IIM Bangalore secures the examination environment globally for 1.2 million learners

IIMB’s legacy of revolutionizing the learning space witnessed immense diversity, significant cross-learning, and a continuing networking opportunity beyond the classroom. It enabled professionals to plan a future course of action and fast-tracked their careers. Over 1.2 million learners spread across 190 countries were accessing these programs without worrying about classroom teaching. While the course seemed highly desirable amid the unprecedented growth of digital learning, IIMB attested to a few risks associated with the shift to a more progressive model.

Let’s explore them in detail

•   Robust Examination Platform:

IIMB needed a dynamic end-to-end examination platform that was easily accessible and location-agnostic for learners and examiners. It had to be extremely secure, scalable, and versatile to support multiple question types and exam formats without any operational complexities. The school wanted to digitize the management to deliver more prudent, transparent, and efficient results. Additionally, IIMB also desired flexibility in accommodating special requests, such as the possibility of enabling a human proctor to deter students’ attempts at cheating.

•   Preserving Academic Integrity:

Being a part of the high-stakes segment meant that IIMB needed an airtight solution to prevent cheating/unfair means during the examination. Since the exams were online and attempted remotely by candidates, the school’s requirement was a strong anti-cheating policy with proctoring/remote invigilation mechanism to ensure candidates attempting the test couldn’t resort to any illicit means. After all, IIMB’s brand integrity was subservient to the quality, conduct, and administration of online exams.

IIMB wanted to reinvent examinations in the digital age, besides seeking the same quality and rigor offered in their classrooms. Hence, it wanted to collaborate to create a blend of futuristic assessment solutions that resolved significant challenges in its high-stakes exams, online assessments, and certifications. Its requirements also demanded a minimum technical hassle but a strong tech backbone, in compliance with its tech team.

Let’s elaborate on them

•    Proctoring to preserve integrity:

A prerequisite of the exam was that students had to enable proctoring on their devices. They had to accept sharing their screen, video, and audio. With one-to-one and one-to-many proctoring features, live proctoring provided a classroom view for the human invigilator who was monitoring remotely from start to finish. A live chat option enabled the invigilator to chat with students in case of any suspicion. IIMB’s customizable requirements gave the proctor an added feature of pause/stop/resuming the test in real-time. This entire recorded session could be viewed later using the proctoring software.

•    Credibility index to maintain the authenticity of the certification:

Mercer | Mettl’s proprietary algorithm- Credibility Index – provided excellent and most relevant results to the administrators. An auto-generated report highlighted the candidate’s integrity score for a proctored session. With valuations such as high, medium, and low, examiners could swiftly identify and filter out candidates who might have resorted to cheating during the test. Insights from AI flags, recorded details of the proctoring sessions, and test finish status formed the basis of the analysis. That was vital for IIMB in guaranteeing the authenticity and assuring that the most deserving students got the much-acclaimed certificate.

IIMB was extremely pleased with the technology and services offered by Mercer | Mettl. The Mercer | Mettl’s operation team constantly communicated with the institute’s tech team, preparing the environment and process to conduct the online exam.

After careful consideration of IIMB’s detailed requirements, Mercer | Mettl curated blueprints to best accelerate the adoption of online tools with minimal technical adaptability. Hence, IIMB was suggested a suite of Mercer| Mettl’s futuristic online technologies- Online examination Platform and Mettl’s Proctoring as a Service. Both these value propositions were not only synergized with IIMB’s existing requirement but also its future need to enable blended learning.

Online Platform

Mercer| Mettl’s Examine: IIMB leveraged Online Examination Management System, a competent, end-to-end solution, to meet its online examination requirements. The comprehensive software enabled the institute to seamlessly host online exams for a variety of digital courses.

Mercer | Mettl solved four significant challenges

Let’s understand them in detail

Scale

IIMB wanted to scale its digital foundation beyond the traditional realm. The school was eyeing ample reach with efficient operation and performance. Mercer| Mettl’s software was adept at meeting large-scale, high-stakes exam requirements. The robust technology had a proven track record of conducting 100,000 successful proctored assessments in one day.

