[LegoZombieKing]

This is my first comment on this site after lurking for a few years, I thought I would add my personal experience using ProctorU and how weird it feels to willing give up my personal privacy to take a test online.

I go to UOPeople, which is a tuition free online school and I am getting a 4 year computer science degree (for like $5k which is crazy), anyway of the 40 courses you have to take only 11 are proctored. UOP offers 2 choices for proctoring, A) find a real life proctor, or B) use ProctorU. I don’t have the luxury of finding a real person + with covid its more unlikely, so ProctorU it is.

All in all its not the worst thing in the world, but when I first read the requirements for the ProctorU testing environment and technical requirements I almost quit school completely to look for alternative paths. Some of the crazy requirements include: Testing space must have nothing on the walls, or floors. You can’t wear glasses while taking the exam. Your desk must be clear of everything besides the specific testing materials (calculator if your lucky, and maybe a pencil and paper) Your device needs a webcam, so that they can not only watch you for the entire 1 hour and 30 minutes where you take a test that determines 40% of your grade, but also so that you can show them each wall, floor and under your desk. And thats just the physical space requirements. I had to empty my closet and use my laptop to take this test because their is no way I just have an extra room for testing…

The digital requirements were pretty intense as well, access to folders they had to right too, chrome settings and a whole bunch of wack stuff. I created a dummy account just to take tests.

When you go into the program they have you download it acts like a 1 way mirror, you can hear the proctor(if you are lucky to have a human proctor) and they can watch you, your screen and hear you. I had some tech issues once and I was grateful to have a proctor with a sense of humor who was able to help me through it. I can’t say my privacy is worth a cheaper degree, but I hope that this doesn’t become normalized, because it is not a pleasant experience.

[tristor]

> You can’t wear glasses while taking the exam.

How is this not massively illegal? This is a clear ADA violation. I cannot see without glasses. Not like, things are a bit blurry, but like I have 20/800 vision that's correctable to 20/20 with glasses. Forcing me to take an exam without glasses is forcing me to fail an exam for a reason that has nothing to do with my academic abilities.

[seanc]

Yes, that's shocking. Many, many people are simply incapable of using a computer without glasses.

[coldcode]

I can't, why is this even a requirement? Are they worried about a Google Glass like thing?

Actually surprised they don't require you to take the test naked.

[NaturalPhallacy]

Why not have an electrified anal plug inserted that they can zap if you look away from the test while we're at it?

This shit is crazy.

[seanc]

My guess would be so their algorithm can ID my face. Same reason I can't wear glasses in my passport photo.

[NtGuy25]

I also had an issue with not being able to wear glasses. It was my fourth Sans cert and never had the issue before. The proctor also was sabotaging me by saying I requested "Technical support" 5 times during the exam, each time the timer running and some dude distracting me, despite me telling him I have no tech issues and to let me continue my exam. They would spend 5 minutes verifying that I indeed had no issues and then leave...

Very unprofessional, if not illegal due to discrimination and even though it was one of Sans's entry level certs, I barely passed, versus 90 + on all of their advanced ones without these issues.

Their reasoning was "The rules say no facial obstructions, your glasses block your face.". They have to hire the dumbest people to do these proctors.

I've never had any issues with other proctoring services, and things like pearson for Comptia and Microsoft were actually enjoyable. With proctoru each proctor seems to find some issue and you have to argue with them since it's completely unreasonable.

[consp]

> All in all its not the worst thing in the world, but when I first read the requirements for the ProctorU testing environment and technical requirements I almost quit school completely to look for alternative paths. Some of the crazy requirements include: Testing space must have nothing on the walls, or floors. You can’t wear glasses while taking the exam. Your desk must be clear of everything besides the specific testing materials (calculator if your lucky, and maybe a pencil and paper) Your device needs a webcam, so that they can not only watch you for the entire 1 hour and 30 minutes where you take a test that determines 40% of your grade, but also so that you can show them each wall, floor and under your desk. And thats just the physical space requirements. I had to empty my closet and use my laptop to take this test because their is no way I just have an extra room for testing…

Talk about security theatrics ... I'd just stick the answers I want on a piece of paper just under the cupboard in reach of your feet or with a tape on the bottom of your desk and get it off when scratching your crotch.

> access to folders they had to right too

Why? They are recording all processes and the screen already. Again just theatrics. And if you can hide it from that they are never going to find it anyway.

[jjkaczor]

>You can’t wear glasses while taking the exam

How is that legal? My face would need to be less than 10cm away from the screen. So - there goes using the camera to monitor where I am looking.

[cproctor]

Also no eating or drinking during the exam, just because.

[mountainofdeath]

Yeah. I had to remove everything from the test taking room including furniture and a desk lamp.

[BossingAround]

> You can’t wear glasses while taking the exam

Don't know what class/proctor you took, but I took several UoP tests with ProctorU and never had issues with glasses.

[cwdegidio]

If it's anything like my experience it's luck of the draw on the proctor and their "interpretation" of things. I used the same room and setup for every exam with them. Second to last one, the proctor said my room was 100% unacceptable. I protested and was told that there was no way this very same room ever was considered acceptable. So I moved into a new space and finally moved on to the test. My last exam with them? Used the old room and had no issues.

[mountainofdeath]

The proctors are random, poorly trained, people being paid near minimum wage in the American South that probably turnover every few weeks. I can't expect a high degree of judgment.