Administrators at eduKan, a consortium of six Kansas colleges created to offer online courses, are using BioSig-ID, a software only biometric solution, to discourage cheating among students involved in the schools’ distance education programs. The technology enables the colleges to determine that the student taking the course and the test is the same student who registered for the course.

“We felt it was necessary to use technology to proactively deter cheating,” said eduKan CEO Mark Sarver. “We wanted to make sure that this built-in security measure would not be cumbersome or intrusive and be cost-effective.”

According to Jeffrey Maynard, CEO of Biometric Signature ID, the technology does not require additional hardware or software to be installed and any PC or mobile device can be used to accept the unique movements made with the mouse, stylus or touchpad to provide student identification.

Once students have created their BioSig-ID password, it is used to validate the student. This validation along with an audit trail reporting system can help identify anomalies.

With the software’s reporting tool, eduKan can compare the IP address, date, time, and activity of each student and confirm the students were in the same physical location taking the same test at the same time. This information allows administrators and faculty members to monitor activities of any group of students.