What is ExamSoft ExamMonitor?
ExamSoft is a secure digital assessment platform, now sold as ExamSoft by Turnitin, that the vendor says is used by more than 2,400 programs in higher education, certification, and licensure. Its test-taking application is called Examplify. Two optional add-ons handle integrity: ExamID, which authenticates your identity with your camera at the start of the exam, and ExamMonitor, which proctors the assessment using your screen recorder, camera, and microphone throughout the exam.
The short answer to what makes ExamSoft different: it is built around offline delivery. The vendor states that only ExamSoft disables the internet connection during exam time and locks down the entire testing device, which blocks access to AI tools, websites, and other apps that rely on the internet to work. You download the exam while connected, take it in a locked offline environment, and reconnect afterward so your answer file and monitoring files can upload.
This page explains the model in general, published terms only - what the check-in requires, what ExamMonitor records, which behavior categories the vendor says its AI flags, who reviews those flags, and what happens when the internet drops or the computer restarts. Every claim is drawn from the official ExamSoft by Turnitin product pages and the vendor's own help center, cited at the end of each section.
The ExamSoft model: offline exams on a locked-down device
Most remote proctoring systems stream you live to a proctor or a cloud service while you test. ExamSoft's published design works the other way around. Examplify downloads the exam to your device in advance, then cuts the device off from the internet for the duration and locks it down so the computer serves one purpose. The vendor describes this as delivering digital exams offline and locking down the entire testing device to prevent misconduct in remote and in-person learning environments.
The lockdown layer is a core platform feature, not an add-on. The vendor's feature list names device lockdown, question-and-answer randomization, device activity logs, and industry-standard encryption as core features of the platform. The vendor's own FAQ adds that exams are highly secure due to a locked-down testing environment that disables internet access and the use of unauthorized applications and resources, and that data encryption protects exam content.
On top of that core, institutions can add two integrity layers. ExamID is the identity layer: the vendor describes it as a two-step identity verification system in which you log in with your credentials and then take a photo that is matched against a baseline image before you can access the exam. ExamMonitor is the proctoring layer: the vendor pairs it with ExamID as an add-on that provides facial identification analysis and failed authentication flagging, remote proctoring, and abnormal activity reports with audio and video playback.
The vendor's stated reason for the offline design is twofold. First, disabling the network connection during testing blocks access to AI tools, websites, and other apps that rely on the internet to work - ExamSoft's marketing explicitly positions this as a defense against generative AI misuse. Second, the vendor says removing the reliance on a live internet connection during testing minimizes the risk of network outages and other costly disruptions to the exam itself.
Check-in: device checks, consent, and a photo
The official candidate guide lays out a fixed sequence before the first question appears. Two prerequisites sit in front of it: your device must meet the minimum system requirements, and you need an internet connection - the guide states that a connection is required to download your exam and to start an assessment with ExamID, and that attempting to start an ExamID exam without one produces an error message.
Examplify also checks the device itself. The vendor states that Examplify performs certain checks when you start the application and when you attempt to download an exam. Depending on what the checks find, you either see a Continue option or you see only a Return to Dashboard option, which means the device cannot be used for that exam until it is updated. The published check categories are operating system, hard drive space, RAM, screen resolution, and the minimum Examplify version your institution requires.
Once the exam is downloaded and the scheduled time arrives, the human part of check-in begins. You enter the exam password from your instructor, read a Notice and Consent Request to Collect Biometric and Other Personal Data - you must consent to continue - grant camera and microphone permissions, select and test your camera and microphone, and take a photo that ExamID processes to validate your identity, with the option to retake it before continuing.
One timing detail the vendor publishes and candidates consistently miss: you are allowed to start the exam after capturing your photo. The identity verification is expected to complete within minutes after the exam starts, though the vendor notes it can take longer during peak usage. The baseline image your photo is matched against comes from an earlier capture - the vendor's instructor guidance calls a mock exam critical when ExamID is in use precisely so that a baseline photo can be captured before the high-stakes sitting.
