COVID-19 has already changed the world in more ways than we know. Every institution is undergoing radical transformations to ensure continuity. The pandemic has underlined the need for a long-term solution to prepare for an extended period of transitioning between lockdowns and normalcy.
Education has been one of the most recent domains to adopt modern technology. Many institutions have already postponed their exams (entrance, competitive, semester, final) because of the disruption caused by the ongoing health emergency, rendering several thousands of students in a precarious situation.
Much has been said about the need to shift to the online mode of pedagogy and examination, even before the onset of the pandemic. With two months into lockdown and counting, the continuity of education, and the future of an entire generation of students are under genuine threat and require ingenious solutions to tide over the crisis.
The education industry and its offshoots’ aspiration to embrace technology should be integral to today’s policymaking. Institutions can play a lead role in breaking the mold and adopting technology to leapfrog into the next phase of education and evaluations.
The present format of most examinations needs to bring a large number of students at one venue, which creates several challenges. Deferring exams is only a short-term solution. It will take longer to flatten the pandemic’s curve and revert to the usual way of life.
For most institutions, the scale of the exam is the foremost challenge, as tens of thousands of students attempt the tests. Institutions can scale exams by choosing a platform that allows multiple candidates/users to attempt the exam simultaneously, irrespective of their geographical location. The online examination platform should be robust enough to support numerous candidates, offer quick response time and auto-save features, to ensure better scalability while ensuring the utmost security of the exam.
“An online examination platform/software should ideally have a simple interface to create and host exams. It should provide the institution conducting the exam the ability to monitor and distribute correction tasks; to create questions and quizzes of different types; to conduct live exams, with multiple screen shares for proctored exams; to host online fairs with multiple people allowed to demonstrate their projects, and to enable the software to lock down the student’s computer during the duration of the exam, so he/ she can’t do anything but take the test on the computer during the exam. Online examination platforms also need to address issues such as scalability, security, accessibility, credibility, remote proctoring, and ease of use so that institutions can trust them for use. They should allow exams to be conducted at scale with a very low chance of paper leakages and easier tracking of scoring and distribution of reports. The tools should be easy to use with minimal setup and run on low resources.” – Suchin Ravi, Lead Instructor, YoungWonks.
Mercer | Mettl’s delivered 20 million assessments in 2019 on its online examination platform, roughly translating to 53,500 assessments a day, more than 60% of which were remotely proctored. 250+ educational institutions across the globe widely use our platform. Our AI relies on a rich history of data with over five years of experience in proctoring, making us a standout player in the market. We were acknowledged in the prestigious Gartner’s Market Guide for Remote Proctoring Services for Higher Education — the only Indian company to have featured as a recommended vendor for remote proctoring services to support the growth of online learning in higher education. We have a record of conducting a hundred thousand assessments in one day, securely with our state-of-art proctoring solution, guaranteeing a seamless experience for test-takers, even at such a scale.
Many institutions believe that the security of the online exam is usually compromised. A significant challenge for maintaining academic integrity, exam security mostly depends on the examination platform chosen by an educational body. A secure ecosystem is a must while choosing an examination platform. The security of students’ personal data, question bank data of institutions, and the exam results need to be ensured.
Mercer | Mettl’s platform ensures online exam security through:
A flexible and secure cloud computing environment for data storage and computation services.
Data encryption and security protocol to safeguard against breach of data exchanged over the network between the test-taker & the invigilator.
Maximum security storage environment for the database containing personal information, exam records, and other sensitive details of candidates and clients, ensuring no data is bartered, sold, or used for any other personal purpose or interest, and multiple authentication combinations to address any vulnerability.
Advanced AI-and human-based remote proctoring, anti-cheating features, candidate authorization, secure browser, and geofencing to enhance the security and credibility of the online exam, while controlling malpractices.
Restricted access and viewing, with information tracking powers to monitor who, where and when accessed the data, additionally creating roles with defined access rights.
Multi-factor authentication to ensure only an authorized person can log in.
The pandemic is an extraordinary time and calls for commensurate measures. The administration of any large-scale examination can be complicated and involves the collaboration of diverse stakeholders. With a scalable, secure, credible, and robust platform, it is possible to prototype the test scale and improve it rapidly to ensure the continuity of education.
With its range of online solutions for education and learning continuity, Mercer | Mettl’s online examination platform has adopted the latest technology, multiple compliances, stringent policies, extensive protocols, regular testing, and internal and external auditing. These measures ensure information privacy and data security at every stage of the examination/assessment process to iron out challenges faced by institutions while shifting to digital examinations.
Mercer | Mettl’s online examination platform is pre-configured with AI-powered proctoring and equips end-to-end exam management at scale, with unparalleled security. By supporting different question formats, advanced anti-cheating features, comprehensive reports and analytics, and continual tech assistance to students and faculty members, Mercer | Mettl’s online examination platform is the only platform capable of matching your desired scale.
Universities have used Mercer | Mettl’s examination platform across the globe for high-stakes entrance and competitive exams, mid-stakes semester exams, and even low-stakes weekly tests and quizzes.
The Washington Center, headquartered in Washington, D.C., has assisted more than 60,000 students in translating their college majors into viable career opportunities for over four and a half decades. TWC faced numerous challenges, including the absence of a secure and integrated examination platform, unavailability of a user-friendly and precise process, finding a platform compliant with TWC’s validation criteria, lack of provision for proctoring, insecure browsing experience and absence of anti-cheating mechanisms.
Mercer | Mettl’s online examination platform offered its easy-to-use and customizable platform, with a live and manual proctoring provision, 24×7 support, and advanced AI-powered anti-cheating solutions, including secure browser. The platform was smoothly and quickly integrated onto TWC’s system, addressing all bottlenecks and empowering it to conduct large-scale exams with utmost credibility and security.
Yes, online tests can detect cheating with the help of a secure online examination system which has features such as:
You can make your online exams secure with the help of a robust online exam software. Here are top 6 ways to make your online exams secure:
Online tests can be monitored through different ways. Online exam portals make use of the internet and webcam to monitor the test-taker. Here are some of the features through which online tests can be monitored:
Scaling a test means making it accessible to many people at once. A physical exam center will soon be replaced by an online exam platform due to the latter’s efficiency in scale, reachability, and cost. The use of an online exam security software maintains the same level of integrity and security of an exam, like in a physical examination, while allowing an institute to scale exams and make education reach numerous people in the farthest and remotest corners of the world.
Originally published June 22 2020, Updated December 16 2020
Bhuvi is a content marketer at Mercer | Mettl. She's helped various brands find their voice through insightful thought pieces and engaging content. When not scandalizing people with her stories, you’ll find her challenging gender norms, dancing to her own tune, and crusading through life, laughing.
Online examination, also known as virtual examination, is conducted remotely on a computer with high-speed internet. Like a classroom exam, it is time-bound and usually supervised through a webcam and proctor, making it cheating-free, secure and easily scalable.
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