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As more students take online courses as part of their college curricula, the integrity of testing in an online environment becomes increasingly important. The potential for cheating on exams is generally considered to be higher in an online environment. One approach to compensate for the absence of a physical proctor is to use a remote proctoring service that electronically monitors the student during the examination period.

We examined the exam grades for 261 students taking two different upper division accounting courses to determine if a computer-based remote proctoring service reduced the likelihood of cheating, measured through lower exam scores, as compared to classroom proctoring and no proctoring. We examined both online and on-campus courses.

In qualitative and quantitative accounting courses, evidence shows that grades were significantly lower for students who were proctored using a remote proctoring service compared to students who were not proctored. In the quantitative course, remote proctoring resulted in significantly lower final exam scores than either classroom or no proctoring. However, in the qualitative course, both remote proctoring online and live proctoring in a classroom resulted in significantly lower final exam scores than no proctoring, and they are not statistically different from each other.

Academics and administrators should find these results helpful. The results suggest that the use of proctoring services in online courses has the potential to enhance the integrity of online courses by reducing the opportunities for academic dishonesty during exams.

There is a puzzle at the heart of the history of the English criminal trial. Defendants accused of serious crimes were denied counsel, but not defendants accused of minor crimes. Why? Sir William Blackstone could find no explanation and denounced the rule as contrary to the “face of reason.” This article proffers an answer. The rule is traced to the thirteenth century and a strong view of the royal prerogative. Royal interests were at stake, and counsel would not be permitted against the king acting ex officio. The rule seems to have been distinctly English; it does not appear to have been transplanted from the Roman-canon law. The rule continued in England, bolstered by new justifications, long after its original rationale had been forgotten.

In 2015, Idris Elba declared ‘I’m probably the most famous Bond actor in the world … and I’ve not even played the role’. Speculation about Elba taking on the role of the world’s most famous spy has circulated for over a decade, fuelled by current Bond Daniel Craig’s assertion that the role has ruined his life. This chapter will examine the role of fans in driving hype about the future of Bond, focusing on the case study of alt-right outrage at the potential casting of Elba. The anti-Elba camp have framed their outrage as informed by authorial intent, and the desire to maintain canon, with claims that Ian Fleming’s Bond was, and should always be white and Scottish. Bond’s expansive narrative universe has remained constant since its inception, enabling fans of the series to form an emotional connection and sense of ownership over the text as a cohesive brand, a form of ‘affective economics’ (Hills, 2015; Jenkins, 2006a). By situating the debate over Elba’s suitability within the timeline of the Bond franchise, the author will posit that the rigid casting and structure of the film series to date enables feelings of fan ownership to flourish. Whilst the influence of vocal fan groups has altered the future direction of numerous popular texts, this chapter will suggest that the sameness of Bond-as-brand provides the justification for fan backlash towards potential change. In sum, this chapter will highlight the Elba-as-Bond rumours as a reflection of the contemporary political moment which seeks to flatten out difference under the auspice of protecting the canon and tradition of ‘brand Bond’.

Historians have long understood that transforming people into property was the defining characteristic of Atlantic World slavery. This chapter examines litigation in British colonial Vice Admiralty Courts in order to show how English legal categories and procedures facilitated this process of dehumanization. In colonies where people were classified as chattel property, litigants transformed local Vice Admiralty Courts into slave courts by analogizing human beings to ships and cargo. Doing so made sound economic sense from their perspective; it gave colonists instant access to an early modern English legal system that was centered on procedures and categories. But for people of African descent, it had decidedly negative consequences. Indeed, when colonists treated slaves as property, they helped to create a world in which Africans were not just like things, they were things. Through the very act of categorization, they rendered factual what had been a mere supposition: that Africans were less than human.

As the new Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA) achieves full implementation in 2014–2015, public perceptions regarding improvement in access and quality of care due to the ACA provide a fertile area for sociological research. The aim of this chapter is to determine if race is independently associated with perceptions of quality of care and access to care after ACA implementation. And, secondarily, we examined if such a relationship remained stable after considering SES (education and income) alone and SES with other relevant individual characteristics.

Data come from a telephone survey of a representative sample of Georgia residents aged 18 years or older. For each domain of the dependent variables (quality of care and access to care), three models were fitted with a nested design. The first model included only race. The second model included only race and SES. Model 3 included race, SES, and the following individual characteristics: (1) self-rated health status; (2) sense of coherence (SOC; a construct used to explain why some people are more disposed than others to illness after stressful situations); (3) travel time to doctor’s office; (4) importance of short wait times as doctor’s office; (5) political affiliation; and (6) geographic location (rural/non-rural).

Race was significantly associated with both the quality of care and the access to care. Non-White respondents were more likely to perceive improvements to both as a result of the ACA. Likewise, respondents with either higher education or income were also more likely to perceive improvements in quality and access as a result of the ACA. However, these associations were partly explained by respondents’ self-reported political affiliations.

Results of this study show that public perceptions toward the ACA and its impact on quality and access to care seem to differ based on an individuals’ race, income level and political affiliation. This may be a reflection of the media blitzkrieg that surrounds the ACA rather than a direct consequence of the policy itself. A concerted effort to develop communication strategies and outreach efforts by race and SES that can better educate the general population on the ACA may alleviate some of the reservations that are inherent to any major policy implementation, especially in terms of healthcare quality and access.