Baltimore testing provider Prometric has acquired Boston-based Finetune, adding a new set of artificial intelligence and machine learning tools to its arsenal.
The financial terms of the deal were not disclosed, but Finetune will operate as an independent subsidiary of Prometric. The acquisition closed on Aug. 4. Prometric, which has 3,000 employees, operates testing centers across the world and helps create certification assessments for its customers. The company administers over seven million tests every year, ranging from clinical tests for health care workers to food safety tests for restaurateurs.
The acquisition of Finetune, which was founded in 2012 and has 50 employees, will give Prometric access to several AI and machine learning tools to help create and grade educational assessments.
One of the most labor intensive parts of creating tests is coming up with questions. Finetune can use AI and language processing to make baseline questions, saving subject matter experts time by having them simply edit questions, rather than come up with questions from scratch, Prometric Chief Assessment Officer Nikki Eatchel said.
“We really want to focus those subject matter experts on taking content that has been developed and really refining it in the best possible way versus needing to do all the original generation,” she added. “It's really a very different way of looking at it, and one that best utilizes the expertise of those individuals.”
Finetune also has other products that focus on different parts of the assessment process. Acumen, for example, is a tool that streamlines the scoring process to make it easier for test graders.
The pandemic massively changed the testing industry for Prometric. More employers asked to have a remote option for testing, and people shifted across industries more rapidly, making strong testing items an even greater priority, Eatchel said. Those changes put pressure on assessment creators, making it necessary to have a robust series of questions and ensure test items are updated frequently.
"It puts even more pressure on those components of the development process that are time-consuming and difficult, which is that item development process," Eatchel said. "Which is why Finetune's products create the opportunity to handle a lot of those adjustments and changes in the industry."
The acquisition of Finetune is not the first time the Baltimore testing provider has expanded through acquisitions. Prometric purchased Canadian company Paragon Testing Enterprises, the testing provider for the Canadian Academic English Language test, a measure of English proficiency, in 2021.
Around 20% of Prometric's 1,400 US employees work work in Baltimore. The company is headquartered in Canton at the CareFirst BlueCross BlueShield tower.
A previous of this story incorrectly stated that 20% of Prometric's global employees work in Baltimore. The statement should have referred to solely the company's US employees.
