A Birmingham firm specializing in securing the online testing world has ramped up hiring as schools around the world are forced into online classes.

ProctorU says it is already seeing an increased demand for online proctoring services as a result of the coronavirus pandemic. ProctorU offers proctoring – monitoring of students during online exams - via AI programs and online proctors.

ProctorU has 14 proctoring locations operating in six countries, and works with college courses and final exams on more than 800 campuses.

Company CEO Scott McFarland said volume has already increased significantly and finals are still a month away. ProctorU began pumping up hiring a month ago when the coronavirus was already beginning to impact Europe after shutting down business and activity in Asia and elsewhere.

President Sanders Pitman said the firm received more than 350 applications in just one day. This week, new hires have begun working from their homes.

“We built an infrastructure to handle natural disasters like earthquakes and hurricanes, not thinking about the possibility of a pandemic,” McFarland said. “Thankfully, our distributed architecture allows for total virtualization for all employees when necessary. As we go into the high volume weeks of the spring term, we are confident we can continue to provide highly secure live proctoring services to both existing and new customers.”

The need for online test proctoring is also bringing in customers. ETS, a learning company that provides hundreds of thousands of tests annually for academic English proficiency and graduate admissions, is working with ProctorU for its online exam services and will begin testing this week, the company said.

Pitman said the ProctorU’s technology allows it to “route volume to proctoring locations unaffected by this situation, wherever in the world they may be.”

“Having multiple redundant sites and complete virtualization allows us to provide a secure testing environment without missing a beat," he said. "Our live proctoring service continues to help test-takers get through their exams and our certified proctors are there to make sure security stays at the highest level.”

Back in January, ProctorU and Yardstick Assessment Strategies, a psychometric and computer-based exam administration firm for professional testing organizations, announced a merger to form Meazure Learning.