Honorlock Remote Proctoring Customer Testimonial
Steven Daniello, Director of Assessment Services
Indian River State College
“When COVID hit, we realized we had 45 days to start with a completely new company and to have a proctoring system up and running, and not just for a small pilot, but for the entire faculty.”
– Steven Daniello
Evaluating and Implementing Remote Proctoring on a Tight Schedule
In only 45 days, Indian River State College (IRSC) evaluated and implemented Honorlock remote proctoring across the institution.
Over its 60-year history, IRSC has continually evolved to meet the unique needs of the citizens and businesses in its four-county service district. What began as a one-building junior college has grown into a state college serving nearly 30,000 students annually on five campuses with five testing centers.
Before March 2020, about 30% of IRSC classes were online. However, like many educational institutions across the country, IRSC was forced to a fully online learning format due to COVID. This rapid transition was cause for concern for both students and faculty.
“We experienced the ups and downs of a roller coaster. Our proctoring solution at the time could not keep up with the demand,” explained Steven Daniello, Director of Assessment Services at IRSC.
45 Days to Evaluate and Implement Remote Proctoring
“When COVID hit, we realized we had 45 days to start with a completely new company and to have a proctoring system up and running, and not just for a small pilot, but for the entire faculty,” Daniello said.
With the clock ticking, Daniello and others at IRSC began the remote proctoring evaluation process. “We previously piloted four or five different online proctoring solutions, without finding one that we felt we could use across the entire college that also met our requirements for cost and training.”
IRSC planned a highly organized evaluation process of online proctoring services to determine needs, develop a rubric, and begin demonstrations.
While there were many remote proctoring functionality features needed across the college, the group prioritized five rubric items:
1. Proctored Testing Security
“There’s no point in giving a test if your faculty don’t feel secure,” Daniello said. IRSC needed proctored testing that not only prevents and deters academic dishonesty but also protects student data and privacy. Daniello found that Honorlock provided exclusive remote proctoring features that differentiated from other companies’ software, such as safeguarding online exam questions, blending automated proctoring and live proctoring, and allowing instructors to customize what students can use during their online exams such as scratch paper for math tests.
2. LMS Integration
“You want an integrated system; you don’t want faculty and students to have separate sign-on. That was important for us.” Daniello also added that setting up the LMS integration with Honorlock remote proctoring was very smooth and took less than an hour. Now, IRSC faculty can enable Honorlock remote proctoring for their online exams, and neither the instructor nor the student has to leave the LMS or be hassled with a separate sign-on.
3. Customer Service
Education goes around the clock, and Daniello knew that IRSC needed an online proctoring service with 24/7/365 support for students and faculty.
If any students or faculty have any questions or issues, they can access support directly in the proctored testing software in real-time. In other words, IRSC’s students and faculty don’t have to click out of the LMS to connect with a real person in just a few minutes.
4. Price
During the online proctoring evaluation process, Daniello explored the benefits of different pricing models.
For example, some online proctoring services charge the institution per hour, which leads to varied costs and can even force instructors to shorten the length of their exams, which can negatively impact student performance. Honorlock’s flat-rate fee per online exam removed variable cost concerns for the college and helped to estimate remote proctoring costs during the evaluation accurately.
5. Testing Accommodations
All online proctoring services must be able to work for students with approved special testing accommodations.
At IRSC, the Assessment Services and Student Accessibility Services departments work closely together to ensure all students are accommodated during the testing process.
IRSC Hit the Ground Running with Remote Proctoring
In just 45 days, Daniello and IRSC successfully evaluated various remote proctoring services and implemented Honorlock online exam proctoring across the entire college.
In fact, in Fall 2020 alone, IRSC administered over 24,000 proctored online exams with Honorlock.
While IRSC’s Honorlock remote proctoring implementation ran smoothly, Daniello emphasized the importance of on-going faculty training sessions facilitated by IRSC, “We do a 45-minute training session for faculty each semester.”
In addition to the training sessions, the IRSC Assessment Services Department created guides for faculty highlighting IRSC’s specific remote proctoring use case.
Evolving Education and Testing
“As a result of COVID, education and testing are at an inflection point. Being forced to make a change provided an opportunity to learn and create better testing and more access for students,” Daniello concluded.
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About Indian River State College
Indian River State College offers high-quality, affordable, and accessible education to the nearly 30,000 students through traditional and online delivery. IRSC offers more than 100 programs and is accredited to award Baccalaureate Degrees, Associate Degrees, and Career and Technical Certificates.