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  |   UK

Kingsdale Foundation School’s journey of conducting online entrance exams for children in a secure, stress-free virtual environment

Kingsdale Foundation School is one of the most sought-after secondary schools in London. Founded in the year 1958, Kingsdale is celebrated for its commitment to innovative strategies that drive learning excellence.  The school strongly advocates the idea of a diverse and accepting community and strives to inculcate the same values among its students. Kingsdale offers an innovative and creative curriculum and promotes a strong moral and spiritual culture.

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Industry

 Education

Use Case

 Exam/Education

What the client achieved

Seamless transition to child-friendly virtual exams

700+ exams/evaluations within a few hours


We saved an enormous amount of time because of the nature of testing. Even the results were immediate and we wouldn’t have been able to share this kind of extensive feedback with test-takers before. We also appreciated that we didn’t need to have human proctoring in place. Overall, we found the platform very intuitive and very easy to use. So, I would really recommend working with Mercer | Mettl.

Oritseetemi Maria Otubu

Admissions and Attendance Officer, Kingsdale Foundation School

Business Challenges

Kingsdale Foundation School receives over 3000 applications every year and hundreds of students simultaneously appear for the entrance tests. However, COVID-19 created significant disruption in all admission-related activities for the school and applicants, leading to the suspension of processes.

 

There were serious concerns about the future of education, entwined with stakeholders’ safety. The school administration understood it had to prepare to commence the admission process based on academic schedules. Hence, it decided to pivot to conducting its examinations in the virtual setting.

 

In order to move the entire entrance test process online, the school needed a platform they could trust in every aspect. They had very specific requirements that the platform needed to fulfill.

 

Data security

 

Kingsdale Foundation School narrowed down its requirement to a viable online exam platform that would allow applicants to take the entrance test in an anxiety-free, safe environment. It had to guarantee the test’s quality for candidates and also, meet the highest security and compliance standards concerning data privacy.

 

Provision to replicate a standardized exam structure

 

Kingsdale’s entrance tests are divided into several sections. A few of these sections are timed. Also, there are questions that need more detailed processes to be solved. It was essential to have a solution that enabled them to replicate those sections on the virtual mode.

 

Child-friendly interface

 

The students appearing for the entrance exam were in the 10 to 10+ year old age bracket. Therefore, it was mandatory for the school to have an exam platform that was child-friendly, easy to use, and augmented with resourceful elements like video tutorials and practice sections.

 

In addition, evaluating young kids online required additional efforts to convince parents about the security of the platform, its uncomplicated use, and other features. For that to happen, the school had to choose a platform that could check all the right boxes.

 

Reducing manual intervention

 

It was equally critical to manage the faculty’s workflow by relieving them of mundane and burdensome examination-related duties, enabling them to focus on more pressing and rewarding matters. Hence, the school mandated a dynamic and secure end-to-end online examination platform that could enable it to create, administer, supervise, deliver and evaluate its annual entrance exam with ease.

Solution

Mercer | Mettl understood and appreciated Kingsdale’s requirements and the challenges in fulfilling them. Therefore, Mercer | Mettl advocated its most viable value proposition- the futuristic online proctoring and examination solution EXAMIN.

 

Mercer | Mettl’s EXAMIN caters to the entire cycle of examination, enabling faculty and administrators to create question papers, schedule exams, invigilate using a mix of AI and human-led proctoring, assign answer sheets to evaluators and reviewers, and finally declare the results. The digital solution does all this without compromising students’ exam-taking experience.

 

Let’s take a closer look at all the solutions Mercer | Mettl’s EXAMIN was able to provide:

 

EU- GDPR compliance

 

As a public body, it was crucial for Kingsdale Foundation School to be EU- GDPR compliant while conducting online exams. Mercer | Mettl’s focus on stringent cybersecurity protocols addressed the school’s concern regarding data breach, unauthorized access, and privacy at every stage of the examination process. Mercer | Mettl’s online exam platform was hosted on EU servers with full GDPR compliance. The platform’s validation also includes ISO 27001:2013 certification.

