Counseling, Health, Testing, and Disability Services UMKC Testing Services UMKC Division of Student Affairs and Enrollment Management 2016-2017 Annual Report Associate Director Contact Mission Statement Core functions by the numbers Mrs. Rosa Nataraj 4825 Troost, Suite 206 T: 816.235.1226 F: 816.235.6350 natarajr@umkc.edu To provide high quality comprehensive testing services which support the personal and academic potential of individuals and programs in a diverse campus community. Number of tests administered: 8,497 including: The Prometric function of Testing Services delivered high stakes examinations for over 500 clients in the academic, government, healthcare, financial and professional association industries (USMLE, CPA, IRS, NCARB, FINRA, etc.) to 3553 candidates, resulting in 14886 total hours of proctored examination time, representing a 3.4% increase in proctored from last years. In addition, the contract with Prometric generated $88,991 in income, which resulted in a 1.2% increase from last year. To accommodate the increased demand from Prometric, Testing Services typically operated six days each week and made evening hours available to candidates by being open a minimum of 240 hours per month. Which means that the Office of Testing Service is open 72 to 80 more hours a month than a typical office that operates on a 40 hour work week. A total of 1760 paper-pencil examinations for admission, licensure and certification (ACT, CFA, LSAT, MPRE) were administered, utilizing 22 group test administrations. The number of paper-pencil exams continue to decrease as testing companies move toward computer based-examinations. In addition, 73 individually accommodated examinations were administered for the programs and 16 Sabbath test takers.
Core functions by the numbers, cont. For the UMKC Office of Institutional Research, Assessment and Planning, Testing Services administered 1993 assessment examinations to UMKC students utilizing 153 group test dates. The service generated $20,760 in income. A total of 1,038 individual examinations were administered by appointment, including those for distance education, makeup exams, CLEP, MAT, etc. Top Accomplishments: Campus Collaborations Testing Services is well integrated into cross collaboration with most academic units and serves a key role in supporting the educational objectives of a variety of campus offices. The office is involved with many phases of student progress throughout the institution and is an integral part of UMKC s Strategic Goal 1: Place Student Success at the Center. Testing Services supports student success by providing a secure and standardized testing process that ensures exam integrity and valid test scores. All campus academic units are supported through the admissions testing of their students (including undergraduate, graduate and professional schools) and the credentialing and licensing exams administered as students start their professional career. An example is well illustrated by students who wish to become teachers. To enter UMKC as a freshman, the student must take the ACT; to be admitted into the Teacher Education Program they need to take the MOGEA and to become licensed as a teacher they need to take the PRAXIS exam. All exams are coordinated and offered to students and community members through Testing Services. Students and their academic departments are also supported by a variety of testing services that students can utilize while attending UMKC. The CLEP exam is routinely used by students to accelerate their academic program by obtaining credit by exam. In addition, many students utilize Testing Services for exams needed related to their online or distance education courses. Testing Services also plays an integral role in delivery of the institutional Assessment Program. The strong collaboration with the UMKC Office of Institutional Research, Assessment and Planning serves to support the Provost Office in their need to evaluate educational outcomes for all campus degree programs. Testing services schedules all test dates, delivers all exams, manages the attendance database and answers all inquiries from students, faculty and staff.
Top Accomplishments: Campus Collaborations, cont. Top Accomplishments: Community Partnerships In addition to direct test delivery, Testing Services processed 319 inventories, including but not limited to the MBTI, Strong Interest Inventory, and the MMPI-2, over the past year. These inventories are used in collaborative efforts with other campus educational and service programs including the Counseling Center, Career Services, School of Pharmacy, College of Arts and Sciences, School of Nursing, School of Education, School of Medicine, School of Biological Sciences and the School of Dentistry, and Career Development courses. The collaborations support therapists, career planners, professors and academic units in addressing the developmental needs of their students. Many community partners and individuals know UMKC through the comprehensive offerings of Testing Services. UMKC Testing Services continues to be the most comprehensive testing center in the metropolitan area serving a wide range of constituent groups, addressing testing needs at all phases of educational and professional development. The range of tests offered to the community is comprehensive, with over 500 exams offered for admission, licensure, and certification. The service not only serves UMKC students, but a wide range of community individuals from other educational institutions, as well as professional groups that are well established in their careers. The range of exams offered is illustrated through the Prometric function of Testing Services, where exams range from Automotive Service Certification, the Internal Revenue Service, and Union Pacific apprentice pretests, cosmetologists, to medical licensing for doctors, dentists, physical therapists, nurses, and architects. Due to the high stakes exams that are administered in the Prometric Testing Room, the staff in the Office of Testing Services goes through a rigorous background check processed by Homeland Security and the staff is monitored on camera by Prometric during all hours of operation. Our open door policy of providing testing service to all student and professional groups throughout Kansas City serves three of the UMKC Strategic Goals, including Goal 1: Place Student Success at the Center, Goal 3: Advance Urban Education and Goal 6: Promote Research and Economic Development. Licensure and certification testing which adds to the credentialing of the Kansas City work force elevates the potential of economic development in the region. Testing Services has also gained the respect of testing companies, other institutions of higher education, external boards and professional organizations through the collaborative effort in the administration of
