Coopersmith proctoring

[bjcheung77]

That's great, it's like Saylor.og, they got rid of ProctorU and went for a much more affordable option at $5 now!

[ss20ts]

Among other things, it doesn't matter how good your connection is, you can get kicked out of the exam you're taking if it fluctuates even a little bit. Some other issues include: you have to talk to someone obviously working in a foreign call center; the background noise can make it difficult to hear (let alone understand) what the proctor is telling you. Another common issue is them having no clue how to actually access your exam.

Anyone wishing to take an exam proctored by ProctorU should probably block out at least 3 hours: 1 hour for the exam, 2 hours to resolve the issues that crop up.

Good grief! 3 hours? That's insane. Examity also has foreign call center staff who are very difficult to understand and hear. The background noise was ridiculous. I ended up breaking the rule and turning my speakers to mute because I needed quiet. Yeah that exam access thing was not great with Examity either. They had to enter an access code and had no idea where to do it. Maybe PU and Examity are run by the same people who haven't a clue. PU sounds worse than Examity which I didn't even know was possible

[Flelm]

I never had a problem with ProctorU (for TESU exams), except for validating my ID (which to be fair I think was the fault of my camera). Not disagreeing with anyone else's experiences, just sharing mine.

[jsd]

I've never had a problem with PU or Examity, but this is still a good move. RPNow is both cheaper and more conveinent.

[studyingfortests]

I haven't personally taken any ProctorU exams, but two friends (one is about to complete his TESU degree) have taken multiple exams in my office. Each one was a clusterfuck for different reasons.  ProctorU couldn't get their software to work. Their software wouldn't talk to the camera.  The proctor couldn't read the ID. The Internet connection faltered for a brief moment and he had to restart. And more.  Mind you, I had none of these problems using the exact same computer with CLEP's proctor service and with RPNow.

There was not a single exam that took less than 45 minutes to get things set up to actually start the exam, and in one case, it was an hour and a half of ProctorU's people fiddling with something that in the previous exam and the following one took a quarter of that time. In one other case, my friend gave up after 2 hours and rescheduled.

And that doesn't even address the add-on fees if you want to take an exam the same day.

For that reason, I have been very reluctant to recommend Coopersmith (or, for that matter, TESU courses requiring proctored exams) to anyone unless there was absolutely no other option.

If Coopersmith can implement RPNow, which seems like a no-brainer, I would think it would make a meaningful difference in improving their learners' experience, and result in more people using Coopersmith as a course resource.

[ss20ts]

Was the proctoring always crappy or has it gotten worse since the pandemic started? It seems like a lot of schools jumped into use online proctoring services and the services became overwhelmed. From my experience at LSU, LSU had been working with Examity on every single exam and there were still issues. It was pretty ridiculous. I can't imagine spending 45 minutes trying to get to take an exam. That really is insanity.

[rachel83az]

I don't think ProctorU was QUITE so bad before the pandemic. At least, I don't remember seeing (that many) complaints around here. A handful, sure, but some people complain about having to use a proctor at all...

[bjcheung77]

I've not taken anything from Examity yet, I've had many ProctorU exams. Of the many I had, there were only two real incidents/issues. One was when the proctor asked me for a second ID, required me to show my passport along with my drivers license. It wasn't a technical issue, more like the dude had an attitude, I had a short chat with him and after the exam he flagged me for "technical issues".

The other time was the proctor mentioned the exam was not open book, I just corrected them and showed them the links and they were adamant that was not the case. I didn't really argue on both cases, I just went and did the exams closed book. Both were easy solutions on StraighterLine's side, a quick call and they told me what was on the flag and I received credit and exam scores right away.

StraighterLine's been a good chunk of my alternative credit, ProctorU as a system works but not really well. They use LogMeIn and is an invasive software package that has control of the computer, so I use an old clunker laptop that doesn't have anything but Win10 OS and I use it for basic web browsing/email, etc.

[shaas]

I broke down and contacted Coopersmith to say that I want to take some of their courses, but I just can't stand ProctorU. They replied that they don't currently have the ability to do RPNow proctoring at the moment, but that they would look into it. Maybe it's just empty platitudes, but perhaps if more people were to do the same then they'd be more incentivized to switch - or at least to let you choose like Davar does.

I said this on another thread as well, but we now have integrated proctoring with SmarterServices available (with no appointments necessary).

Speaking of which, for a look into Coopersmith's future, here is our brand new ACC-101 Module 1: 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y-VOUBYGHsk

Here is our MAT-101 playlist:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9tzZkQZv...ex=1&t=32s

These take a while to produce (we can do maybe 1 or 2 courses/month at this rate), but the plan is to create these for all of our popular courses (sorry Medical Marijuana).

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I broke down and contacted Coopersmith to say that I want to take some of their courses, but I just can't stand ProctorU. They replied that they don't currently have the ability to do RPNow proctoring at the moment, but that they would look into it. Maybe it's just empty platitudes, but perhaps if more people were to do the same then they'd be more incentivized to switch - or at least to let you choose like Davar does.

FYI, it wasn't a platitude, but WOW, these integration projects take forever.

Once day someone in computer programming will have to explain to me why 4 weeks in computer programming always seems to mean 4 months. Maybe it's a coding language thing?

[rachel83az]

I'm excited! I very much want to take some Coopersmith courses now.