The University of London explained how there was a fear that the near-future possibility of smartwatches becoming as popular as smartphones has led to an issue in the management of exam halls. Invigilators have raised questions as to how smartwatch users could be identified among potentially over a hundred students.
It clearly isn’t practical to check each student and only remove watches from those students who are using smartwatches. Because of this, a blanket ban on wristwatches is being imposed by many universities across Britain, according to BuzzFeed.
All watches are to be banned and placed in equal status to the banning of mobile phones. To recompense students who only ever intended to use a watch to learn the time, more wall clocks have been installed and sufficient desk clocks bought for all should a student request one. Students will be required to place their own watches in a plastic wrapper under the desk, along with their phone.
The fears of cheating derive from how smartwatches have the same basic feature set as the smartphones which have been banned from exam halls for years. With SMS and internet access, communication with people outside the exam hall could be possible or even research online on topics in the paper.
Smartwatches have been available for several years already though. The Samsung Galaxy Gear, Motorola Moto 360 and Pebble are all seeing popularity. Yet it is the anticipated prevalence of the Apple Watch that is spurring universities into apprehension of malpractice by students.
