Overview
The outbreak of Coronavirus caused every industry to make drastic changes to the way they operate. The effect on assessments in the UK was immediate. Overnight, test centres were closed until further notice. Awarding Organisations still needed to have invigilated exams in order to maintain the integrity and rigour of admission to membership.
One of the first global awarding organisations to make the move to online remote invigilation was The Institute of Certified Bookkeepers – a leading provider of globally recognised bookkeeping/accountancy technician certifications. Always an organisation that feels confident to lead rather than follow, ICB considered the risks of online remote invigilation and quickly developed plans to mitigate them. ICB’s exams had to be delivered securely and in a way that didn’t provide advantages or disadvantages to any candidates.
The Challenge
Online, remote invigilation has been around for a number of years but had only ever been used for small numbers of candidates. It had never been tried with large cohorts. But now the option was do nothing and stop delivering assessments or use available technology and make it work.
One of the first global awarding organisations to make the move to online remote invigilation was The Institute of Certified Bookkeepers (ICB). Always an organisation that feels confident to lead rather than follow, ICB considered the risks of online remote invigilation and quickly developed plans to mitigate them.
“Having our test centre partner close test centres to limit spread of coronavirus was understandable but frustrating for many who were already at an advanced stage of study. Apprentices for example, had spent up to a year preparing themselves for their end point assessments. Any delay to the delivery of exams would seriously risk harm to the careers, livelihoods and mental health of our students.”
Peter Stewart, Director of Learning, ICB
The Solution
“Fortunately – with Rogo – we already had in place the ability to deliver all of our exams online and Rogo’s question bank functionality enables us to compile forms of equal difficulty and deliver near on demand exams. This gives us and our students a lot more flexibility than exams that are taken on a specified date or within a tight examination window.
Peter Stewart, Director of Learning, ICB
Eintech had already integrated a remote invigilation platform with Rogo and so ICB could move quickly, which was fortunate as demand for remote proctoring solutions was increasing rapidly.
From an initial discussion in late March, ICB were able to test the system in early April, ahead of the first live (and successful) candidate attempts on 22nd April. ICB have been conducting exams and apprenticeship end point assessments steadily since then.
Eintech have since launched their own remote invigilation software which ICB have successfully switched over to.
We received great service from Eintech to be able to set up the exams very quickly.”
Peter Stewart, Director of Learning, ICB
From an initial discussion in late March, ICB were able to test the system in early April, ahead of the first live (and successful) candidate attempts on 22nd April. ICB have been conducting exams and apprenticeship end-point assessments steadily since then.
The Results
Candidates have been positive about the experience with favourable comments mentioning: saving time and trouble of travelling to an exam centre; reduced stress from not being in a formal, imposing testing environment; easy to follow instructions and ease of setting up the exam.
The number of remotely invigilated exams is increasing steadily and the response from the vast majority of candidates has been resoundingly positive.
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