Local proctoring experiences/tips?

[jch]

I'm all set up to take the two exams for my current TESU courses at my local library. That process was relatively painless to deal with. I just got permission from the proctor and entered their info into the TESU form. TESU quickly checked in with them and approved the arrangement.  

Saylor, on the other hand, is difficult to work with. Their proctoring security requirements are more rigorous than I've seen from any actual school. We went back and forth for a month regarding proctor identification documents. They wanted the proctor to upload a photo of their staff badge, but the library doesn't allow that. Saylor finally gave me the go ahead to schedule a proctoring appointment, but never provided the access code to my proctor. Unless they respond in the next 24 hours, my appointment for corporate communications tomorrow won't taken. As is the norm with Saylor, their support contacts are often a black hole. Attempting to utilize their in-person proctoring option requires staff intervention at several points in the process. If the support contacts don't respond, the process doesn't work.

I'm all done with exams in the current term. The TESU exams went well, with some issues. Here's the general process to take exams using in-person proctoring: 

1. Get approval from the proctor
   
2. Provide proctor's info to TESU
   
3. OTA confirms proctor's details
   
4. OTA emails exam info to proctor
   
5. OTA mails exam materials to proctor
   
6. Proctor receives exam in the mail and sets up an appointment slot
   
7. Take the exam while the proctor is present
   
8. Proctor fills out a certification section on the front of the exam booklet
   
9. Proctor mails the exam booklet/materials back to TESU using the included reply envelope
   
10. TESU receives and scores the exam within a few weeks
    

Compared to online proctoring, this system had much less stress. I easily received the accommodations necessary for success and could take my approved bathroom/water/rest breaks as needed with no fuss. The physical environment wasn't perfect but worked out. I had to sit at a table in front of the reference librarian's desk so that she could observe me while doing her work. Unfortunately, I was occasionally distracted by other library patrons walking by or chatting. 

One exam with all multiple-choice questions utilized a scantron-style bubble sheet to record responses. The other exam, comprising mixed multiple-choice and essay questions, used the exam booklet for everything. Be prepared with several writing instruments! Contrary to my earlier expectation, TESU provides a return envelope with postage. 

My proctor received the epack exam a few weeks after the start of the term, and I took it right away. Within about two weeks, it was scored and reflected on my TESU transcript. 
However, there was a problem with the other exam. It was supposed to be a midterm exam, so I wasn't suspicious when it didn't arrive straight away. However, as the midterm week approached, I still hadn't heard from my proctor. When I asked, she quickly confirmed to me that she had yet to receive anything. Then, I emailed OTA at TESU. Someone responded right away, apologizing for their mistakes. They had missed this course on my forms at the start of the term and then failed to catch the mistake when I emailed them to confirm my exam arrangements. It took a week to get it mailed out and another week for my proctor to receive it. Due to further scheduling conflicts, I was delayed by one more week. In the end, this worked out fine, and I appreciated the extra preparation time. Still waiting on the score, but I'm feeling confident. 

Through this process, I've identified two gotchas to be aware of:

• Make sure that the proctor has received the exam materials. Monitor the process, and reach out if something isn't happening as expected. 
  
• Answering exam questions on paper takes much longer than it does on a computer! I'm used to whipping through the 100-question computer-based DSST exams in about 15 minutes. Here, the 100-question TESU paper exam took me about 45 minutes to finish. Filling in those bubbles is very time-consuming! Written answers are even worse. My other exam also had five short essay questions, which stretched my physical stamina and appointment slot to their very limits. 
  

Now, on to Saylor. As I expected, they never delivered the exam access codes to my proctor. To date, no one from their team ever responded to my increasingly frantic messages. In fact, the last communication I received from them regarding proctoring was two months ago! 
Not wanting to delay the exams and disrupt my schedule, I scrambled to set up ProctorU sessions. As expected, I had three ProctorFU experiences. In all of the sessions, it took longer for them to get their systems to work than it did for me to actually answer the exam questions. During the second session, there were serious issues getting the proctoring software connected. Their support technician disregarded the fact that I had just completed a proctoring session and insisted that something was wrong on my end. After failing to find any faults on my system, even running an internet speed test, he finally relented and did some magic on his end to make it work. During the third session, I experienced yet another example of ProctorU's totally inconsistent security procedures. Saylor instructed ProctorU to have candidates show their computer screen using a mirror. Earlier in the day, I successfully used the back of a CD twice for this task. Now, the proctor insisted that using a CD was strictly against policy. Despite their confident marketing copy, I have never experienced the same set of exam security measures twice with ProctorU. In the end, I dealt with the drama and passed all three of the exams. 
One department at Saylor has been in contact with me recently - their marketing people. They congratulated me on completing four courses and asked me to consider appearing in their student spotlight. Of course, I told them to fix the proctoring and ACE/Credly issues first. Waiting on a follow-up from Saylor management on that.