On March 24th, the City University of New York (CUNY) Board of Trustees authorized a contract with YuJa, Inc. to provide CUNY with an online proctoring solution for online and asynchronous courses.
YuJa is a software designed to verify student identity, monitor testing environments with live and automated proctoring, and to detect and prevent possible academic integrity violations during online exams. Under this contract, CUNY has allocated a maximum total budget of $2 million over a five year period for YuJa.
The software company is also compatible with CUNY’s current learning management system (LMS) D2L Brightspace, the contract coming just a year after beginning the transition from Blackboard to Brightspace in Spring 2024.
“The University’s current online proctoring solution, Respondus Lockdown Browser, is inadequate to ensure academic integrity for high stakes on-line exams, which requires the procurement of a new vendor that offers technical support, real-time monitoring, live online proctoring, and additional technological solutions such as supportive artificial intelligence, machine learning, and identity verification that match the standards of the University,” states the CUNY Board of Trustees Meeting Minutes from March 24th.
After the University recognized the ineffectiveness of Respondus, CUNY issued a Request for Proposals (RFP) on Sept. 30th, 2024 in search of a new contractor to provide an online proctoring solution. The University organized an Evaluation Committee, which selected YuJa as the most-qualified choice among five other proposals.
CUNY’s former Respondus Lockdown browser is a custom browser that restricts students from accessing the web or other applications on their device while the exam is in progress. According to Queensborough Community College, prior to the exam, students must start Respondus before logging into Brightspace and complete a short setup process, which will be used to record the student and their surroundings.
YuJa is a subscription-based software and has already been implemented by several institutions such as Lehman College, Kingsborough Community College, College of Staten Island and Brooklyn College, having selected YuJa in 2023.
“YuJa works with a number of colleges in both the CUNY and State University of New York (SUNY) systems,” said Nathan Arora, chief business officer at YuJa.
This new integration comes amidst CUNY’s 2023-2030 Strategic Plan and has been selected to improve online education for the University’s students enrolled across 230 online programs. CUNY has already previously pledged $5 million to further develop and grow its online programs.
With the launch of CUNY Online in 2021, the University has developed a system to view all of the asynchronous online and hybrid degree programs across its 25 campuses. In relation to this, CUNY’s Strategic Roadmap asserts that CUNY is uniquely positioned to capitalize on its current course offerings and expand its online modalities. As CUNY’s Strategic Roadmap states:
“For those students who can only access a CUNY education in an online format, perform better in an online environment, or desire the flexibility that online programming offers because of family responsibilities, jobs, and distance to our physical campuses, CUNY is uniquely positioned to offer such programming at a lower cost and higher quality level than many entities serving these students in the City, State and region.”
With the information YuJa will collect, CUNY can foster a program to house critical test and student information, reduce the need for in-person exam proctoring regardless of location and use the data to develop the University’s online academic plans.
While CUNY’s contract with YuJa offers benefits with its AI-driven capabilities, it remains to be seen if YuJa will be well-received across all of the University’s campuses and if it will indeed be a stepping stone to broaden CUNY’s online programs while creating barriers against academic dishonesty.
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