Accessible and affordable education with REGENT Business School

The transition to online learning has urged educational institutions to reimagine examination protocols. 

A shining example of this transformation is seen in REGENT Business School, Durban, South Africa, renowned for its business and management academia. 

REGENT Business School, established in 1998, is a private higher education institution in South Africa committed to providing tech-rich, future-focused, and internationally recognized programs. It aims to equip students with essential business skills, offering various courses in fields like Marketing, Accounting, and Human Resources. 

The school’s philosophy emphasizes accessible and affordable education to enhance graduate employability. 

They strive to incorporate theory and practice in their curricula, adapting to modern digital advancements in teaching and taking a work-directed learning approach to ensure relevance in the industry.

How was it before they used proctoring for accessible education?

The school’s educational journey culminates each semester with a significant examination, making up about 70% of a student’s final grade. With nearly 4,000 students participating concurrently, the online exam system must be robust.

In October 2022, REGENT forged a timely alliance with Open LMS because their previous platform, based on Moodle, wasn’t designed to scale. This partnership aimed to alleviate the technical woes and elevate the examination experience.

A significant stride in this collaboration was integrating SMOWL proctoring software, bringing a new level of security and integrity to the online examination process. The synergy between Open LMS and SMOWL added a layer of security that ensured a fair, streamlined examination process, setting a high bar for online proctoring standards.

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SMOWL and Open LMS: the key to an affordable and accessible education

Open LMS sought out a solution for customers like REGENT Business School to ensure academic integrity, seamless integration with Moodle technology, and little to no impact on faculty, staff, and budget.

Vetting technology providers and establishing protocols are efforts that many institutions do not have the time or budget to explore.

The Open LMS-SMOWL partnership lets institutions focus on the content and experience they will provide their virtual learners and leaves the technology to trusted providers. 

SMOWL allows evaluators to gather evidence and incidents related to the overall behavior of the person being evaluated throughout the entire test. Furthermore, to use SMOWL, the user must register in advance to confirm that they will be the one taking the test.

The great thing about SMOWL is that it adapts to the needs of each institution: you can have a simple monitoring system without installations or a comprehensive monitoring system that can block the browser and many other functionalities. All of this aims to maintain the academic integrity of the entire evaluation process.

In addition, thanks to this, the students registered for the assessment early, allowing REGENT to track how many students were taking the exam and communicate with those who still needed to get signed up. By the second week of November, REGENT was ready to administer the assessments.

How does the Open LMS and SMOWL integration work?

REGENT Business School has benefited from a seamless integration between the Open LMS platform and SMOWL. Both organizations have been partners since 2020, which means Open LMS has a pre-configured plugin that REGENT Business School simply had to install in its LMS.

Thus, the integration occurs automatically, and within minutes the institution can begin selecting its preferred settings in a completely scalable manner.

REGENT Business School advances exam integrity with SMOWL+

REGENT Business School is pioneering a new standard in academic honesty and exam security by integrating SMOWL+ into their assessment protocols. This sophisticated tool brings a heightened level of oversight to the online examination process through webcam monitoring, enabling the verification of participants’ identities at every critical stage—from registration and exam entry to the test itself.

With SMOWL+, the assurance that the test taker is indeed the individual they purports to be is strengthened by a combination of artificial intelligence and biometric controls. This cutting-edge technology not only verifies identity but also ensures that the examination is conducted with the utmost integrity.

Furthermore, REGENT has enhanced its monitoring capabilities by incorporating SMOWL CM, allowing continuous computer supervision. SMOWL CM is particularly adept at detecting any unauthorized activities, such as open applications, browser tabs, external devices, and prohibited actions like copying and pasting during the exam. 

All these checks are part of a robust system that compiles a comprehensive and customized report, furnishing all the necessary data and evidence for the institution to make informed decisions.

By adopting SMOWL+, REGENT Business School is reinforcing its dedication to uphold the validity and trustworthiness of its qualifications, setting a benchmark for remote examination security.

If you’re looking for a solution similar to the one chosen by REGENT Business School, don’t hesitate to take a look at our SMOWL proctoring plans. You’ll have access to a free demo to test all the features.

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