ProctorU Rapidly Expands Capacity to Support Campuses and Test-takers Affected by COVID-19 Concerns
BIRMINGHAM, Ala., March 23, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- As COVID-19 threatens the completion of college courses, final exams and professional certifications for millions of people across the country and around the world, ProctorU has ramped up hiring to meet an increased demand for online proctoring services.
With 14 proctoring locations operating in six countries, ProctorU has a business continuity model that has allowed it to continue online proctoring services to its 800+ college campuses uninterrupted. As learning moves to an online model, volume has already increased significantly and finals are still a month away.
"We built an infrastructure to handle natural disasters like earthquakes and hurricanes, not thinking about the possibility of a pandemic," said CEO Scott McFarland. "Thankfully, our distributed architecture allows for total virtualization for all employees when necessary. As we go into the high volume weeks of the Spring term, we are confident we can continue to provide highly secure live proctoring services to both existing and new customers."
ProctorU began planning for increased hiring a month ago when the coronavirus first started to impact the US. This week, new hires will begin working at ProctorU, while many other employers are feeling the impact of "shelter at home" policies and non-essential business closures. President Sanders Pitman said, "When we first opened up hiring, we had more than 350 applications in just one day. We are very fortunate to be able to provide people a job and source of income during this difficult time."
"Our technology allows us to route volume to proctoring locations unaffected by this situation, wherever in the world they may be," Pitman added. "Having multiple redundant sites and complete virtualization allows us to provide a secure testing environment without missing a beat. Our live proctoring service continues to help test-takers get through their exams and our certified proctors are there to make sure security stays at the highest level."
Currently, some organizations that have historically used physical test centers are pivoting to at-home exams as the best solution to continue their testing programs. Allowing test-takers to test from home, online proctoring helps solve a challenging problem. One example, ETS, a global learning company that provides hundreds of thousands of tests each year for academic English proficiency (TOEFL iBT® test) and graduate admissions (GRE® General Test), is working with ProctorU for its online exam services and will begin testing this week.
About ProctorU
ProctorU provides a full suite of online proctoring and identity management solutions for education, professional development and credentialing organizations. With patented, 24/7 live proctoring and a fully-automated platform, both backed by artificial intelligence, ProctorU offers a powerful, convenient and cost-effective alternative to physical test centers. ProctorU increases access to online learning while ensuring exam integrity and accountability for any test-taker.
SOURCE ProctorU
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