One of our most popular services is the camera monitoring for exams or supervised activities. You must initially allow the use of the camera on your institution's website.
How to Determine if Your Exam Uses a Camera
To find out if your exam requires camera monitoring, ask your institution, teacher, or academic officer about the conditions of your exam. They will inform you about any monitoring that will take place.
When you access your exam or supervised activity, you will see that the SMOWL monitoring block is activated.
The block includes a video window every time the camera is active, allowing the user to check that everything is correct and that nothing is interfering with the camera.
Important Reminders:
Your image should appear inside the SMOWL box.
Ensure you have adequate lighting conditions and your face is clearly visible.
Make sure your camera is not covered.
Do not wear anything that covers your head or face. Only reading glasses are allowed.
You must be alone in the room where you take the exam. If there are other people, it will be reported.
Troubleshooting Camera Issues
If the camera is not detected, a message will appear within the monitoring block.
You may also see a message like:
"SMOWL is not correctly engaged, refresh your browser"
If you have to take a monitored exam with SMOWL, you must first grant camera permission in your browser.
Next, ensure the camera works correctly. Here are a few ways to check:
External Tool: Test your camera through this external tool: webcamtests.com
SMOWL Camera Testing System: Test your camera with our camera testing system.
Windows Camera Application: Open the native Windows camera application. When the app opens, you should see yourself.
Enabling Camera Permissions in Chrome
For example, if you are using Google Chrome, follow these steps:
Open Chrome.
At the top right, click More Settings.
Click Privacy & Security > Site Settings > Camera.
Select the option you want to set as default. Check blocked and allowed sites.
To give and remove permissions, click on the browser button at the top left of the URL.
To check that the camera is working correctly, ensure you are displayed in the SMOWL block and that the icon is blue.
How camera system works?
This system monitors your behavior during the exam and presents a report to the academic manager with the results.
Smowltech does not approve or suspend a user, it simply prepares a report with the evidence obtained during the exam, such as the use of unauthorized resources or user authentication issues.