Online proctoring – live supervision of online exams by a real person – is a key feature of online exams (OLX) at UNE. It’s a service that is essential for meeting our accreditation and regulatory obligations when using examinations for assessment. UNE partners with ProctorU to deliver this service to UNE students 24/7 via their team of staff. What’s often not well known, however, is how quality service provision is managed. How does UNE ensure that a quality experience is provided by ProctorU? Read on to find out about the strategies we have in place for quality and monitoring.
Our partnership with ProctorU is very hands on, proactive and transparent. Staff in the UNE Exams & e-Assessment Team can view proctor chat logs, event logs, video and audio of every exam session on demand. Staff have access to a detailed analytics dashboard and we meet every two weeks with three senior staff at ProctorU whose positions are dedicated to assisting us in whatever issues, questions or innovations we might wish to pursue. During the peak exam period we are in constant communication with ProctorU’s Student Advocates and Support staff via phone, email and a dedicated Slack channel.
Apart from some ProctorU protocols that protect their staff from abuse and discomfort (rarely exercised except in the most extreme cases), all exam conduct rules are defined by UNE. Institution-wide protocols have been set by the Exams Team, and Unit Coordinators set the conditions for their exam when they complete their ‘data collectors’. This means that UNE determines the parameters for what constitutes a quality supervision experience, and drives the standards for performance and quality assurance.
To ensure performance standards, ProctorU run a number of internal quality assurance programs including a team of their staff who will routinely cheat to see if their supervisors will detect this. They run a ‘secret shopper’ program where staff sit exams to assess the performance of their supervisors. Senior staff will also ‘sit in’ on supervision sessions without notifying the supervisor so they can assess their performance. Every supervisor is assessed internally at least every month. Managers are in attendance at all times and regular training is provided.
ProctorU employ thousands of staff to supervise exams. Just like with paper-based exams, exam supervisors are humans and performance variability exists as it does in any industry. Where there are issues, concerns, or variability with supervisor performance, we are able to investigate and take action if details of the incident are provided (student name, exam and description of the issue at hand). Concerns and incidents can be reported directly to the Exams and e-Assessment team via AskUNE, by phone, or referred through unit coordinators.
On the occasions where we find that the supervisor’s performance was unsatisfactory or inappropriate, we provide the details to senior staff at ProctorU who take these issues seriously. These cases are always investigated internally with ProctorU actioning either training/coaching of the supervisor in question or ending their employment if necessary.
Students often come to OLX with a range of different expectations regarding the experience, and we use a variety of communication and engagement strategies to address these. We send 4 scheduled communications to students every teaching period. These include our direct phone number, links to the Academic Skills Office, Accessibility, Student Grievance Unit, Counselling etc and we encourage students to contact us without hesitation. Our contact details are provided in the Moodle site for every unit that has an online exam. We also encourage students to complete the ‘Try It Out’ exam to get a feel for how exams are conducted online and to ask their supervisor for assistance if they need it.
Should any student concerns or feedback come to the attention of academic or professional staff in Schools, please pass on that information to the Exams and e-Assessment Team to allow us to address it, or advise the student to make contact with us directly. There are many ways that we can offer support and take action to ensure student have a high quality OLX supervision experience.
It’s important to know that the vast majority of students have a positive experience with OLX – survey data indicates a satisfaction rate of greater than 85% and almost 90% of students experience no issues with their exam sessions. Combined with the strategies above in place to ensure our standards are maintained and continuously improving, UNE’s partnership with ProctorU brings significant benefits to UNE’s online experience.
For further information, students and staff can access a range of key information and contacts regarding OLX via the UNE website.