Online exams have become one of the most important aspects of our lives with the pandemic. It played a key role not only in the education sector, but also in the HR processes of almost all institutions. We met with Volkan Baran, Founding Partner and General Manager of Witwiser, which offers systems that provide high-level online exam security with its AI-supported technology. We talked with Baran about both Witwiser and the developments in this field.
As we know, every initiative is born out of a need. What is the underlying story of this indigenous initiative of yours?
Witwiser Teknoloji A.S. is a spin-off company of OBSS Teknoloji A.S. OBSS Teknoloji A.S. has been operating since 2005, and currently is one of Türkiye's largest software houses, with over 600 employees. OBSS Teknoloji continues to carry out successful projects with many leading institutions in its field, especially in the banking, finance, e-commerce and defense industries. I can suggest that the main secret of this success is to position the correct staff in correct projects, while also implementing cutting-edge employee satisfaction practices in our company. The most important process to make the correct positioning is the “assessment” stage. More than 10,000 candidates are assessed every year with about 20 human resources specialists and more than 30 software architects. Given these numbers, managing the scaling is quite challenging, as you can appreciate. The need for Witwiser actually arose at this point. In the journey of digitalization of assessment processes, many researches on many solutions were carried out. In particular, since the solutions offered for the security of online assessments were deemed inadequate, online assessment and online exam security issues were addressed through an in-house innovation program. The experienced and expert engineers of OBSS, who carried out the technical negotiations, rolled up their sleeves to digitize the assessment processes they made themselves. 6 separate teams came up with 6 separate solutions. Thus, OBSS Teknoloji has developed 6 different exam security solutions, which are an alternative to each other. The solution, which is the first of this innovation program, forms the basis of Witwiser. Thus, Witwiser bears the title of being the first local initiative in the field of online exam security.
What are your products and services?
The Witwiser product family offers AI-supported and cloud-based exam security technology for both the online exam systems and online exams with an advanced user experience design. While the online exam system and the online exam security system can be used together, they can also be used separately as custom solutions tailored to individual needs. While the measurement and assessment experience becomes more comfortable for users with the online examination system, it also speeds up the processes of institutions and reduces their operational costs. The system, which supports several question types, including multiple choice, open-ended, drag-and-drop, audio and video question types, offers the opportunity to design exams that can serve different purposes in minutes. The online exam security system makes online exams secure with more than 50 settings and alarm options ranging from virtual machine detection to browser restrictions, or authentication to system restrictions. In addition, it can be easily integrated into any Learning Management System. Users can install the “Witwiser” plugin via their web browsers, without having to download any 3rd party software. In this way, the system is very easy to use with its “Installation in 3 Clicks and 5 Seconds” feature and offers a secure service in terms of personal data. It also automates the processes of institutions with several reporting screens supported by AI technologies. Witwiser ensures that this process, which requires a lot of time and human resources, is optimized by performing analyses with machine learning and special algorithms based on the collected data.
“The online exam security system makes online exams secure with more than 50 settings and alarm options ranging from virtual machine detection to browser restrictions, or authentication to system restrictions.”
With the pandemic, a number of needs emerged in the fields of online measurement and assessment. Education, in particular, continued online and companies moved most of their business processes online. How was the interest in your software in Türkiye and abroad during this process?
I can say that the pandemic has revealed awareness and periodic necessities for all institutions. Especially in terms of offering continuous education, the agenda of educational institutions has changed faster. There were many investments related to learning management systems (LMS) both in our country and abroad. Of course, the level of preparation of each organization is different from each other. The investments made so far have not included the remote assessment systems that much. The most challenging aspect of this period for the organizations was to determine how to conduct the assessment processes. Witwiser products came into play just at the point of making an accurate and safe assessment. During the pandemic, we had the chance to meet and cooperate with many organizations. Before the pandemic, explaining the answers to questions such as “What are the dynamics of conducting a safe exam?” and “What should be taken into consideration?” was a part of our conversations. With the pandemic, on the other hand, the picture was slightly reversed in the introduction meetings. The narrative process in which we were previously active has changed its format to include institutions asking, “How do you take precautions regarding this issue?” and “How do you prevent this type of cheating attempts?” All this is actually an indication of how important and necessary it is for organizations to be able to make safe and accurate assessments online.
Can you tell us about your customer portfolio? Do you also work with companies?
When the subject of online exam system and exam security is of question, the first thing that comes to mind is “education”. We had the chance to observe together that digitalization of assessment processes is an inevitable need for educational institutions, especially during the pandemic. I would like to highlight some of the advantages to be achieved with digitalization for certification centers and companies. When we evaluate this from the point of view of certification centers, digitalization of the process reduces costs and operational loads. Especially in certificate exams where there is a participant audience profile spread throughout the country, the institution has 2 options. The first option is to organize an exam center in numerous different locations. Many parameters such as the coordination of the exam center, the determination and orientation of exam supervisors, the printing and security of exam booklets etc. all need to be managed smoothly. The second option is to organize exams in fewer and more central locations to reduce the operational loads and costs. Although this option seems to reduce the operational loads and costs, it also brings various difficulties for the participants. If we take Türkiye specifically, most probably some metropolitan cities such as Ankara, Istanbul and Izmir will be chosen as exam centers. People who will attend from different cities have to bear huge travel and accommodation costs, as well as experience a serious loss of time. When we consider it from the point of view of the certification center, on the other hand, an uncomfortable service would be offered to the customers. Digitalization of the process not only increases the number of participants and satisfaction but also offers the opportunity to reduce the costs and operational loads. Considering the HR processes of companies, we can talk about multiple areas of use. As I mentioned earlier, the Witwiser journey started with the digitalization of OBSS Teknoloji’s recruitment processes. This step has brought several advantages as an employer, such as reaching more candidates and prioritizing the correct people with a better chance of assessment. It has also reduced the operational loads of both HR and technical teams. From the candidates’ perspective, on the other hand, they have the opportunity to complete the process whenever they want, wherever they want, and without being subjected to the pressure of an interview.
What differentiates you from other companies in your industry?
Unlike our competitors, we invest in automation-oriented solutions. We offer scalable, secure and flexible solutions for organizations according to their budgets. Considering the product features, Witwiser is a technology with the broadest feature set available on the market. It also provides more economical solutions, since it can be configured according to the individual needs of the organizations. The interface designs and ease of use, which are completely focused on the user experience, meet the needs and expectations digitally from end to end. Due to the security of users’ personal information and computers, we do not serve as a third-party application, but as a browser add-on (Google Chrome, Microsoft Edge, Yandex, Opera). This not only ensures the security of user information but also eliminates issues related to operating system dependency and compatibility. The online exam security system can easily be integrated with any existing learning management system or assessment system already used by organizations. Integration has already been ensured with global systems such as Blackboard and Moodle. As Witwiser, we also take strict security measures with virtual machine, virtual camera and virtual microphone detection.
Can you tell us about your short- and long-term plans?
The education sector continues to be digitalized day by day. While investments in the past were usually made in the way education was delivered, today the investments made for digitalization of measurement and assessment processes, which are now an integral part of education, have gained importance with the pandemic. The adequacy of conventional measurement and assessment methods began to be questioned by educational institutions with the digitalization of education. We are trying to put forward innovative solutions that will improve the remote evaluation processes with our online exam system and online exam security system products.
We continue our efforts with the objective of being an innovative technology company that comes to mind first in the measurement and assessment sector, and to be the most preferred one among our competitors in the global market. We aim to become a reliable benchmark institution among users worldwide.
“The inadequacy of the solutions offered on the security side of online assessments revealed the need for Witwiser.”
