Kiosk exam availablity and COVID-19

[kpietras]

Dear Red Hat,

We did not receive any information regarding Exam Kiosk availability while the COVID-19 and restriction around that are in place.
In my country, the Red Hat Partners where kiosk exam resides are closing the offices due to government restrictions. 
Could you please confirm that you are developing some solution which will be extending the exams expiration period for the exam until the situation will be back to normal?
Or is there any plans to attend exams from home?

I know this is a difficult time for many of us.
Please care for each other and our communities when it counts. 
Stay safe and healthy.

[ricepower]

I got caught also in same situation. I am stuck here in Middle East. I have only one exam for scheduling in the scheduler site and they got extended for 90 days. I have 2 unused exam voucher and set them to the scheduler site and so far they were not extended for 90 days.  I have contacted the rhls team email as per the email and so far no response from the team. my subscription is ended today 06 April. At the scheduler only one exam is now valid. The two exams I have booked or open for scheduling is now expired.

[Deanna]

@ricepower did you reach out to the Red Hat Learning team here , or submit a support ticket at access.redhat.com. They will make sure to find a solution and take care of you!

[ricepower]

Hi @Deanna ,

Many thanks. YES., I got an update from the ASEAN team for my issue. It has been found out a glitch on the system.

--

[delisa]

Dear Redhat, I am so disappointed with the way your organization is handling the exam situation with Cov19. My exam got cancel because of this pandemic and all nearest exam centers are close.  For what I have seen so far there will not be any examination till January 2020. Please I know you have the technology to do the exam from home. Help us keep our RedHat dreams alive. Thanks 

[Deanna]

Hi @delisa - thank you for being a member of the Red Hat Learning Community and for choosing to learn and build skills with Red Hat Training & Certification. We have a wonderful certification support team who can absorb your feedback and help you plan for your next certification exam, please contact them here.

Thank you,

Deanna 

[Tess]

I've sent the training team the feedback and unfortunately their feedback suggests at-home proctored exams are far, far off in the distance. To summarize: they are aware of students' need for an option to take exams from home, they have made management aware of these requirements, but they don't expect to implement this at any foreseeable future. 

[Ken]

Hi @Tess - Actually, we are making great progress on this and getting closer every day to announcing a timeline for when it will be available.  I wouldn't characterize it as "far, far off in the distance" at all. Stay tuned!

- Ken

[Tess]

Hi Ken, that is great news! I appreciate your update on this matter. 

I must have put too much pessimism in interpreting the response I got from the support team: 

"Due to the increased demand for remote testing from customers, we have informed the management team to consider it, but any implementation of remote testing is still off in the future."

I interpreted that as "don't get your hopes up, this is going to take long". But apparently I misinterpreted the message. That'd be great!

[Walid]

Hi @Ken 

That is awesome news, VMware had a similar stance too, now they offer the option to take exams from office/home with a very strict agreerment.  looking forward to hear from you soon.

[Autran]

Yeah, I'm waiting for some news but I don't know what to do. I was planning to take RHCE v7 but I saw it will retire in 1 July, so I don't know what to do, cause with these pandemic conditions I will not be able to do that. I don't know if should I buy a voucher or not!