Top Accomplishments: Community Partnerships, Cont. their examinations. As the office who delivers a wide range of exams to students, constituents, or clients, we have established high credibility in customer service and exam security. For instance, an insurance company may contact our office to offer a secure proctoring site for the screening of prospective employees. When testing companies need a venue in the Kansas City area, UMKC Testing Services is the first agency to be contacted. Nationally, UMKC Testing Services is a leader in the volume of services delivered, current and competitive with vendor opportunities, and in the top 10% of income generation for peer services in higher education. Our success in creating external partners addresses UMKC s Strategic Goal 1: Place Student Success at the Center, Goal 3: Advance Urban Education and Goal 6: Promote Research and Economic Development. Goals for 2016-2017 Goal #1: Explore Potential To Increase Revenue The plan is to add contracts with testing companies that will increase revenue. A contract has been submitted to Pearsonvue for consideration to add the Missouri Content Assessment exam for the Non-Prometric Testing Lab. Offering the Missouri Content Assessment (MoCA) would provide our office the ability to test examinees who wish to teach in the State of Missouri. Adding the MoCA not only would serve UMKC students, but it would serve all the colleges and universities in the metropolitan area. In addition, we would also serve individuals who wish to work in an administrative capacity in a school setting, such as principals. Goal #2: Enhance of Customer Service through an improved online resources and services. We are currently exploring ways to improve our payment system. Currently, candidates have to visit Testing Services in person in order to schedule the CLEP, M.A.T. and other individual exams. Testing candidates frequently express the inconvenience that it causes them to schedule the exam. Additionally, examinees would like to be able to pay the testing fee using debit or credit card payment. Having a payment system that is convenient to testing candidates can positively impact the level of customer service and satisfaction of all our testing candidates. Although this goal was not accomplished this year, we will explore it again with the Department of Information Access in the Fall 2017-2018 academic year.
Goal #3: Support the academic success and professional development of UMKC students by increasing the connection between Testing Services and the professional and graduate programs of the university. The goal is to set up a plan to market the exams that affect UMKC students, such as the MCAT, ARE, MOGEA, ADA, and the CLEP. One possibility is to send emails to students, faculty and staff to make them aware of our services. Assessing Student Learning Outcomes 2016-2017 Customer satisfaction and feedback surveys are routinely a part of most exams administered through Testing Services. Candidates typically rate professionalism of the staff, ease of the registration process, candidate communication, the enforcement of exam policy and procedures and the environmental quality of the testing facilities. While sometimes challenged by the quality of our facilities, customer satisfaction ratings from all programs utilizing feedback from several thousand test takers who rank UMKC Testing Services above the 97 th percentile for candidate satisfaction. An aspect that sets apart UMKC Testing Services from other Prometric Testing Centers in the Kansas City area, is that we make courtesy phone calls to the candidates to remind them of their appointment, we give them directions to our location, and we explain the documentation that they will need for their individual exam. In fact, a frequent comment from candidates is that they prefer to wait until we have an opening because they like the friendliness and the personal touch, which makes them feel more comfortable and it lessens their anxiety when taking their exam. All of these efforts from Testing Services play a significant role in the increased numbers over last year. If we provide excellent service, then the candidates will continue to promote our testing facilities. Prometric also rates testing centers on a range of areas, including on the percentage of the candidates who start their exams on time, which means that it is extremely important that our office open our doors sharply at 7:30 am. Due to the security required by Prometric, Testing Centers are also rated on the percentage that we capture the biometrics and the image of each candidate. Fortunately, our testing facility usually rates in the 98 to 100 percentile each month. Prometric also audits us throughout the year by sending secret testing shoppers. For this reason, the testing staff strives to give the same high level of service to each candidate. The Prometic Room has 6 computers. A goal that Testing Services would like to explore within the next few years, is the possibility of expanding the number of computers. Such goal would require a substantial
investment from the university. In the meantime, an advantage of having a small computer room compared to other Prometric Testing Centers, is that candidates have a testing atmosphere with less distraction, which lessens their test anxiety and offers a more pleasant testing experience. Conclusion and Notable Trends Some continued trends from last year must be noted: The percentage of testing candidates requesting accommodations continues to increase, representing a 5% increment from last year. These types of testing accommodations encompass a variety of requests. For example, they may request a private room and/or an individual proctor to read for them; they may require a computer monitor that offers the necessary visual or hearing technology; or something as simple as having a chair that can be used to accommodate candidates with a variety of needs. Testing companies, licensing agencies and certification organizations continue moving in the direction of offering exams via computer, which means that Testing Services needs to continue to be ready to keep up with those demands. These community efforts support UMKC Strategic Goal 3: Advance Urban Engagement; Goal 5: Embrace Diversity; and Goal 6: Promote Research and Economic Development. Most importantly, Testing Services will contribute to UMKC s Strategic Goal 1, which is to place student success at the center.