Inspera assessments—online invigilation

Find out about the Inspera Exam Portal, which you may need to use for online assessments in selected courses.

The Inspera Trial successfully closed at the end of Trimester 2 2023, and Inspera Exam Portal is no longer used within WSBG as of Trimester 3 2023. Students should check course outlines for more information on individual courses assessment mode and structure.

Logo for Inspera

About Inspera

Inspera is an online-assessment platform that includes the Inspera Exam Portal. Some courses at Te Herenga Waka—Victoria University of Wellington will use the Inspera Exam Portal for online assessments in 2023.

The Inspera Exam Portal supports digital invigilation—or monitoring—to make sure that everyone sitting an assessment is acting fairly and honestly. Using this software helps to ensure the integrity of the University’s assessments.

Assessments on Inspera can include a wide range of question types.

Courses assessed on Inspera

At our University, the main courses assessed using Inspera are in Accounting, Economics, Finance, and Actuarial Science.

The Accounting major and the Actuarial Science major are accredited by the following professional bodies:

  • Chartered Accountants Australia and New Zealand (CAANZ)
  • CPA Australia
  • Institute of Actuaries of Australia.

These professional bodies stipulate strict standards of integrity for academic assessments. Inspera’s digital invigilation functionality helps our assessments meet those standards, allowing our students to become members of one of these professional bodies.

How invigilation works in Inspera

When you sit an Inspera-invigilated assessment, Inspera will collect biometric information and will:

  • identify you. You’ll need to show your student ID (or government-issued photo ID), and it will take a photo of you and a photo of your ID
  • record your camera, microphone, and screen for the duration of the assessment
  • flag any suspicious behaviour that it detects—for example, a student moving outside the camera frame, or a change in the biometrics of the on-screen face.

Locking other functions during assessment

While you are sitting an invigilated assessment using the Inspera Exam Portal, Inspera can lock out other functions on your computer.

This lock-out function depends on how your assessment has been set up. Check with your lecturer or the Nuku listing for your course to confirm the assessment constraints.

Get ready for Inspera

Before you sit an assessment through Inspera, you need to have a suitable device on which the Inspera Exam Portal software has been installed and you need to prepare a suitable location.

Software you need

You need to install Inspera Exam Portal. Instructions for installing it will be provided on Nuku.

Equipment you need

You’ll need a laptop or desktop computer running Windows or macOS. Inspera Exam Portal is not designed for use on chromebooks, virtual machines, mobile devices or tablets.

Your laptop or desktop computer must have:

  • a camera (internal or external)
  • a microphone (internal or external)
  • a broadband internet connection with an upload speed of at least 0.15 Mbps
  • at least 500 MB of free disk space
  • a CPU newer than 2011 (Intel Sandy Bridge or newer)
  • a minimum SSE 4.2 in AMD processors
  • an OpenGL 2.0 graphics driver.

Operating system

Your laptop or desktop computer must meet the following minimum specifications:

  • Windows: Windows 10 or 11 on at least a 64-bit platform
  • macOS: OS X 11 or higher.

If you are unsure how to check whether your computer meets these requirements, contact the Digital Solutions helpdesk at +64 4 463 5050 or servicedesk@vuw.ac.nz.

The right environment

Choose a suitable location if you are sitting an Inspera assessment. That location should be quiet, well lit, and free of interruptions. It should also have a neutral backdrop without too much activity, as well as a power supply for your computer.

Data privacy

While you’re using the Inspera assessment tool, neither the University nor Inspera can access any personal data on your device.

Inspera stores test-related data on servers within the EU. This means that the data is covered by the General Data Protection Regulation (EU) 2016/679 (GDPR)—one of the strongest data protection laws in the world.

Inspera will keep test-related data for 120 days before permanently deleting it.

The University may download and keep test-related data for longer, to meet needs around academic integrity, accreditation, and assurance of learning. The University will keep and delete test-related data in line with general University policies.

Breaches of academic integrity

A team of invigilators at the University will check all instances flagged by Inspera. Any suspicious activity will be reported to the relevant course coordinator. They will decide on whether to initiate an academic misconduct process.

If you experience any issues during a test, you can contact the Invigilators on 04-280-2646 (this number is only monitored when an assessment is officially scheduled in Inspera). It is also recommended to contact your course coordinator after the test to let them know.

If your course coordinator contacts you because of a flagged issue, you’ll have a chance to explain what happened during the test. This is in line with the University’s academic misconduct policy.