Proctor U (Proctor FU) with Coopersmith... still just as bad

[shaas]

While I've personally not had to suffer the indignities of using ProctorU, I was helping a (pretty non-technical) friend get set up for a ProctorU exam with Coopersmith.  He took them at my place because his Internet connection is unreliable. 

It was a complete clusterfuck.

The first time he attempted to take the exam, I ran through the pre-flight equipment/connection check on my laptop. Everything passed with flying colors EXCEPT the CPU and memory specifications. Apparently Firefox does not provide that information.  So, according to ProctorU, because of that, one cannot use Firefox. Except that it is one of the two approved browsers that they list.  

So I switched to Chrome, where all of the pre-flight passed with flying colors. I left the room as my friend was talking to the proctor.

Well, apparently the proctor decided that the volume on the microphone wasn't adequate, so they connected him to technical support. That took 50 minutes, and at the end of it, the tech support folks said they could not help him, that the volume wasn't loud enough and they could not fix it.  So he rescheduled the exam.  (He still does not know if he will be refunded for the problem.)

The second time around, he used my desktop.  Again, I set everything up with Chrome, tested it, made sure the images from the webcam and volume were fine, but this time I stayed around in case there were problems.  Again, this time, ProctorU could not figure out how to make the webcam talk to their app (even though it was working when I did the preflight test in their app, and separately checked it in Zoom.)  Another 30 minutes, more of the tech support guy being utterly unhelpful. I even stepped in to ensure the camera worked with a different app (it did...) but still they could not make it work.

So while that was going on, I decided to set up the laptop that had failed the previous day, and test the supposedly problematic audio myself.  THE DUMBASS PROCTORU SUPPORT GUY HAD SET THE AUDIO TO AN INTERNAL ROUTING APP INSTEAD OF THE BUILT-IN MICROPHONE!!!  That's why they couldn't hear.  Mind you... I'd tested it 5 minutes before my friend had started the app, using ProctorU's preflight, and it was fine.  So I fixed the setting, preflight tested with ProctorU's test page, and suggested my friend ditch the desktop and switch back to the laptop.

He switched back, and I stayed in the room to ensure that he could actually speak to the proctor, that the proctor could hear and see him, and that everything was good. It was fine. Once that was done, I left... and my friend was finally able to take his test. Almost 90 minutes after the scheduled starting time.

But left to ProctorU's support, it's unlikely he would have been able to resolve the problem.

This was the last of three Coopersmith courses my friend needed to take (similar ineptitude and wasted time with ProctorU each of the other two times, though they were eventually successful), so he's unlikely to have to deal with ProctorU ever again, but it's offputting enough for me to consider discouraging people I talk with from using Coopersmith in the future until they get a competent proctoring solution.

I've used several different proctoring tools including the Respondus Lockdown Browser, RPNow, whatever kludge CLEP uses, and I think one other. *None* have had anywhere near as bad as ProctorU.  I do not understand why Coopersmith (and TESU) don't switch to RPNow or something else, and I do not understand why ProctorU has these issues when other proctoring services seem to work relatively well.

@shaas I don't know if there are limitations with ACE or something else that keeps Coopersmith from switching, or at least offering an alternative to ProctorU, but I can tell you that, especially with the counseling/social work course offerings, those folks in particular seem to be less technically inclined, and ProctorU is likely to be a strong disincentive from people taking those courses.  I hope there's something you can do to explore another option.

Okay, so this reply has been a loooong time in the making, but we've now added on-demand proctoring through SmarterServices that requires no human intervention. Just log in, click on the exam and follow the prompts. So, students no longer need to use ProctorU or any other service that requires interacting with another person or making an appointment.