The use of digital assessment in the higher education institutions of Europe has been growing gradually over the past decade as technology developed, but for many institutions, transitioning to digital assessment was part of a five-year plan, something that would be tackled slowly and in the future. But then the COVID-19 pandemic hit and upended these plans: universities had to move fast, compressing what might’ve taken two or three years into two or three months.
For our part, in response to the pandemic and to support assessment integrity, UNIwise introduced remote proctoring within WISEflow through the use of AI and images of participants. Our data shows that more than 250,000 students were assessed through remote proctored exams during April, May and June, which is staggering given the functionality was only introduced at the beginning of April. We also expanded our team to ensure we could support existing and new customers during this time – in total, there the number of assessments using WISEflow increased by over 51% during the pandemic compared to the same period in 2019 – and began working with 14 new customers.