Enabling credible assessments for exam continuity at The Washington Center

Most recently, TWC had been conducting assessments for students who were competing for a selective scholarship program. However, with the unexpected disruption caused by COVID-19, its exam routine could not continue as usual. The evolving situation mandated extraordinary measures by the US government, resulting in the suspension of classes. TWC decided to entirely automate its processes to ensure the continuity of examinations. With a short timeline at hand, it had been on the lookout for an end-to-end virtual proctoring software to undertake the examination, which involved a sizable number of students.

TWC was introduced to some insightful articles on the Mercer | Mettl website, about its proctoring and software solutions, after exploring the internet for viable options. The TWC team reached out to Mercer | Mettl, along with some other operators offering similar services. Mercer | Mettl, however, was the first to respond to its query and detail the product offerings.

After an in-depth understanding of TWC’s concerns, Mercer | Mettl suggested its most viable value proposition- the Online examination Platform – to address the bottlenecks. Mercer | Mettl instantaneously set up a tutorial for the TWC team, enabling them to understand the functioning of the proctoring software, with the minimal technical hassle. Irrespective of the different time zones and stringent deadlines, the Mercer | Mettl support team integrated the platform onto TWC’s system within two months.

Online platform:

Mercer | Mettl’s Examine: The Online Examination Software System was a proficient, end-to-end solution to meet TWC’s diverse online examination requirements. The comprehensive software enabled it to host high-stakes scholarship assessments in a secure, scalable and credible manner.

Mercer | Mettl solved TWC’s following significant challenges:

• The ease of the platform: Within two weeks, the TWC team was well-versed with the platform. A well-defined test setting enabled them to build purposeful tests quickly.
• Supporting customized question types: TWC was offered a wide range of options to create a format that integrated its unique essay type tests with multiple-choice questions. It enabled TWC to scale its online testing requirements with ease.
• Live and manual proctoring: By employing manual proctors, the assessors were able to view all the exam-takers simultaneously on their screens, in real-time. With the live chat option, they were also able to chat with students to allay any of their suspicions or queries. The offline availability of recorded proctoring sessions was beneficial for future references.
• AI-powered, anti-cheating solution: Mercer | Mettl’s state-of-the-art AI algorithm, trained with more than 2.8 million proctored assessments, enabled human proctors to detect up to 18 dynamic digressions with over 95% accuracy. It identified additional, unauthorized faces in the test environment, raised red flags on detecting objects such as smartphones, and read distracted eye movements of the candidates.
• Tolerant browsing: Mercer | Mettl’s intelligent algorithm- Mettl Secure Browser (MSB) – ensured TWC’s test-takers did not leave the platform before finishing the test. From restricting students from opening any unauthorized website, switching to other sites, and screens, to shutting down all the existing active applications, the exam-taking environment was extremely safe and at par with TWC’s standards.
• 24*7 support from exam experts: Despite the time difference, uninterrupted customer support extended by Mercer | Mettl was class apart. The Mercer | Mettl team continued to provide high-quality assistance at speed, despite operating in a vastly different time zone.

• TWC was able to conduct its high-stakes examinations in a secured, proctored environment.
• The turnaround time was short (two months), irrespective of communicating across different time zones.
• Proactive customer service and support throughout the process ensured there were no issues with the quality of experience.
• TWC was able to give the test with its relatively unique question paper format.
• By ensuring a speedy delivery, TWC was able to provide a seamless examination process for the exam-takers without compromising on the quality of the examinations.