watches to be banned in Colleges/ Universities during exam as they might be "smart watches"

[ahhming]

London’s City University told BuzzFeed News it has recently joined with other British universities in stopping students from wearing any watches into exam halls. It said:

Last year, colleagues and invigilators raised the issue of how we would identify a smartwatch in an examination setting. In large exam venues, with over 100 students, it simply wouldn’t be practical to ask invigilators to check each watch. We conducted some sector research in the autumn term of 2014 and learned that a number of universities have recently introduced a similar policy.

 

As a result, the university now considers all wristwatches as equivalent to mobile phones:

Students are already asked to place mobile phones in a plastic wallet under their desk, so we adopted the same procedure for watches. Students either don’t wear them to an exam venue, or they remove the watch in the venue and place it in the plastic wallet.

We also increased the number of large wall clocks available in the examination venues, bought small desk clocks for any student who requests one as well as a small quantity of RNIB-approved desk clocks for use by any student who needs one.

We regularly review exam procedures to ensure that no student has an unfair advantage over any other student. We are really pleased that our students have adopted this new policy so readily.

As of now, most of the colleges that are imposing bans are located in Britain, including the University of London and London's City University. Unfortunately for students with traditional timepieces, the way these schools implement their ban is by requiring that all watches be removed during examinations. This is again related to the difficulty in quickly determining if a watch is really nothing more than a watch, or one of a number of uniquely styled mini-computers.

 

 

source:

http://www.buzzfeed.com/jimwaterson/yes-but-will-the-battery-last-a-full-day

[Sauron]

It's right to ban smartwatches. It's beyond stupid to ban analog and generally non-smart watches.

[Sidiox]

rather understandable. With a smartwatch cheating becomes way easier. But as we get more and more smartdevices cheating will become easier and easier

[Nup]

Maybe in schools, but thats kinda weird for a college/uni :L I get it for the exam purposes though. 

 

Thanks for the past  

[Mitrailleuse]

understandable.

[Syntaxvgm]

Sounds perfectly reasonable to me. I mean, idk what we are gonna do when we get smart glasses that look like regular glasses, and before you say contacts, they are working on that too.

Perfect vision master race.

[IP man]

imo these smart watches is uttercrap. if you want a clock buy a Rolex or similar brand.

[ACatWithThumbs]

Sounds perfectly reasonable to me. I mean, idk what we are gonna do when we get smart glasses that look like regular glasses, and before you say contacts, they are working on that too.

Perfect vision master race.

I was just about to write exactly that.

What are they going to do when something like google glass is actually implemented in prescription glasses?

They won't be able to ban those as people need to see and at that point we may have to change how we take tests.

[TopWargamer]

all watches to be banned in Colleges/ Universities as they might be "smart watches"

 

Very clickbait title. This only affects certain universities in the UK and they're only banned when in exam halls.

 

But on topic now, since they're only banned while in exam halls, I don't have an issue with this. I'm sure there would be a clock somewhere in the room for people to see what time it is...

[othertomperson]

It's right to ban smartwatches. It's beyond stupid to ban analog and generally non-smart watches.

 

You have 200 people walking into an exam hall, probably all of them wearing either a watch or a smart watch. Do you have someone checking every single one? Do you just trust the students? How would you invigilate this speedily?

 

They stopped people from having labels on drinks bottles because people were printing off fake versions with equations printed where nutritional information was supposed to be.

[RH00D]

They're "banned" during exams. Not at the college or university as a whole. Heck, they're not even really banned since you can still wear them there, you just have to place it in a secure/off-limits area while an exam is in progress.

 

Gr8 clickb8 title m8, i r8 -8/8.

[pmarion427]

there's no problem with that because they provide alternatives for checking time. if they were to do that in my school, where there are no clocks on the walls, there would be riots.

[alexyy]

Gonna be funny when we have google glass type devices that look identical to regular glasses. 

 

Rip people that need glasses i suppose. 

[IrshaadH]

As a grad student who regularly proctors exams, I have had to ask student to shut down their smartwatches because they'd spend way too much time fiddling with it

[SIGSEGV]

It's right to ban smartwatches. It's beyond stupid to ban analog and generally non-smart watches.

It's not hard to make a smart watch imitate a non-smart watch. There are many ways to disguise it, no only that, but they can be concealed very easily

[TyagoDani]

perfectly understandable in exam/evaluation situations

[Sauron]

It's not hard to make a smart watch imitate a non-smart watch. There are many ways to disguise it, no only that, but they can be concealed very easily

 

...how would you pretend that your watch does not have an lcd or e-ink display? The difference from a normal digital watch is obvious (yes, it's still lcd but the difference is still obvious), let alone with an analog watch.

[LlamaDom]

Our University already makes us take off all watches just in case. It's so annoying.

[TheMidnightNarwhal]

It's right to ban smartwatches. It's beyond stupid to ban analog and generally non-smart watches.

It's right to ban smartwatches. It's beyond stupid to ban analog and generally non-smart watches.

It's only in exams, so I don't mind, they are just taking precautions.

[MrRavens]

I understand where they're coming from and it sucks that it effected all watches. But honestly what did you do with your watch during an exam but check how much time you had left to bs some answers for the last page of the exam. Honestly it would control some anxiety attacks for people that have them. Cause I've seen way too many people cry near the end of the exam.

[GoodBytes]

In the Universities defense, it is critical that they are very strict in preventing cheating. If a University is found to have a lot of cheaters, the news breakout would kill the establishment reputation, and ruin current graduates as now their degree has no more value, despite they genuinely work for it.

Say you have University XYZ which you learn on the news that it has the most cheaters. You, as an employer, would you hire anyone from there?

Even if the person graduated 5 years already since the news, you wont' hire them, as you would see that the story was simply not caught back then.

As a future student, would you register at University XYZ if you heard the news? Most likely not.

So I understand Universities actions on that regard.

As for keeping track of time, universities during tests usually have a clock in the room which you can look at, and/or write on a board how much time is left. Beside, many students don't wear a watch as they normally use their phone, which they can't have during the exam in any case, hence not been a problem.

[JAKEBAB]

Have they never heard of jammers?

 

 

Beside, many students don't wear a watch as they normally use their phone, which they can't have during the exam in any case, hence not been a problem.

 

I thought a smart watch was basically useless without a phone so how would a smart watch be a problem anyway?

[Diederik_Gr]

I can somewhat understand why they would ban all watches, a smartwatch like the one LG has looks an awful lot like a regular watch from a distance.

 

I thought a smart watch was basically useless without a phone so how would a smart watch be a problem anyway?

A test at our school was declared unusable after someone took a picture with his smartwatch of the exam (i believe Samsung has one with a camera). And it sure is not useless without a phone once it's set up.

[Toddwjp]

watches are already banned at our uni for exams, ever since somebody got caught with written stuff on the inside of the strap

[manikyath]

i'd see banning watches happen, not only for this reason, but also because its the easiest place ever to hide cheat notes.