The published ExamID and ExamMonitor check-in sequence
| Check-in step | What the official candidate guide says happens |
|---|
| Device checks | Examplify checks the device at startup and at exam download; unmet requirements produce either a Continue option or a Return to Dashboard block |
| Exam password | At the scheduled time you enter the password provided by your instructor and follow the on-screen prompts |
| Biometric consent | A Notice and Consent Request to Collect Biometric and Other Personal Data appears; you must select the consent checkbox to continue |
| Permissions and hardware test | You grant camera and microphone permissions, select the devices, verify camera placement, and test the microphone |
| Photo capture | You take a straight-ahead photo; ExamID processes it to validate your identity, and you may retake it before saving |
| Monitoring indicators | For ExamMonitor exams the camera light stays on and a thumbnail video feed is available under the Monitoring tab at the top of the screen |
Scroll horizontally to view all columns.
What ExamMonitor records and what the AI flags
ExamMonitor is a record-and-review system, not a live-proctor system. The vendor's candidate guide states that ExamMonitor proctors your assessments by using your screen recorder, camera, and microphone throughout the exam, and the product page describes the output as abnormal activity reports with audio and video playback. While you test, the visible indicators are modest: your camera light stays on, and a thumbnail view of your own video feed sits under a Monitoring tab so you can check your position and camera angle.
After your files upload, the recording goes through an AI-assisted analysis. The vendor's review documentation states that the AI can detect six types of incidents and indicates each with a High, Medium, or Low severity. The six published categories are defined in the table below, exactly as the vendor describes them to the institutions that review the flags.
Two published rules about the flags matter to candidates. First, the categories are deliberately broad - the Speaking category, for example, covers detected audio generally, which the vendor notes could be reading questions aloud, talking to someone, or background music such as a radio or an intercom. Second, the vendor's candidate guide warns that headphones, including earbuds or microphones attached to headphones, are never permitted during an assessment and can create potential audio flags during the proctoring review.
Beyond the per-incident severities, the system rolls everything detected into an overall feedback rating for the institution: the likelihood that an integrity breach occurred, graded Very high, High, Low, or No incidents. That rating is a triage aid for reviewers, not a verdict - the next section covers who actually decides.
The six AI incident categories published in ExamSoft's own review documentation
| Flag category | The vendor's published definition |
|---|
| Applicant Missing | The exam-taker was not detected within the webcam frame - the exam-taker might be missing, or the face might be partly covered |
| Multiple Persons | More than one person was detected within the webcam frame |
| Suspicious Objects | Objects such as earphones, earbuds, or mobile phones were detected within the webcam frame |
| Speaking | Audio was detected - the exam-taker might be reading questions aloud or talking to someone, or there might be background music such as a radio or an intercom |
| Off-screen gaze | The exam-taker's gaze moved away from the screen |
| Hand gestures | Unusual or atypical hand movements were detected within the webcam frame |
Scroll horizontally to view all columns.
Who reviews the flags: AI assists, people decide
The vendor is unusually direct about the division of labor. In its guidance to institutions it says to think of the AI as an assistant, and states that people at your institution are ultimately responsible for investigating the findings, reviewing the recordings, and determining whether any breaches occurred. Flags queue work for humans; they do not adjudicate it.
The workflow the vendor publishes runs through an Exam Integrity tab in the institution's portal. Each candidate's session lands in a review queue with an ExamID status - Verified when the exam-day photo matches the baseline photo, or an incident when it does not - and an ExamMonitor status that moves from upload and processing through AI Complete. Reviewers open the AI report and the recording for each flagged exam-taker and enter a disposition.
The published dispositions are four: Pending Review, the default status the AI sets when its analysis completes; Resolved, meaning a reviewer determined no breach occurred; Escalated, meaning a reviewer marked the incident for further investigation; and Confirmed Breach, meaning someone at the institution confirmed an academic integrity breach. The vendor also publishes the timeline: the AI review can take up to 24 hours after the exam is submitted.
