Following spring break, 0060 Carver and 2243 Hixson-Lied Student Success Center testing centers implemented lockers and added privacy after their recent renovation.
A fiscal year 2024 strategic plan award, totaling $630,000, paid for most of the extensive renovations including installing additional cameras, adding barriers, lockers, opportunities for third-party examinations and a designated room to check in and out, according to Testing Center Manager Joel Hochstein.
Last academic year, 118,124 exams were completed, and on average, the testing centers served approximately 1,900 students a day.
“A couple of main things that students will see differently or have seen differently in Carver 0060 — one, it’s more of a semi-private testing experience with those dividers,” Joel Hochstein, the testing center manager, said. “Two, that our check-in and check-out space is not in the same room that everyone is testing, so that was physically separated, a wall was put up. And then the other thing folks are seeing now after spring break is the use of those lockers outside of the Carver 0060 space.”
The lockers were most notably put to use after spring break. With three sizes, the small lockers are more appropriate for items like phones, wallets and keys, whereas the medium-sized lockers could fit a backpack and the large size can fit a winter coat and an oversized backpack.
For some, the lockers have presented a challenge, especially to returning students, according to Caroline Pattison, a testing center exam proctor and senior in management.
“The lockers have caused some issues with students that, A, don’t have an ID,” Pattison said. “B, have a new ID because then they won’t be in the system to actually scan to get a locker. We’ll have to unlock it for them. Or C, the ones that lock their ID’s in their lockers and so then we have to go through a whole process of unlocking it and it just causes a lot of traffic outside the testing center before anyone goes in.”
She also noted that scanning a locker does not check in students to the testing center and students will need their ID to check in for an exam. There have also been some problems with people failing to close the lockers after use.
“Nobody closes the lockers when they’re done, and since it’s assigned to their name, somebody who isn’t aware that there’s a tablet to get a locker will try to put their stuff in there and then it causes so many issues because then it’s under another person’s name,” Pattison said. “We don’t know who has the locker, we don’t know how to open it.”
However, the lack of backpacks and subsequent excess sounds have been useful in lowering distractions, Hochstein said.
“One of the reasons for that is to, one, reduce phone usage, those types of things, but also to create an even more low distraction space,” Hochstein said. “There’s no jackets and backpacks and zippers and all that kind of stuff that’s flowing in and out of the spaces. It’s literally a person and what they need to test.”
Along with lockers and dividers, the new cameras have served to monitor students and make note of any academic misconduct. Pattison explained that she has noticed a decrease in cheating due to the lockers and cameras.
“Those cameras have definitely helped because there’s kind of a blindspot when you’re walking past people now that it’s like stalls so you can’t just see what it’s their pocket, what’s, like, right around if they’re leaning over,” Pattison said. “You can’t see what’s underneath their chest. So now we have cameras that can help us with that, so that’s definitely helped a lot with reducing cheating.”
Contrarily, misconduct reports have risen in the two newly renovated centers due to cameras being able to catch it.
“We have seen a 78.8% increase in misconduct reports,” Hochstein said. “One of those components was an increase in phone usage in those locations. And I would also say that one of the reasons that also has increased is because we can see everything. And so when you add cameras to space and you can see everybody testing, you notice more things.”
However, he noted that since the implementation after spring break with the lockers, he has already seen a reduction and that the percentage of misconduct is quite small in comparison to the number of exams this academic year.
“We have done to date 103,474 exams, 0.28% of completions have had some sort of misconduct incident report associated with them,” Hochstein said. “So less than a third of a percent are having some sort of misconduct issue, so that’s really, really low.”
So, what can students expect finals week to look like?
“They’ll look the same as they did this last semester, well, sans the use of lockers,” Hochstein said. “All of our locations, except for Carver 0250, for finals week, turn into walk-in appointments.”
It will function similarly to how it has been done before.
“Folks come up to where we have kiosks outside of each of the locations where they can scan a QR code on their phone,” Hochstein said. “It adds them to our virtual queue. Once they get to spot 10 in line, we’ll tell them go get a locker, put all your stuff in a locker, and go get in line to get into the testing center. […] Carver 0250 will still have appointments through RegisterBlast like they do right now.”
For those who feel uncomfortable with this system, Pattison recommended students choose to go to the other two testing centers.
“As of now, I would just recommend, if they don’t want to work with the lockers or the cubbies, to just honestly think about going to a different center,” Pattison said.
Currently, plans to implement these renovations across the rest of the testing centers are contingent on space and funding.
“It’s been a lot of work, but I think all that work has paid dividends in the student experience and we look forward to bringing in third-party exams hopefully in the very near future,” Hochstein said.