 

Therefore, Kingsdale was able to assure parents of optimum security at every level. Only a limited number of staff members had access to the necessary data like recordings, answer sheets, and reports.

 

AI proctoring

 

Mercer | Mettl enabled Kingsdale to switch to a fully AI-based proctoring during the entrance exams. On the one hand, the smart technology helped prevent cheating and on the other hand, it sped up the whole process, saving an enormous amount of time. The efficiency of the AI ensured that hundreds of students could take the exam simultaneously without excessive faculty intervention. In addition, it helped reduce human errors and prevented organization hassles for the school.

 

Robust IT infrastructure

 

Mercer | Mettl’s online exam platform can accommodate a vast range of customizations to match the specific requirements of the client. That is how Kingsdale was able to replicate their standard exam structure digitally.

Moreover, Mercer | Mettl was able to upgrade the EXAMIN with:

  • A video to explain students what needs to be done and how to proceed with the test.
  • A section for students to practice and try out what they were taught.
  • A timed exam segment to prevent the need to restart the whole test in case of any problems.
  • Multiple question formats that allowed multiple problem-solving methods.
  • The provision of a highly intuitive QR scan that allowed students to solve mathematical problems on paper and upload pictures of their work process.

Mobile-readiness

 

Mercer | Mettl’s EXAMIN is a mobile-friendly platform that works across multiple devices. Therefore, students who did not have access to laptops or desktops could also take the exam without hassles. This feature accentuated the platform’s ability to serve Kingsdale’s requirement of a child-friendly interface. The overall structure of the exam and the platform was curated in a way that the process would not be taxing for children in the specific age group.

 

Reporting metrics

 

The platform’s instantaneous report generation feature was incredibly efficient at saving significant staff hours that were otherwise spent undertaking paper evaluation. Aside from precise evaluation, the reporting tool gave the faculty access to intricate, relevant and accurate data, helping determine applicants’ full potential.

 

24x 7 support

 

Mercer | Mettl’s technical backend and customer support teams ensured 24*7 client and candidate support. The teams hand-held, trained, and actively assuaged every online examination-related concern while working round the clock to keep the software up-to-date, compatible, and error-free. They also mitigated candidates’ concerns throughout the assessment drive.

The Impact

Mercer | Mettl’s top-of-the-line offerings addressed numerous bottlenecks in conducting online entrance exams with integrity and ease.

The impact of this collaboration can be highlighted and summed up in the following points:

  • 700- 800 students could take the test at the same time with evaluations taking only a few hours.
  • There was a significant reduction in human intervention and massive improvement in the time saved. Instead of multiple staff members being involved at various stages of the entrance exam, one Kingsdale professional could manage the entire process by herself.
  • The school was able to transition to the digital mode in a seamless way and maintain continuity in the admissions process during the COVID-19 disruption.
  • Taking the exam from the comfort of their homes helped reduce the amount of anxiety and stress that children feel during regular entrance exams.
  • Extensive feedback and reporting for all children helped all stakeholders get a broader overview of their aptitude and make decisions based on elaborately detailed insights.

The way forward

 

Kingsdale Foundation School has chosen to continue using Mercer | Mettl’s online exam platform for annual and mid-year entrance exams. The uncertainty about the restoration of normalcy and the ease with which the faculty and students could undertake the tests, contributed to the decision to continue with the association.

Is the educational continuity of your students disrupted?

With Mercer | Mettl’s examination and proctoring solutions, Kingsdale Foundation School was able to seamlessly conduct online exams for children.

Looking for a secure remote exam solution?

Learn how Kingsdale Foundation School conducted its exams in the midst of a global pandemic, supported by Mercer | Mettl’s robust platform.

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Mercer | Mettl is a global leader in online examination and AI-powered proctoring technology. Explore our extensive knowledge base to understand the applications of our solutions better.

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