Proctoring Market Dynamics

Since ProctorFree was founded over a decade ago two things have remained constant, change and adoption. Adoption of online and virtual proctoring for exams and assessments continues along with change. Change can come in the form of cloud service providers such as Amazon, Google, and Microsoft offering more compute power to farther corners of the world at lower costs. Or the ability to process audio, video, and screen capture data in more efficient manners during a proctored exam and stream that information securely to the cloud for processing, secure storage, and to be made available to test sponsors and data controllers (the organization, school, company, etc. that is chartering the delivery of the proctored exam).

Another change has come in the form of residential internet reaching places that allows students and test takers to have access to internet bandwidth that affords them the opportunity to learn from a truly “distant” and remote setting. While we don’t publicly announce we support this, I have run our proctoring software using my cellular phone as a hotspot countless times. 

While there is still a LONG way to go I also believe that service and technology providers of various disciplines have learned to play nicer together in a sense that there is more recognition of the importance of the user experience. Meaning, when and where possible the integration of different pieces of the technology stack are accommodated for. For example, is the user signing into a system of record, a learning management system, and test delivery engine? What else do they need or are they doing? Are they learning online and will their knowledge eventually be measured via a proctored exam? How do they go about accessing that, being informed of that, testing their equipment against the online test delivery or proctoring tools? 

Historically you had several North American based live proctoring and on-demand options. That is no longer the case. Due to market dynamics such as major providers being consolidated via acquisitions, the average consumer now has less choices. That means there will be a smaller number of providers that go through a phase of growth as the customers are absorbed around fewer providers, and perhaps a new crop of early stage proctoring companies will emerge and attempt to survive and grow, hopefully not at all costs. 
We have spoken to a large number of organizations recently that are evaluating two things:

Should I leave my current provider? OR

I’m doing this for the first time, help.

In either case ProctorFree will act in a responsive and consultative manner. We’re not afraid to tell you if we’re not a great fit for your needs, provide advice about your exam delivery, related proctoring options, and even make referrals if we think there is a better partner out there for you.