Proposed Iris Movement Tracking System to Improve the Security of Online Examinations in Nigeria

Abstract

The covid-19 global pandemic brought about a drastic change to how the world approaches education. The world bank noted that at the peak of the pandemic, 45 countries in Europe and Asia closed schools. A separate source also noted that over 250 million primary and secondary school children were out of school due to the lockdown of schools worldwide. Albeit temporarily, the severity of the pandemic transitioned the method of teaching for most schools from physical to virtual. This paper aims to address one of the limitations that arose due to this transition: online examination security. Examination malpractice was noticed to spike for examinations taken online, even with trained proctors watching test-takers via video conference platforms such as Zoom or Microsoft Teams. Within this research analysis is a planned iris movement tracking system to add another layer of security to online examination systems. This system uses a three-tier style structure. Tier 1 is verification that it is indeed a registered student taking the examination. This will be achieved using facial recognition. Tier 2 involves the storage and protection of facial data of students. The last tier involves the continuous use of webcams to detect the iris movement of students and alert proctors if a student looks away from the screen for a significant amount of time. This paper mainly focuses on tier 3.