Take your exams online at home or work

We offer a handful of courses which can be run as online e-learning & which then have an exam at the end of the course. So we’re pleased to be able to offer a “Proctoring” exam service for these courses. Additionally, if you’ve been on a face-to-face course with us but need to re-sit the exam element, this can be done as a “proctored exam”.

In essence, if you select this option for your exam, we will engage the services of a third party organisation who facilitate you taking your exam online. They provide an online portal which you use to access and answer your exam paper. It also allows an exam invigilator to monitor you while you’re undertaking your exam, exactly as we would if you came to us for your exam.

So how does it work?
Security
Technology requirements
Known problems
Finally

So how does it work?

The technology used to deliver and monitor candidates undertaking the exam (known as proctoring) is done through the third-parties own in house developed application. Don’t worry – it’s used by, and has security clearance from the UK’s Ministry of Defence.

After you’ve confirmed that you’d like to have the exam run using the proctoring service, we will register your course with the Ofqual regulated Awarding Organisation & pass your name, email address and contact number to EDExams. In the meantime, please download the software installation file for the online exam from EDExams website, here;

https://edexams.com/candidate-software.html

The customer support team at EDExams will then get in touch with you to arrange your exam date and time & to help resolve any technical questions before your online exam takes place. EDExams will also issue you with your login details (Centre Number, Username & Password) for your exam.

Once you download the programme onto your computer, you just need to run it and you’ll find the following screen opens up on your computer;

Once launched, the application takes over your computers camera and microphone to record you undertaking your exam. It’s how we can be sure that you’re not checking your notes or being fed answers from someone else in the room while you’re doing your exam. When you close down the application, the webcam & microphone control ends along with the recording of the exam session.

The system works by allowing an exam invigilator to remotely monitor what you’re doing during your online exam, which is hopefully just answering the questions!

Occasionally, if you have your firewall set to “high”, Windows and your firewall software may flag the programme as being insecure. This is because it will be taking control of your computers web browser, webcam and microphone – which it needs to do to work.

The application sits independently of your computers operating system & won’t make any changes to it. Additionally, neither Chris Garland Training or EDExams will have any access to your computer hard drive, files or folders, server connections, etc while the programme is on your computer, so all of your documents are totally secure.

When you log in, you can check your connection, microphone and camera are all working as expected. If you have any difficulty in doing this the EDExams customer support team will help you resolve the technical issues. They can assist you by using ZOHO Assist, which allows them to remotely log into your computer to check the camera & microphone, etc, settings for you and change any that need setting for the online exam session to begin.

This is done on request and can be closed and ended at any point by you. This is purely a customer service assist to offer help and support if required.

Security

Don’t worry about the security of the third party application. EDExams originally designed the application because they were working with the MOD and they needed a stand-alone application for security reasons.

It was originally designed for sailors to be able to take their functional skills exams while on a submarine in the middle of nowhere. Subsequently it was added to the Navy training base HMS Raleigh.

Technology requirements

There are a few minimum requirements that you need to have in order for the proctoring service to work. These are;

Desktop or laptop computer
- Windows 10 or newer
- Mac version 10.15 or newer
Note: The software is not compatible with the following;
- iPad
- Phones
- Tablets
- Notebook
- Chromebook
- Surface Pro
Webcam
Microphone
Internet connection
- Download speed greater than 3mb/s
- Upload speed greater than 3mb/s
- (Check your internet speed here: https://broadbandtest.which.co.uk/)
The application does not require the use of any third party programme or web browser.

Known problems

Some computer firewalls & internet service providers (ISP) don’t like the software that the proctoring service use. This is mainly because of the fact that it’s taking over control of your microphone & camera, so your firewall/security software may flag it as a virus. This isn’t the case & a phone call to EDExams will quickly get this resolved. Their customer support team will be able to talk you through how to make the necessary setting changes for their software to work on your computer.

TalkTalk internet also causes some issues, so if you use TalkTalk as your internet service provider (ISP), please contact EDExams and they will contact TalkTalk on your behalf to get the security settings changed on your internet connection.