[Libs-Or] OLAQ Author Showcase | Sam Buechler | Learning Better for the Next Thing: Online Proctoring Services and Privacy Advocacy Outside the Library

[OLA Communications Committee]

Happy National Library Workers Day! Please download and read,
“Learning Better for the Next Thing: Online Proctoring Services and
Privacy Advocacy Outside the Library,” by Sam Buechler, here:
https://journals3.oregondigital.org/olaq/article/view/vol27_iss1_4

>From Sam’s article, “In the fall of 2020, amidst the COVID-19
pandemic, higher education institutions found themselves with more
time to consider how to best use and refine educational technology
that had been urgently implemented or expanded during the spring and
summer. Despite taking this additional time, it often felt as though
the desire to provide normalcy—amongst abnormal conditions—took
precedence over privacy protections. Examples such as promoting
classroom engagement by requiring students to have their cameras on
during synchronous online instruction illustrate this attempt to
bridge normality within remote services. Another example of this
tendency is online proctoring, in which the need to ensure academic
integrity is used to justify the implementation of software that
leverages surveillance and harmful technology.

I am employed at an institution that supports online proctoring as a
method of instruction and has a contract with an online proctoring
service, ProctorU. When I first learned this information, I felt a
call to action. Just as a sense of urgency helped guide the
implementation of online proctoring services, my own urgency guided my
attempts at dismantling its use. Through this article, I will explain
online and remote proctoring, the harms it poses to students, and why
librarians should care about it. Furthermore, I'll outline my own
efforts to eliminate proctoring software on my campus, how they fell
short, and how we can envision better methods of dismantling
surveillance.”

Sam Buechler (they/them) is the Student Success Faculty Resident
Librarian at Washington State University Vancouver. Prior to their
current position, Sam worked in circulation and access services
departments at a variety of four-year and community college libraries.
They have been a member of the Library Freedom Project since 2020.
These experiences provide the foundation for their research which
centers privacy and surveillance on college campuses and critical
library pedagogy.

OLA Communications