Proctored exams for HES ALB and DL undergraduate studies options.

Hello,

I'm wondering has anyone completed/completing the HES ALB find issues getting a proctor to conduct the exams? I'm not based in the US. In fact, I'm the other side of the world and the local universities here don't have a testing center to assist with proctor exams (and they sounded very unhelpful to do so).

I've checked with the local secondary school. They are willing to provide a small room and a teacher to conduct the exams. But it seems very casual to me (sounded like the schools administrators did not have experience in proctoring), furthermore, I have to pay them a fee of $120 per exam taken.
The other option the local secondary school gave me was to engage the community center to provide a room and have a local secondary school teacher/administrator do the proctoring. I will then have to settle the cost for the room and between myself and the administrator.

Do you think the last option is viable? I've seen the HES website about proctoring, they've mention nearby secondary school.

"You are responsible for finding a qualified proctor to administer each exam. The proctor must be a teacher, professor, or administrator in a nearby secondary school, college, university, or testing center."

Reason I want to do the last option is the cost of taking the exams. The community center would let me use their room for $15 an hour. Far cheaper then paying $120.

I've also emailed HES to clarify, but I've yet to received a response. Just to note, I've not signed up with HES, still doing my research on which DL program to undertake to finish my undergraduate studies. I've completed 60 lower credits, looking to finish the last 60 upper levels. Looking towards doing a major in Liberal studies/Philosophy concentration/major. After which, I will be looking at which graduate track to take up. I would eventually like to teach at a community college either Philosophy or English.

I'm thinking about HES, but if anyone has other recommendations, do post!

 

Definitely contact the folks at HES for more info. Also, it can't hurt to ask them if any previous students have been from your area, and if so, who they used as a proctor.

Another choice is to find out if there are private testing centers in your area. Do people in your area do tech certifications (e.g. Microsoft MCSE, Cisco CCNA)? If so, find out what testing center they use. That may be another option.

I am in the US, and while it has been relatively easy for me to find proctors, the process has not been hassle free. For first proctored test that I took for HES, my local college had never done anything like it before and I had to walk them through the process. Later, when I went back to them to get another test proctored, the department had been merged with another, and my contact person had been replaced.

I wound up going to another school to have them proctor my test. This school is part of a network of schools that proctor tests, which HES recommends. That worked perfectly for the first test I took with them. However, the second time I tried to use that school, they changed the protocol on how they proctor tests and it was not compatible with the protocol at HES, so I had to figure out another option.

I actually wound up returning to the original university that I took my first proctored exam at. In this case, i did not go to a specific department. Instead, I just asked a professor that I knew to proctor the exam for me. I did that for my last two proctored exams and it worked perfectly.

If you happen to know a college professor near you, just ask them. That has turned out to be the simplest solution for me.