Williamsport, Pa. — The Pennsylvania College of Technology has announced that technicians who handle appliances containing federally regulated refrigerants may take the required certification exams online through the college.

Under Federal Clean Air Act guidelines, all those who maintain, service, or dispose of appliances containing regulated refrigerants must have Section 608 Refrigerant Transition and Recovery certification.

In May 2001, Penn College entered into a partnership with the Air Conditioning Contractors of America (ACCA) to offer EPA-approved certification training and testing.

In the past, the certification exam has only been available in written form. Now, the exam is available on demand from any Web-accessible computer 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

Planning for the online site began in September 2001, involving ACCA personnel and college staff from the Technology Transfer Center, Information Technology Services, the office of Distant Learning, and the School of Construction and Design Technologies.

According to Penn College, with development of the online test site, proctors receive orders on real time, and test candidates can access and print their unofficial results as soon as their tests are completed and submitted.

The Section 608 online exam is located on a secure service accessible with a login name and password unique to each proctor and test candidate. The software used for the project randomizes the entire 334-item EPA question bank each time the test is accessed. This eliminates the necessity of creating and housing more than one version of the exam.

For more information about Section 608 certification training and testing, contact Debra Sanders at Pennsylvania College of Technology at 570-327-4775 or visit http://ttc.pct.edu/acca/.

Publication date: 01/13/2003