DigEd has seen a significant increase in online examinations this trimester, with an estimated 16,000-18,000 individual sittings scheduled. To ensure a smooth and low-stress experience, here’s everything you need to know about the existing support model in place for online exams, and some changes we’ve made for T1 in response to the increased demand.
DigEd has a comprehensive support model already in place for online exams. Comprehensive technical support is provided to students 24/7 by ProctorU, with both the exam supervisor and specialist technical support staff able to assist students in real time to resolve almost all issues. In the small number of instances where issues cannot be resolved by ProctorU or where access to university systems is required, there’s no need for concern – the DigEd team has a wide range of options to resolve issues asynchronously during business hours without adverse any impacts on students. Students receive multiple communications each trimester advising them of these support options, and reinforcing these with your students is the best way to ensure students know what support is available and the correct avenues to access it.
During the peak end-of-trimester assessment period, DigEd operates extended business hours (8am-6pm) and provides L2 after-hours support until 1am, which allows ProctorU to escalate unresolvable and university-specific issues to our team. In response to the significantly increased load in T1, DigEd has collaborated with the Student Connect team and the IT Client Services team to develop a cross-resourcing model for additional support capacity during the assessment period. This will allow us to maximise the availability of phone support during peak scheduling windows and manage response timeframes for voicemail and SRM requests. 24/7 support from ProctorU remains available as usual, and all issues that can’t be resolved in real time can easily be addressed asynchronously by our team during our extended business hours.
DigEd also provides support to staff via our olxforstaff and buildmyexam services – while we are endeavouring to accommodate the increased demand for our services, please note that we are adapting our parameters and prioritisation where necessary and your support in this is appreciated. If you’re a seasoned user of online exams, you can also help out by sharing your expertise with colleagues and students who may be less familiar – it’s a great way to reinforce the knowledge and capabilities that allow UNE to continue to lead the sector.