A remotely proctored Herzing exam is a recorded, watched sit taken on your own computer. Herzing's current online-proctoring service is ProctorU, selected on guidance from HESI, and the university has also used Proctorio; its policy page names both, so confirm which one your specific course uses. Whichever it is, you install the service's browser tool or extension, verify your identity, and complete a scan of your room and desk before the exam unlocks. While you test, the software monitors your webcam, microphone, browser, and device, with facial and gaze detection flagging anything unusual, and the session is recorded. You agree to this monitoring by enrolling, nursing exams also carry a signed exam contract, and trying to disable the tool scores the attempt a zero. Herzing keeps the recordings for a set period, cited in its nursing handbook as six months. None of this is a reason to panic; a prepared student is simply watched doing what they studied for.
The setup, step by step
Everything before the exam is about proving you are you and that the space is clean. It takes a few minutes and is worth doing before the clock matters, not during it.
| Stage | What you do | Why it exists |
|---|---|---|
| Install the tool | Add the proctoring service's browser tool or extension in the supported browser | It is the layer that records and monitors the sit |
| Verify identity | Show a photo ID to the webcam as prompted | Confirms the test-taker is the enrolled student |
| Scan the room | Pan the webcam across your surroundings and desk | Establishes a clean testing environment on the record |
| Check equipment | Confirm the webcam, microphone, and connection work | A dropout mid-exam is the avoidable disaster |
Do the technical check on the same machine and network you will actually test on, and a day early. Most exam-day panics are hardware and browser problems that a dry run would have surfaced with time to fix them.
What the software watches during the exam
Once the exam unlocks, the monitoring is continuous. Your webcam and microphone stay on, the browser is locked down so you cannot open other tabs or applications, and the device is watched for the kinds of activity that suggest a second screen or outside help. Facial and gaze detection notes when your eyes leave the screen for long stretches or when a second face appears. The system does not decide anything on its own; it records and flags, and a human at the university reviews flags and makes any academic-integrity call. That distinction matters, because a normal glance away to think is not a verdict, it is a note a reviewer will read in context.
The rules, and the contract you agree to
Two consent layers sit under a Herzing proctored exam. The first is structural: by enrolling, you agree to Herzing's use of its proctoring solution, so the monitoring is a term of taking the course rather than a per-exam choice. The second is specific to nursing, where students sign the program's exam contract before the exam begins. The hard line is the extension itself: bypassing or disabling it earns a zero on that exam, which turns a technical shortcut into a graded catastrophe. Recordings are retained for a defined window, the nursing handbook citing six months, so the record outlives the exam by a wide margin.
Preparing for a watched sit, honestly
A monitored exam is preparable in every way that matters, and it is the one part of a course this desk never crosses into. An offer to sit a recorded Herzing exam in your place is an offer to put your license path on camera committing academic fraud, and no coaching is worth that. What preparation looks like instead is concrete: condensed notes on the tested units, practice questions in the exam's format with the reasoning explained, a target score worked from your gradebook against the fine ladder, and the week's writable load handled elsewhere so your study hours stay whole. The exam prep desk runs exactly that, and the clinical proficiency gate gets the same treatment.
- Run the full technical check a day early, on your real machine and network
- Clear your desk and room before the scan, so nothing benign gets flagged
- Study to a target number, not to a feeling, using your section's actual bands
- Hand off the same week's papers and discussions so study time is protected
- Treat the exam as yours alone, because on the record it always is
The sit is yours; the prep can be shared
Send the course, the units it covers, and a gradebook screenshot. A study plan and the target math come back within 24 hours, free.
Sources and verification
Facts on this page come from official and independent sources, and anything that matters is worth checking against the originals:
- www.herzing.edu/online-proctoring: Herzing's official online-proctoring policy, naming its proctoring services
- www.herzing.edu/nursing/bsn-degree/online: confirmation that nursing courses run in the Canvas learning management system
- www.proctoru.com: the current proctoring provider's own description of how its monitoring works; Herzing has also used Proctorio
- www.hlcommission.org: Higher Learning Commission, the institutional accreditor
- www.ccneaccreditation.org: Commission on Collegiate Nursing Education, the nursing accreditor