Authenticated Access to Accredited Testing Services

• US 20140157371A1
• Filed: 07/03/2013
• Published: 06/05/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 12/05/2012
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Chegg Incorporated
• Original Assignee: Chegg Incorporated
• Inventors: Le Chevalier, Vincent, Geiger, Charles F.
• Granted Patent: US 9,971,741 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 726/4
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/254 Extract, transform and load [ETL] procedures, e.g. ETL data flows in data warehouses
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/958 Organisation or management of web site content, e.g. publishing, maintaining pages or automatic linking
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 21/44 Program or device authentication
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/103 Formatting, i.e. changing of presentation of documents automatic justification G06F40/189; automatic line break hyphenation G06F40/191
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/106 Display of layout of documents; Previewing
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/186 Templates
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/242 Dictionaries
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/58 Use of machine translation, e.g. for multi-lingual retrieval, for server-side translation for client devices or for real-time translation

Abstract

A service control system controls access to secured online testing services, such as accredited or standardized tests, examinations in educational courses, tutoring services, and continuing professional development courses or seminars. The secured services may be published by an educational publishing platform and made available to users through online configured browser applications executing on the users'"'"' devices. Based on access conditions associated with a secured testing service and the capturing and processing of one or more images, the service control system determines how users are authorized to access the services. When users have been authorized to access a service or a subset of the service, the service may be distributed through the browser applications executing on the users'"'"' devices.

Claims

1. A method for authenticating users for accessing a secured testing service, the method comprising:

receiving a request from a user to access the secured testing service, the secured testing service associated with one or more access conditions and configured for delivery through online configured browser applications executing on devices of end users;

processing at least one image of a face of the user captured by a camera of a device of the user;

authorizing access to the secured testing service based on the at least one processed image and the one or more access conditions associated with the secured testing service; and

responsive to authorizing the access, distributing the secured testing service to the user by a browser application executing on the user'"'"'s device.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the secured testing service is a test comprising one or more questions, each question having a response period, and wherein processing the at least one image of the user comprises:

storing an answer to each of the one or more questions received from the user; and

storing an image captured during each response period of the testing document in association with the stored answer and an identifier of the question corresponding to each response period.

3. The method of claim 2, further comprising:

validating the test based on the at least one processed image.

4. The method of claim 2, wherein processing the at least one image of the user further comprises:

flagging the stored answers responsive to determining that one or more of the stored images does not include a face.

5. The method of claim 2, wherein processing the at least one image of the user further comprising:

comparing each image to a reference image stored for the user; and

responsive to one of the images not matching the reference image, flagging the stored answers.

6. The method of claim 2, further comprising:

detecting a change to a configuration of the browser application; and

responsive to the detected change, flagging the stored answers.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the secured testing service is distributed during a testing session, and wherein processing the at least one image of the user comprises:

storing a plurality of images of the user captured at random intervals during the testing session.

8. The method of claim 7:

wherein processing the at least one image of the user further comprises comparing at least one pair of the plurality of images to determine whether the compared pair of images match; and

wherein authorizing the access to the secured testing services based on the at least one processed image and the one or more access conditions associated with the secured testing services comprises authorizing the access responsive to determining a match between the compared pair of images.

9. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

selecting one of the one or more access conditions associated with the secured testing services based on a user history accessed from user profile data;

wherein authorizing access to the secured testing services comprises authorizing the access based on the selected access condition and the at least one processed image.

10. A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium storing computer program instructions for authenticating users for accessing secured testing services, the computer program instructions comprising instructions for:

receiving a request from a user to access the secured testing service, the secured testing service associated with one or more access conditions and configured for delivery through online configured browser applications executing on devices of end users;

processing at least one image of a face of the user captured by a camera of a device of the user;

authorizing access to the secured testing service based on the at least one processed image and the one or more access conditions associated with the secured testing service; and

responsive to authorizing the access, distributing the secured testing service to the user by a browser application executing on the user'"'"'s device.

11. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 10, wherein the secured testing service is a test comprising one or more questions, each question having a response period, and wherein processing the at least one image of the user comprises:

storing an answer to each of the one or more questions received from the user; and

storing an image captured during each response period of the testing document in association with the stored answer and an identifier of the question corresponding to each response period.

12. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 11, the computer program instructions further comprising instructions for:

validating the test based on the at least one processed image.

13. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 11, wherein processing the at least one image of the user further comprises:

flagging the stored answers responsive to determining that one or more of the stored images does not include a face.

14. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 11, wherein processing the at least one image of the user further comprising:

comparing each image to a reference image stored for the user; and

responsive to one of the images not matching the reference image, flagging the stored answers.

15. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 11, the computer program instructions further comprising instructions for:

detecting a change to a configuration of the browser application; and

responsive to the detected change, flagging the stored answers.

16. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 10, wherein the secured testing service is distributed during a testing session, and wherein processing the at least one image of the user comprises:

storing a plurality of images of the user captured at random intervals during the testing session.

17. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 16:

wherein processing the at least one image of the user further comprises comparing at least one pair of the plurality of images to determine whether the compared pair of images match; and

wherein authorizing the access to the secured testing services based on the at least one processed image and the one or more access conditions associated with the secured testing services comprises authorizing the access responsive to determining a match between the compared pair of images.

18. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 10, the computer program instructions further comprising instructions for:

selecting one of the one or more access conditions associated with the secured testing services based on a user history accessed from user profile data;

wherein authorizing access to the secured testing services comprises authorizing the access based on the selected access condition and the at least one processed image.