From left: Louella Morton, executive director at TestReach, with Sheena Bailey, TestReach CEO. Image: UCD
The deployment of digital technology by start-up TestReach has been rewarded.
Headquartered at the Nexus Innovation Centre in UCD, TestReach offers technology that enables organisations to create, deliver and mark exams online as opposed to on paper. It was established in response to the increase in demand for qualifications across the globe.
At an event at Deloitte Digital in London today (23 May), the company received the Enterprise Ireland Digital Disruptor award, which is bestowed on companies that are disrupting the marketplace through innovative deployment of technology.
The company was chosen as the winner by an expert judging panel from Deloitte Digital UK.
An in-demand solution
Speaking at the event, Louella Morton, executive director at TestReach, said: “The demand for this solution is very apparent as the company has grown rapidly in the past few years, and we are now working with lots of different educational institutes, professional membership bodies and corporations who run certification exams for employees and partners. This rapid growth means we intend to hire a number of new staff for our Dublin office this year.”
TestReach CEO Sheena Bailey explained that while there have been massive advancements in terms of learning options, such as immersive learning and virtual classrooms, the same level of evolution has not happened with examinations and assessments. “Candidates still have to go to exam halls and sit exams via paper with essays and multiple choice questions. We set out to change that. The ability to run an exam anywhere, at any time, and have it professionally invigilated over the web by trained supervisors, is a game-changer.”
“This Digital Disruption award draws attention to the fact that until this technology was created, there was no way to provide professional online invigilation within a single assessment application,” added Bailey.
Multiple implementations
While she explained that online assessment is not a new phenomenon, Bailey said that TestReach is a single resource that allows exams to be run and created in a variety of ways, including web-based remote invigilation. “So, a candidate can take an exam anywhere and be invigilated over the web by a trained TestReach supervisor, who monitors them continuously using audio, video and remote screen share, to make sure there is no cheating.”
Padraic Geraghty, market adviser for digital technologies at Enterprise Ireland, said it was great to see such healthy competition for the Digital Disruptor award, adding that TestReach “personifies the incredibly high standard of indigenous Irish tech companies”.