Using this:

• Mettl platform was able to accommodate the increasing needs of IIMB’s program(s) that received sizable enrollments. The platform also supported multiple exam-takers across various locations across the globe without a glitch.

• Considering IIMB’s different exam patterns and user requirements, the platform offered 26 different formats for exam papers. It included MCQs, objective questions, lengthy essay-type questions, skills-based questions, simulation questions as well as personality tests, etc. The integration was undertaken at their perusal.

Experience

Initially, IIMB was habituated to a more old-school classroom functioning and was wary of experimenting with newer means of examination. However, with platform demonstration and positive word-of-mouth references from fellow faculty members, there was a visible transition. As:

• The online examination software replicated and created real-life exam experience to retain the traditional look and feel of an exam for the administrator

• It was user-friendly, easy to navigate, and the management didn’t need much technical knowledge or experience to understand its functionality
• The platform complimented IIMB’s e-learning prerequisites with no change in the experience for exam-takers

Academic Integrity and Cheating Prevention:

Academic integrity is not just the crux but a core competence of IIMB’s academic offering. Any violation that undermined the institute’s prestige and legacy were unacceptable. Thus, the platform’s preconfigured proctoring technology with a stricter focus on monitoring, analysis and scrutiny was an ideal choice to maintain the institute’s values. Proctoring eliminated the most glaring vulnerabilities with a dynamic set of anti-cheating features.

Candidate Authentication:

A 3-point candidate authentication was enabled to confirm whether the right candidate was taking the exam. It meant that live authentication began after the candidate clicked on the exam link.

• First, the webcam asked students to click their photo

• They also had to show their ID proof to the camera

• They were further needed to send across customizable registration details verified by platforms proctors against the previously collated data

AI Proctoring:

With remarkable cheating predictions and 95%+ accuracy, Mercer | Mettl’s AI Proctoring was hands-on at identifying any doubtful behavior during the exams. The intelligent algorithm was configured to flag a variety of suspicious cases, such as the non-visibility of face/ presence, detection of mobile phone, presence of an additional person, a distracted eye movement, etc. These features negated any possibility of malpractice during the online proctored exam.

Mettle Secure Browser (MSB):

A secure browser feature allowed academicians to host the exam in a safe environment without worrying about on-screen cheating. From enabling browser lockdown functions, allowing minimum navigation control to block all external ports – MSB restricted access to any and every unauthorized resource possible.

Auto-graded Assessment:

Automated reports served as the new means of evaluation for IIMB. By replacing the static grading process and eliminating manual correction, the institute was able to magnify the faculties’ productivity and improve operations.

• The advantages of the platform’s auto-grading functionality assisted in conserving a substantial time spent in evaluation of test papers. It streamlined the tedious process and generated immediate results with optimum reliability and validity

• Real-time data generation enabled real-time analytics to provide detailed insights on teaching and student learning

• Auto-graded, system-generated comprehensive reports on the candidates’ performance and a wholesome summary of their attempt

With these, Mercer | Mettl’s technical backend team ensured constant client support. It worked actively to keep the software up to date, compatible, and error-free.

Mettl’s Proctoring as a Service (MPaaS):

It was the second crucial technology applied to enhance IIMB’s digital capabilities with a more focused and customized approach. MPaaS was integrated to extend the candidates’ ability to take exams from the institute’s existing legacy learning management system (LMS) IIMBX. Additionally, a remote invigilation and security layer was added to its LMS to eradicate any possibility of compromising the integrity of online exams.

Impact

Digital learning foresees a positive education revolution. A system that not only provides unlimited teaching opportunities but empowers a learner with innovation. Mercer | Mettl is at the forefront of this transformation. By ensuring world-class digital accessibility powered by authenticity and reliability, it is helping institutes advance with the times. Numerous renowned establishments are facilitating a positive disruption in their existing pedagogies as Mercer | Mettl emphasizes on maintaining academic integrity. It is not just suggesting a road map to greater accessibility but taking the world beyond the limits of digital imagination.