Remote Desktop and the Exam Panopticon

So, it's pretty rare that I blog about technology.  For those topics, you'll have to see The Other Dr. F--or, as I've encouraged my students to call him, The Old Dr. F. But I have to say that technology is making the exam I am giving right this very minute into the most fun I have ever had giving an exam. 

Anyone who's taught a college class can tell you, giving exams is incredibly boring, and Saturday morning sessions make the boredom all the more stifling.  However, I've been teaching in a computer classroom all semester, and the lectern computer has Remote Desktop, an application that allows me to see all of the student computer screens on my own--and to lock them out if they are checking email, logging onto Facebook, shopping, gambling, or looking for dates (nearly all of which I've had at one time or another, though not in this class of mostly very good students).

This software has been useful throughout the semester for seeing whether students are done with an assignment, or scanning to see who has a good answer for each of the questions to share when they're finished writing (especially helpful in another class, where getting participation was excruciating and hearing their answers was often demoralizing--I could locate the one or two students with good answers and make sure to call on them). 

But it's been especially fun today because while students are taking an exam, it's true that I am always curious about what they're writing, whether they think it's hard, etc.  Now I can snoop and find out for  myself!  While sitting here posting to my blog, I can check in intermittently on what they are writing, without actually disturbing their work by peering obviously over their shoulders.  I've been pleased to see that the short-answer question I feared was too hard was answered handily by over two-thirds of the class within the first few minutes of the test, and I've had my suspicions confirmed that one student was less than prepared, as I watched the answers drafted on the screen get revised from specific (and wrong) to vague enough not to say much at all.  Of course, the exams will be graded strictly on what is on the page, not on the process I've witnessed more closely than usual, but it has at least made the experience entertaining.  And, ahem, pedagogically useful I'm sure.