One boundary is absolute and worth knowing: exam-takers do not have access to these results. The review queue, the AI report, the recording playback, and the disposition trail are visible to the institution only. If a program contacts you about a flagged session, that contact is the output of a human review process the vendor designed to be deliberative rather than automatic.
Internet drops, reboots, and resume codes
Because the exam itself runs offline, an internet drop mid-exam is not the emergency it is with live-streamed proctoring - the testing environment does not depend on the connection while you answer. The connection matters at three published points instead: downloading the exam, starting an ExamID assessment, and uploading your files afterward. The vendor's autosave also keeps working locally: Examplify saves your work automatically every 60 seconds, with additional timely backups and snapshots.
After you submit, the upload phase begins, and the vendor's instructions are strict: keep Examplify open, do not disconnect from your network, and wait until the answer file and the monitoring files have uploaded and the exam shows a green checkmark in the Completed section of the dashboard. The vendor's own example is that uploading a 90-minute exam over a 2 Mbps upload connection takes about 10 minutes, while a shorter exam or a faster connection can finish in two to three minutes. If the video file has still not uploaded 24 hours after the answer file, the vendor says you will receive a notification email.
Device-level interruptions follow a published recovery path. In three situations Examplify stops and displays an error screen carrying a code - called a Continuation Code or a Challenge Key - and you need a Resume Code from your proctor to continue: a reboot timeout, where a restart or similar interruption lasts past the acceptable interruption period your institution configured; an inability to complete ExamID, for example when the biometric agreement was not accepted or a face cannot be detected or verified; and an inability to start or resume ExamMonitor, such as a device-permission problem at the start or a restart problem after a mid-exam interruption.
The recovery is deliberately human-mediated. Inside the institution's configured timeout you simply resume when the device restarts - no code needed. Past it, the proctor issues a Resume Code from the ExamSoft portal, you enter it on the error screen, and the exam continues. If the exam was previously started and ExamMonitor cannot resume, the vendor notes you are offered the choice to continue with a Resume Code or to submit the exam as is.
Devices, platforms, and connection requirements
Platform support is narrow and published plainly: ExamSoft states that it supports only Mac, Windows, and iPad operating systems, and that Examplify will not run on Chromebook, Android, or Linux. The vendor's sizing guidance is that Examplify can be used on virtually any modern computer, defined as one purchased within the last three to four years. iPad users are told to confirm with their instructor that the iPad is supported for their assessment type, including ExamID- and ExamMonitor-enabled assessments.
ExamMonitor adds its own connection requirement on top of the base requirements: the vendor's upload troubleshooting guide states that a minimum of 2 Mbps upload speed is a requirement for being able to use ExamMonitor, and advises candidates to verify it before exam day. The same guide recommends keeping the device connected to power so it does not go to sleep during the upload.
The vendor's exam-day preparation advice is also published and practical: install and register Examplify before exam day, download exams as soon as they become available rather than waiting, take a mock exam if one is offered, check that the computer's date and time settings are accurate, and - for ExamID and ExamMonitor exams - enable the device permissions in advance. The vendor also instructs candidates to temporarily disable antivirus software before starting an exam and to close other programs, naming the Microsoft Office suite as examples.
These details sit in the vendor's documentation for a reason: nearly every published failure path - the Return to Dashboard block, the device-permission error, the stalled upload, the resume-code stop - traces back to a requirement that was checkable days before the exam rather than minutes before it.
If the Sitting Itself Is the Problem
Understanding how ExamSoft locks down and records an exam is one thing; sitting a high-stakes exam under those conditions is another. Exam Assist exists for exactly that gap - we handle online exam sittings end to end, and the service fee is due only after your agreed result posts. Send your exam, your window, and your deadline, and you will get an honest feasibility answer first.
If you want the wider picture first, our guides to how online proctoring works and the comparison of online proctoring software explain where the ExamSoft offline model sits among its competitors, our Proctortrack overview covers another record-and-review system, our online proctoring software explainer breaks down the monitoring layers programs add on top, and our what-to-expect walkthrough covers exam-day check-in step by step.