Ian Linkletter said he’s glad to have the lawsuit behind him after a five-year legal battle.Jennifer Gauthier/The Globe and Mail
A former University of British Columbia employee who spoke out against the use of exam monitoring software during the pandemic says he feels he has won his life back after settling a five-year legal battle with an education technology company.
Ian Linkletter has been dreaming of the day he could be free of the lawsuit, which was filed in September, 2020, when he worked at UBC. The terms of the settlement are confidential, but both parties said no money changed hands.
“I’m really happy with the settlement,” Mr. Linkletter said. “I’ve already noticed a big change in my ability to concentrate on what people are saying and to focus for long periods of time without the worry and anxiety of the lawsuit.”
The case was emblematic of a point of tension that arose at universities during the pandemic, as assessments were often done remotely and gave rise to concerns about cheating. Students organized to oppose exam monitoring by universities that, in their view, invaded their privacy, often by recording their surroundings and movements.
Educational technology company Proctorio, whose software for supervising remote exams was adopted by dozens of universities, obtained an injunction against Mr. Linkletter in 2020 over a series of social media posts. The posts were critical of the company and included links to material that Proctorio argued violated its copyright.
Mr. Linkletter replied by trying to have Proctorio’s case dismissed under B.C.’s Protection of Public Participation Act. His legal action made its way through the courts and several appeal processes, where his lawyers argued it was strategic litigation to limit public participation. Mr. Linkletter said his efforts were largely unsuccessful, and the Supreme Court of Canada declined to hear the case last year.
Proctorio submitted an application to dismiss the lawsuit on Nov. 12, bringing an end to the ordeal. Mr. Linkletter is still subject to an injunction that prohibits him from accessing or sharing materials from the Proctorio help centre.
Kevin Rockmael, the head of marketing at Proctorio, said the company is pleased that the settlement protects its interests.
“Most importantly we are glad to close this chapter and focus our efforts on helping teachers and educational institutions deliver valuable and secure assessments,” Mr. Rockmael said.
Mr. Linkletter said he spoke up because he wanted to defend the interests of students.
During the pandemic, when university lectures and exams were disrupted, many schools turned to proctoring software that required students to appear on camera as they wrote their exams at home and included features designed to monitor for signs of cheating.
At the time, students said they worried they would be flagged for things such as suspicious eye movements or shifting in their seat. Racialized students also complained that in some cases the technology struggled to identify them.
“Over 50,000 UBC students were forced to use Proctorio during the pandemic, and it was really upsetting to them. They felt like they weren’t being trusted. They felt creeped out by the eye tracking and head movement tracking that it does, and they were asking for help getting rid of it,” Mr. Linkletter said.
He was a learning technology specialist in UBC’s faculty of education when his legal battle began. But UBC did not offer to pay for his court costs. He said that was disappointing.
He subsequently left the school and now works at the British Columbia Institute of Technology as an emerging technology librarian.
“UBC did nothing. It ended up being the Association of Administrative and Professional Staff that stepped forward,” Mr. Linkletter said, referring to a UBC employee association. Without their help, the legal battle would have been difficult, he said. He spent his life savings of more than $50,000 to defend himself and also raised money online.
In a statement, UBC spokesman Matthew Ramsey said the school met all its legal obligations to Mr. Linkletter as an employee.
He added that UBC no longer uses Proctorio’s proctoring software after the academic senates at the Vancouver and Okanagan campuses voted in 2021 to restrict the use of automated remote invigilation tools such as Proctorio. It may still be used in some cases where it is required by accreditation bodies, according to a 2021 note to the community from UBC’s associate provost for teaching and learning.
Sarah Elaine Eaton, a leading expert on academic integrity and a professor of education at the University of Calgary, said the case became a rallying point. She was among those who donated to help pay Mr. Linkletter’s legal bills.
“It was a moment when people suddenly became aware of some of the issues around this, and it had resonance in the academic community,” Prof. Eaton said.
“Bias in AI technologies, surveillance, privacy, human rights – these were all conversations that were catalyzed and amplified in part because of this case.”