In the workplace, and in the everyday life of its customers, Adobe is changing the world in positive ways through digital experiences. The Adobe Credential Program contributes by providing opportunities for partners, employees, and customers to prove their proficiency with Adobe products and become Adobe certified professionals.
According to Tyler Tu, Adobe Manager, Curriculum and Credential Programs, candidates make a significant investment that requires time, effort and dedication when they participate in the Adobe Certified Program. In return, Adobe has made a significant investment in the program and their candidates. “It is critical,” said Tu, “that we respect Adobe’s and the candidates’ investments into the program by protecting the brand, the intellectual property (IP), the integrity of the exams, and by extension, the value of the certifications to our candidates and other stakeholder groups.”
“To that end,” continued Tu, “we were looking for an automated solution to further safeguard the integrity of our credentials. We ultimately decided to implement the CM Connect™ Security Module, which is an add on to our existing candidate management solution provided by Alpine Testing Solutions.”
The Security Module provides automated data forensics and policy violation checks designed to detect anomalous test results and/or violations of program policies. When an infraction is discovered, the system takes one or more pre-determined actions as directed by the testing program based on the infraction. Automated actions may include flagging the issue for reporting, sending a warning email, requiring a manual review of the exam results, placing the candidate on a watch list, or even invalidating the exam and/or banning the candidate.
“The Security Module is a significant help in protecting the integrity of our program because it provides an automated means for us to identify and take action on anomalous results or policy violations before we provide the candidate with a final score report and trigger certification logic. Because the system is near real-time, the delay between a candidate completing the exam and receiving the final score report is typically less than 24 hours,” explained Tu.
“Further, shared Tu, “as part of our regular test maintenance, Alpine performs periodic Health Check analyses that provide metrics on exam performance and includes additional data forensics. These analyses complement the Security Module and provide critical input into the ongoing tuning of the automated checks. All of this has helped us save time and money while doing a better job of protecting everyone’s investment into the certification program by identifying and responding to patterns of candidate behavior that could damage the program’s integrity and reputation.”
The data also benefits Adobe by providing insights into patterns that help them better manage their program. For example, Adobe was providing a significant number of free test vouchers. But some candidates were using these vouchers to take the test as a practice opportunity because Adobe didn’t have enough practice tests. In response, they added to their practice test program.Tu shared, “It was an unexpected ‘ah ha’ moment that allowed us to do even better at supporting our candidate population.”
Tu summed it up by stating, “Our approach to protecting the integrity of our certification program and the investment of our candidates helps ensure the Adobe Certified Program achievement is awarded fairly to professionals with demonstrated knowledge, experience, and proficiency in Adobe Solutions.”