Please see the updated Remote Teaching information.
Some of our online courses have exams that are proctored. Why a proctor? The proctor’s role is to monitor the exam environment to ensure the academic integrity of the exam process on behalf of Penn State.
About Examity and Examity Proctors
Examity as a whole aligns with The Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA). This is a federal law that protects the privacy of student education records. Penn State and Examity take the way data is handled and the protection of student information very seriously. In fact, Examity has a FERPA attorney on their advisory board.
Examity’s proctors go through a rigorous process of selection and interviewing by a members of Examity’s leadership team, background check and comprehensive training. Each proctor has a college degree, advanced technical skills, have completed online courses and have strong communication skills. Proctors are in training for eight weeks before they are allowed to proctor an exam. The eight-week new hire proctor training includes proctoring process, data management process, data security training, customer service training, Examity software training and training on tools used to perform their function as a proctor. The training includes several live simulations by senior staff within Examity. All proctors are Examity employees that proctor from Examity centers, never from a remote site. Moreover, every proctored exam is reviewed by Examity’s auditing team and feedback from this process is used to support ongoing proctor development.
Proctoring Process using Examity
The following video from Examity will provide you with a good overview of how the proctoring process works and why it is important.