As COVID-19 threatens the completion of professional certifications for millions of people around the world, Yardstick Assessment Strategies’ sister company, ProctorU, has assured our clients that their online proctoring services will remain intact.
With 14 proctoring locations operating in six countries, ProctorU uses a business model that has allowed it to continue online proctoring services to its 800+ college campuses and credentialing clients. Following a natural disaster two years ago that impacted a major proctoring center, ProctorU decided to decentralize its operations, decreasing the risk of downtime.
Online testing volumes have increased significantly in recent weeks due to test center closures. In response, ProctorU began extensive hiring in February when the coronavirus first started to impact the US.
“We built an infrastructure to handle natural disasters like earthquakes and hurricanes, not thinking about the possibility of a pandemic,” said ProctorU 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.”
This week, the new hires will begin working at ProctorU while many other employers are feeling the impact of physical distancing policies and sweeping 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.”
Currently, many organizations that typically use physical test centers are pivoting to at-home exams to continue their testing programs. One example is ETS, a global learning company that provides hundreds of thousands of tests each year for academic English proficiency and graduate admissions. ETS is working with ProctorU for its online exam services and will begin testing this week.
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