SmarterServices

SmarterServices, LLC is a Pittsburgh company that sells exam proctoring and student readiness tools to schools and colleges. Its home page says it "builds tools that help higher education institutions get ahead of at-risk students and stay in control of how their exams run." There are two products. SmarterProctoring covers exam integrity. SmarterMeasure, filed on the site under assessment, measures how ready students are for college study. The buyer is the institution: a testing center, a distance learning office or a student success team. Students meet the product when their college assigns a proctored exam or a readiness assessment.

Four ways to proctor an exam

The proctoring page describes SmarterProctoring as "Proctoring solutions designed to make testing more secure, accessible, and manageable," and splits it into four options that an institution can choose between for different exams and settings.

Automated proctoring uses AI. In the page's words, "AI monitors exam activity and flags behaviors for review, helping institutions support integrity at scale."

Live proctoring puts a person in the session. "Live proctors monitor sessions in real time, guiding students through the testing process and responding to issues as they happen." This is the option for exams where a problem needs to be dealt with during the session rather than after it.

The Virtual Test Center manages remote testing "with secure virtual rooms that support scheduling, communication, and live session oversight." It brings the structure of a physical test center, with booked slots and supervised sessions, to students who test remotely.

In-Person covers the other direction: it coordinates testing across physical locations, with tools for scheduling, communication and administration. A college that runs exams across several physical locations can manage them in the same system as its remote exams. The page sums this up under the heading "Academic Integrity in Every Setting," saying SmarterProctoring "ensures academic integrity no matter the setting, modality, or circumstance."

Second Camera

The feature the proctoring page puts in the spotlight is Second Camera. During a remote exam, students can use a mobile device they already own as a second camera, giving the proctor alternate views of the room and the workspace. The page lists four benefits: no extra hardware, since the student's existing mobile device covers the requirement; simpler room scans, with a guided setup meant to make check-in smoother; an expanded view of the testing environment throughout the session; and an added layer of integrity through supplemental monitoring for remote exams. For an institution, the appeal is a wider view of the room without asking students to buy extra hardware.

Managing exams

Below the four options, the page describes the administration side under the heading "A Smarter Way to Manage Exams." Exam settings are configurable: an institution can customize exam rules, verification steps, recording preferences and security measures based on its own policies. Centralized session oversight lets staff manage exam activity, review flagged sessions and monitor testing operations through one connected platform. The student side gets onboarding tools, system checks, scheduling guidance and accessible support resources to help students prepare before they test. The page also says the workflows are designed to fit alongside an institution's existing processes and platforms, and that resources and assistance are there for administrators, instructors, proctors and students alike.

Temple ISD gives a concrete example of that fit. Hannah Beth Davis Ketteman, from the district's digital learning team, says the district "integrated SmarterProctoring through Schoology, our campus wide LMS." Assessments ranged from campus-wide benchmarks to classroom summative assessments, and the district created its own trainings so teachers could set the tool up within Schoology and then administer an exam. She reports that teachers were pleased with the proctoring solution, "particularly in advanced academic courses."

SmarterMeasure

SmarterMeasure is the readiness side of the business, described in the site menu as "Comprehensive assessment tools to measure student readiness." The most detailed account comes from Stoney Gaddy of Sheridan College, who writes for Sheridan College and Gillette College that SmarterMeasure "is an effective assessment tool for all incoming college students and not just online students." The assessments, he says, run from time management to computer literacy and give "solid feedback for students entering higher education," and the tool "has been a staple in our College Orientation course for two years now." In that account it works as an early check at orientation, in line with the company's stated aim of getting ahead of at-risk students before they struggle.

Customers, support and pricing

The testimonials on the home page come from institutions of different kinds. Stephanie Ducheanux, Dean of Instructional Affairs at Western Texas College, says she is pleased with automated proctoring and that "in our three-year history with SmarterServices, their customer services is top-notch." Kimberly Phifer-McGhee, Associate Vice Chancellor for Extended Studies and Student Support at North Carolina Central University, says the university implemented SmarterProctoring in March 2020 when the COVID-19 pandemic forced a sudden move to remote learning, and that "Within two weeks of contacting a representative at SmarterServices, the remote proctoring solution was up and running."

For support and learning, the site offers a SmarterProctoring Help Center, free downloadable resources, product flyers, case studies, and webinars that are "available by appointment or on-demand." The footer links to a Trust Center and to pages on compliance and accessibility, as well as the company's MSA.

The site publishes no prices for either product. Institutions are invited to schedule a demo, and the site also has log-in and sign-up links for existing users.

Who it suits

SmarterServices suits colleges and universities that test students in more than one way and want one system for all of it: automated proctoring for routine online quizzes, live proctors for the exams that matter most, virtual rooms for remote test-takers and coordination for on-campus testing. Community colleges and distance learning programs that also want a readiness check for incoming students get both from the same company. The Temple ISD example shows the proctoring product also working for a school district through its LMS.

Its strengths are the range of proctoring options, the Second Camera feature that uses hardware students already have, and testimonials that praise customer service and fast setup. The limits are those of a product sold through demos: prices come from the sales team, and it is a tool for running exams and readiness assessments, not a place to build or host courses.