proctorio
Maybe that’s obvious to exam creators, I don’t know. From my chair, we talk so much about how to prevent infractions that it’s easy to forget about the many, many legitimate test takers who are just trying to make their way in the world. Those people’s experience deserves our time and attention.
Thank you to Justin for sharing these valuable insights.
The Cirrus-Proctorio integration gives you all the flexibility Justin describes, from customisable security settings to accommodations support and Proctorio Live capabilities. Contact us to discuss how it works for your specific needs.
