by Dina-Perla Portnaar
ProctorExam, the largest European online proctoring company and the global leader in providing a flexible SaaS proctoring technology, enables 2 million+ remote sessions during COVID-19 that would otherwise have been cancelled. Partners include universities, education technology / service providers and a range of older and newer clients that have used ProctorExam in their transition to a full online digital experience. These clients picked ProctorExam as the main European alternative to US based online proctoring vendors. Being European, ProctorExam offers the stringent General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) to all its clients, regardless where they may be based.
Not compromising between security and accuracy equals integrity in remote examining and eLearning. The one of a kind dual-view proctoring, by using a second camera device next to the webcam, for example a smartphone or tablet, enhances security and accuracy. Traditional proctoring services only get to see the front view and use invasive eye gazing technology. Of course, people move their eyes. It is better to understand what they are staring at by using the mobile camera view. This happens with dual-view proctoring.
The services are student-centric, easy to use and balanced in terms of interference in personal privacy. Configurations such as multi-language with off-the-shelf templates available in Dutch, French, Italian, Chinese, Spanish and English and lastly, white-labelling and branding options, are in place.
Bring Your Own Proctor
The exams can be reviewed by human proctors. ProctorExam has trusted and scalable partnerships in place for that. Also, Bring Your Own Proctor (BYOP) is possible. Thus, it is possible to use personal proctors and staff to keep control of the process. ProctorExam offers all proctoring modalities as a one-stop-shop and makes remote examining accessible for everyone.
“When I started the company six years ago, I was frustrated because of my own situation in which I had to travel to take an exam. Also, I noticed how people from all over the world wanted to study at Harvard, MIT, Stanford, Yale and so on. There was a serious demand for taking exams remotely and not just one type of exams, for example summative ones. Moreover, students wanted to get the same accreditation as students that were taking the exams live at the classrooms of those institutions. Many of those tier one learning organisations offered modules for people abroad, but the exams and certificates weren’t accredited in the same way. The certificates weren’t the ‘real deal’ so to speak. With proctoring and robust eLearning programs having become much more commonplace in the past years, all of this has evolved even quicker than we could have predicted. Sure, that growth is also a result of the ever-changing learning environment, as it should be, especially in this highly traditional domain,” says Daniel Haven.
A change in the way of working
Because of COVID-19, 94% of organisations have changed the way of working, including the learning and development strategy. Not one company plans to increase face-to-face learning in 2021. Also, most companies are only scratching the surface of virtual learning at the moment. Mobile will be the most important platform. Moreover, the World Economic Forum predicts that 40% of the expertise will need to be replaced with new expertise by 2022. At the same time, Deloitte Insights show that employees rate the opportunity to learn as a top reason for taking a position. Finally, up to 60% less employee time is required with eLearning in comparison with face-to-face training. By cutting out carbon-emitting travel, eLearning and remote examining supports organisations in realising environmental targets.
“Logically, we did experience a couple of challenges in the peak times of the pandemic. Schools had to come to us for remote examining and to save their learning programs. Yet, they didn’t always have the capacity to process the necessary information and that massive, sudden change in their way of working. They had to make decisions, scale up and go with whatever needed to happen. Sometimes, communication towards students was a bit compromised. We had weeks in which we had to manage tens of thousands of exams on a daily basis. We tried to operate as a tower of strength in a domain that was well-known in theory, yet still very traditional in practice. Luckily, the dynamics have changed rapidly. This ensures a fertile soil and makes us ready for the next phase of normalisation,” says Daniel Haven.
Serious and complex operations with multiple stakeholders
Whether current or future clients, in higher education or corporate training segments, the audience of ProctorExam tends to be mid-executive to C-level employees of large education-related organisations that might be new to online proctoring or have some experience. However, they always have the same concern, namely guaranteeing the integrity of the examination process, while ensuring appropriate privacy conditions for the test takers.
In everyday processes, ProctorExam is involved in serious and complex operations with multiple stakeholders. The audience is savvy, has limited time and a number of topics on their plate. The tools and insights need to be GDPR-compliant and make the clients’ job easier. When necessary, ProctorExam covers broader topics in the education and professional training fields.
GDPR-compliant for everyone
ProctorExam is GDPR-compliant for everyone, thus also for test-takers outside of the European Union. This allows test-takers to experience a high level of predictability, transparency and authority, all while ensuring that their privacy is being protected. The European Union doesn’t use certain tools that exist in the US. It is possible to request a database to check the personal identity of test-takers in the US, which doesn’t happen within the EU. Besides, not everyone is protected by the current privacy legislation and regulation in the US, including foreign test-takers. All of this means that remote examining and eLearning organised by a European company offers the best privacy standards and culture until today.
“We are EU based with global appeal. Because of the excellent privacy standards, we surely hope that cooperative associations from education and research institutions would protect and value companies such as ours. They can undeniably see us as a strong alternative for the US based tier one ‘usual suspect’ enterprises. Excellence and further R&D, especially in AI, are our ambitions for the next year,” says Daniel Haven.
ProctorExam’s global presence reaches customers across 25 countries in Europe, North-America, Australia and Asia. Having a global diversified model with test-takers across 178 countries helps ProctorExam tap into new sectors and pinpoint potential opportunities. The services are offered to a range of direct and indirect customers, including Higher Education Institutes, Corporate Certification and Technology and Service Partners.
