Testing Center Introduces Innovative Pods

One of Alabama A&M University’s key intermediary academic units introduces a state-of-the-art, unprecedented modality for a safer and more efficient testing environment for students.    PHOTOS

Alabama A&M’s Testing Services Lab’s newly added pods are an addition that will aid in taking Covid-19 safety protocols and procedures to the next level. The use of these pods will ensure that students maintain a safe distance apart from one another for social distancing, and will create an easily sanitized area. They are also designed for optimal student comfort, with the use of a built-in ventilation system that recirculates air within the unit.

Testing Services, long directed by recent retiree Alfonso A. A. Smith II, is located at 125 J.F. Drake Memorial Learning Resources Center. The modern lab structure features 18 standard pods, and two ADA-compliant pods in order to meet the needs of a variety of client populations. The application of these systems will provide a secure and dynamic approach to the advancement of testing services.

Serving over 4,000 individuals yearly, the AAMU Testing Services Lab offers online proctoring for AAMU’s online courses (as well as for distance education offered at other institutions), and ACT Residual test-taking for students requiring higher scores for AAMU admission—to name a few.

“We hope to become Pearson Vue-certified, to match our Prometric certification, which will enable us to offer GED and Licensure exams," said Smith. "Through ETS and Prometric, we currently offer PRAXIS (a series of American teacher certification exams written and administered by the Educational Testing Service) and TOEFL (Teaching of English as a Foreign Language) at a 20-person capacity per session."

Testing Services already offers the CLEP exam for students seeking to take advantage of acquiring credit by examination, and it plans to offer the same service over the next year via the DSST exam, Smith said.

“We collaborate with Veterans Affairs and Disability Services; the College of Business and Public Affairs; and the College of Education, Humanities and Behavioral Sciences,” Smith added, noting the office’s important provision of exit exams at the undergraduate level and comprehensive exams at the graduate level, in addition to its role as a repository for several test scores, among them the GED.