Last week, Proctor360's team participated in NCTA's Annual Conference in Chicago, and we came away with a lot of positive insight and valuable time spent connecting with the people who have been our core focus-- testing professionals. Though our vision is to make remote testing a viable option for Higher Education by building better tools and technology, we know that there is nothing that can replace the connections you develop when meeting face-to-face. The National College Testing Association returned to an in-person conference format this year, and it was a tremendously successful event that proved that very notion.
During early planning discussions, we established that we wanted to achieve three main goals:
- Meet with our current customers to express our appreciation and to learn more about how we can make our platform and our service better.
- Introduce new testing centers to the platform we designed specifically for them for remote proctoring their own students' online exams.
- Build new relationships with companies that provide online exams so that we can advance the credibility of remote learning through more secure testing.
And man, what a success it was...
Connecting with our customers
Proctor360 has grown a lot since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, and, in many cases, we have never had a chance to meet our customers face-to-face. Thanks to the NCTA's efforts to bring back their in-person conference this year, we were able to change that. It was such a pleasure to finally meet in person some of the wonderful people from Ivy Tech Community College, Governors State University, and Avant Assessment. As first-hand users of our Institutional SaaS remote proctoring platform, we wanted to express our appreciation of their support and feedback over the past two years, and we finally got our chance.
In addition to hugs, handshakes, and expressions of gratitude, we had a chance to spend some time learning about their challenges as threats to remote testing continue to grow more ubiquitous. Proctor360 is always working on new ways to make our platform better, easier to use, and more secure, but it's our customers who teach us the most. It was rewarding to give them a sneak-peek at some of our upcoming features that are designed to help them overcome those challenges.
Introducing the platform to new testing centers
We work pretty hard here at Proctor360 to raise brand awareness and to introduce as many schools to our remote proctoring platform as possible. But, we've learned that much of Higher Ed has an idea in their mind of what remote proctoring has to be. That's because our competitors have focused on removing the institutional testing professional from the process of online testing. Our approach is all about giving academic testing professionals the tools they need to proctor exams online - without limitations.
By exhibiting at the NCTA Conference this year, we were able to show the attendees just how different our platform is. At our booth in the Exhibitor Hall, we had sample exams running live on a screen with the proctor's view of multiple test sessions available for them to interact with directly. It was a real eye opener for many who have struggled with third-party proctoring or video conferencing-based solutions like Zoom or Microsoft Teams.
Building new relationships
As an association dedicated to testing professionals in Higher Education, the NCTA Conference proved to be an excellent forum to meet with representatives from test publishers and other EdTech companies who are devoted to secure online testing. It was an extraordinary opportunity to explore other services and to make direct contact with organizations that are a vital part of Proctor360's future plans. Our team laid the groundwork with several exhibitors for relationships that we're confident will pay dividends to all parties and to the future of remote learning and testing.
A personal note...
I've been a marketing professional for many years, and I've always felt that it is important to believe in what you do. As a passionate believer in Education Technology, that's a big part of why I work for Proctor360. We're trying to build tools that make online learning and testing more credible and secure. And we feel that means institutional testing professionals must be engaged with the online testing process-- just as they are at on-campus testing centers. When we presented our remote proctoring platform in a 1-hour session to a standing-room-only crowd that was enthusiastic and engaged with what we're offering, it was a real validation-- not just for me, but for our whole team.
We're doing something that matters, and we're getting a lot of it right. Wow, what a feeling.
From everyone at Proctor360, we extend our heartfelt thanks and appreciation to the National College Testing Association and all of its members for contributing to an extraordinarily well-run event and an amazing experience for our team. You're "our people", and we'll be in touch.
Learn more about Proctor360's Institutional SaaS Remote Proctoring Platform designed specifically for testing centers.
