I was able to sit in on an ETS webinar about the At-Home Edition of the TOEFL. A few additional details were provided. They are:
- The test-taker will be recorded for the whole test.
- Additional countries will be probably be announced later this week. Update: the test is available all over the world, except Iran and China.
- Paper score reports are not being sent at this time.
- The score report of the At-Home TOEFL will list “STNRP” followed by the ISO code of the student’s country in the “test center” section. It will probably also contain the words “Special Home Edition” somewhere.
- Notably, the Home Edition of the GRE will not contain any information indicating how the test was taken.
- A built-in camera is okay, as long as the computer can be lifted up and rotated to give a view of the whole room.
- Food and drink is not allowed.
- Religious headgear is okay, but ears must be visible at all times.
- AI facial recognition and gaze tracking technology will also be used to prevent cheating.
- AI facial recognition is used throughout the test to ensure that the proper person is taking the test.
- If ETS discovers that a student is cheating or has broken a rule, the scores will be cancelled. The student may be banned from taking the test in the future (and other ETS tests).
- If the student loses their internet connection during the test the proctor will stop the test and a free retest will be offered (just note that this was TOLD to me, and is not written anywhere as an official policy, so don’t consider it a guarantee).
- The free TPO mentioned by ETS is only available in China, and will not be offered to students outside of China.