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Eliminating Bias and Total Cost of Ownership
This is the third and final part of our series. Read Part 1 here and Part 2 here.
We’re in the home stretch of finding the right remote proctoring solution for your organization. So far, we’ve discussed four essential things to look for in your online proctoring software. Our final installment addresses eliminating bias and the total cost of ownership.
We’ve identified a total of six critical considerations when shopping for a remote/online proctoring solution and created a Complete Buyer’s Guide to Remote Proctoring to help you get a better idea of what to look for. This series aims to highlight the key points from our eBook and dig into the essential elements of the ideal solution:
- Part I: Versatility & Flexibility and Security & Privacy
- Part II: Accessibility and Exam Integrity
- Part III: Eliminating Bias and Total Cost of Ownership
Eliminating Bias
Many online solutions help reduce test-taking bias, and your online solution should enhance your ability to eliminate bias altogether.
On top of maintaining exam integrity and optimizing accessibility, eliminating bias ensures that everyone has the opportunity to do their best on an exam.
In-person tests rely on human proctors who may carry inherent (and often unconscious) biases against race, gender, or appearance. Artificial intelligence (AI) proctoring can eliminate bias because the automated proctors use machine learning (ML) to notice human behaviors without discrimination.
Understanding confirmation bias and stereotype threats are crucial to eliminating bias and creating a more inclusive testing environment. The more you can do to close the achievement gap, the more doors you’ll be able to open for a larger pool of qualified candidates.
Remote proctoring solutions that harness AI and ML remove human error from the equation and drastically reduce the chance of discrimination. The AI-powered proctor judges candidates on their actions alone regardless of how they’re dressed, the environment they’re in, or what they look like.
If you want to collect data on demographics for analytics or diversity and inclusion initiatives, then it’s crucial to find a solution that enables anonymized data collection. This feature allows you to collect information about things like race, gender, religious preference, age, and more without impacting a candidate’s exam. If you are going to collect personal data, it’s essential to check that your online proctoring solution complies with all data privacy laws.
Avoiding bias is essential because it guarantees that your assessment is only testing what it should be testing. Limiting the interference of external factors ensures that everyone has the same opportunity to demonstrate their skills, and that you can accurately assess their abilities.
Buyer’s Checklist for Eliminating Bias in a Remote Proctoring Solution
As you shop for a remote proctoring solution that eliminates bias, you’ll want to look for a system that:
Total Cost of Ownership
Our last consideration for online proctoring solutions is the total cost of ownership. The price of any solution is likely at the forefront of your concerns, and it’s essential to consider the complete scope of implementing a new system.
Simply buying software isn’t the only cost associated with a remote proctoring solution. You also need to consider the various resources and training required to provide a seamless transition to using the new system.
First and foremost, you want to look at the resources that your remote proctoring solution vendor offers to help you train and manage your staff members that will be using the platform. Ensuring an excellent test experience for all involved requires having skilled online proctors who understand and guarantee exam integrity.
The best solution providers should support you through comprehensive training programs and materials. In some cases, they may be able to provide proctors themselves. Understanding your internal needs will help you decide which proctoring platform can fulfill your requirements for proctors.
You’ll also want to consider the costs of scaling your online proctoring system as you grow. The right solution will be able to grow with you without forcing you to pay for more than you actually need.
Calculating the costs and benefits of a given solution includes evaluating the time and expenses needed to add new functionalities or upgrade the system as it evolves. Ideally, the vendor should collect customer feedback to deliver new features that align with customer needs.
For example, if a remote proctoring solution keeps adding new functionalities that drive up the total cost of use, you want to be able to have the ability to opt out of features you don’t use. If the new features seem like something that will make your life easier, upgrading shouldn’t cost as much as purchasing the solution in the first place.
Vendors who constantly add extraneous functionalities you don’t use, but have to pay for, demonstrate they aren’t listening to their users. New features should enhance your online proctoring capabilities, or the solution is not worth investing in.
Look for vendors who have demonstrated how they’ve listened to what their customers have said in the past, and what they did to implement features in response to user feedback.
When the top vendors release a software update, they’ll often include a document or article that explains why they made the changes they did. You can tell through these articles whether the developers are adding features for the sake of adding flashy functionalities or if they implemented new ideas to benefit their users.
Buyer’s Checklist for Total Cost of Ownership in a Remote Proctoring Solution
As you crunch the numbers to figure out which remote proctoring solution will offer the most value for its cost, look for a system that:
Can scale according to customer needs - The solution should be able to grow with your organization
Creates customer-driven upgrades - The solution provider uses customer feedback to develop new & improved features
Implementation and training support - Helps administrators and managers learn to use the platform to its full potential
Professional services capabilities - Your solution provider should maintain a high level of support
- The best solution will help you eliminate bias from test-taking scenarios
- The right remote proctoring solution will enable you to collect candidate demographic information anonymously as needed
- When considering the total cost of ownership for a remote proctoring solution, consider what training provisions the vendor offers for the platform
- Look for a vendor that develops upgrades based on customer feedback to enhance the overall user experience
Even as we emerge from the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, the demand for remote proctoring solutions isn’t diminishing. As technology continues to evolve, it’s crucial to have a solution that will advance with the on-going changes.
We hope you enjoyed this series and that it’s made your search for a remote proctoring solution significantly easier. At the end of the day, your solution should strike a balance between human intelligence and advanced technology features. This combination ensures an all-around, versatile remote proctoring platform that provides the highest level of data security, exam integrity, and candidate ease.
The Talview Proview Proctoring Solution offers all the capabilities we’ve discussed throughout this series. Our Proctoring Solution crafts a virtual environment that provides you with the tools you need to proctor low to high-stakes tests, exams, assessments, and certifications.
Whether you prefer human proctoring, or you’d like to test AI-powered automated proctoring, we can help you maintain the integrity, security, and compliance of your entire examination process. Our Technical Support Team is available whenever you need us.
If you’d like to see these features in action, request a demo today and let us show you how we can revolutionize your online certification process.
GET A COPY OF THE COMPLETE BUYER’S GUIDE TO REMOTE PROCTORING SOLUTIONS FOR ONLINE CERTIFICATIONS
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