Lock Browser For Exam
Now that computer-based testing has become the standard, it is vitally important that students be protected against cheating. There are various browser lock solutions that can monitor on-screen activity, verify examinee identity and provide audio and video proctoring.
Add Respondus LockDown Browser to a Canvas quiz or assessment using the Add Materials drop-down menu within your course.
Features
Lock Browser For Exam is a tool designed to prevent students from cheating during online assessments. Acting like its own custom browser and running full screen on a computer, this application prevents minimized or switching applications during exams; in addition to disabling keyboard functions, shortcut keys, right-click menus, screen capture or any other features that might allow students to cheat or disrupt tests.
Setting up this tool requires no technical expertise. Simply navigate to the Tools menu, find Respondus LockDown Browser and Monitor, and enable it. After doing so, a link will appear in all courses that require it in the Navigation bar.
Students taking an assessment using this tool will be guided through a series of screens that check their webcam and environment before beginning a test. Once these steps have been completed, they can start the exam; access a standard or scientific calculator from their toolbar as part of this assessment, and view feedback post-assessment – but only within that same session they took their assessment.
Teachers can utilize this tool to provide their students with practice questions that help prepare them for exams, while accessing results and feedback post-test for further study. Teachers also find this resource to be an excellent way to increase success for online assessments taken remotely by providing practice questions in advance of tests.
Utilizing this tool not only adds another level of security but can save instructors time in reviewing exam answers and identifying students most likely to have attempted cheating on exams. Furthermore, educators can ensure the integrity of exams are maintained so assessment remains fair across the board.
Before choosing whether or not to utilize this tool, instructors should carefully consider their classroom environment and type of tests being given. If your course only offers on-campus classroom instruction, creating a locked browser might not be worth your while for an exam that will only be taken via distance education. It is also crucial that instructors ensure their Internet connection remains reliable during an examination.
Benefits
If your students need to take proctored tests, Respondus LockDown Browser (or its companion product Respondus Monitor) should be utilized during assessments. This custom browser prevents users from printing, copying, going to another URL, or accessing other applications during assessments while simultaneously locking students into an exam until submission for grading.
Making installation easier can be a struggle for students, but to help ease this burden, ask your students to download and install LockDown Browser app at least a week or so prior to any quiz or exam so they have time to experiment with its functionality and familiarize themselves with its process before taking graded exams. For extra assurance that students successfully install and utilize it before their graded exams begin.
At any quiz or exam, it is crucial that students follow any special instructions given by their instructor. For instance, if their instructor requests they take it on an Ethernet connection, ensure that devices are plugged into it to reduce the chance of an Internet connectivity issue which would prevent test-taking by saving answers or moving onto subsequent questions more smoothly.
Students completing their quiz or exam can leave the LockDown Browser by pressing the “submit” button or by entering their Quit Password. Instructors can view a list of Early Exits via their Dashboard, including student name, date and reason of early exits. In case there are issues with student devices causing early departures early than planned, instructors can share a Quit Password or direct them to restart them to facilitate exiting as quickly as possible.
LockDown Browser can help protect the integrity of online assessments, but cannot prevent students from cheating beyond what they can control. Therefore, LockDown Browser should be combined with human proctoring services in order to guarantee academic integrity during remote exams.
Requirements
At an exam, the browser is presented in full screen and cannot be minimized or resized, while standard functions such as keyboard shortcuts, right-click menus, screen capture and hyperlinks within tests are disabled preventing digital cheating during online assessments. Finally, only four functions from its toolbar – Back, Forward, Refresh and Stop are enabled in addition to backward and forward navigation within an exam itself and students cannot open new websites or applications during an assessment preventing digital cheating and providing students with an optimal exam experience.
LockDown Browser is a proctoring software designed to monitor student on-screen activities and verify examinee identities, record testing sessions and more. Available across many online testing platforms – ProctorEdu, Respondus and WebEx among them – this tool cannot provide complete protection as certain desktop features may still facilitate academic dishonesty; instructors should therefore take caution when employing it in their courses.
LockDown Browser requires students to log into their institution’s learning management system and navigate directly to the course that contains their test, then log back in again once there. After they log in again, their test should appear within their browser window. To prevent confusion and ensure students have installed and correctly configured LockDown Browser correctly prior to graded exams, a short non-graded test that incorporates LockDown Browser can help familiarize students with its software while helping ensure it’s installed properly.
Respondus Lockdown Browser and Monitor requires that students have a stable Internet connection with a high bandwidth – wired connections are recommended since mobile hotspots and phone data speeds can create issues during online testing. Furthermore, students must also have installed on their computers the latest version of Adobe Flash Player to take part.
Schoology makes it possible to customize test and quiz settings so they require the use of the lockdown browser, with default allowing students to exit early if their connection fails or there is an emergency, though instructors have control of whether this should be enabled or disabled. Instructors may also change other options such as accessing certain external web domains, activating calculator on toolbar and printing directly from browser.
Conclusions
Lockdown Browser can serve as a proctoring tool to protect the integrity of online and remote exams. By restricting desktop features, apps, Google searches and other things that foster academic dishonesty during exams, Lockdown Browser helps protect their integrity. However, as it cannot guarantee 100% plagiarism-free exams alone – therefore using it alongside other proctoring tools may be essential to their use effectively.
Respondus Monitor, a webcam-based system that automatically records and flags students for possible test-taking violations, allows instructors to review any recorded video segments during exam sessions. Furthermore, instructors can require students to use Respondus Browser and Monitor during an entire quiz or assessment by checking “Require Respondus Browser and Monitor” when creating it.
Instructors can customize browser privacy settings in order to restrict access to student data such as their names or email addresses during exams. It is crucial that instructors inform students of this fact.
Students can also adjust the browser settings to enable screen recording. They also have the option of whether to use their webcam during an online test – this provides instructors with the chance to check that no students are cheating during an examination session.
Additionally, students can set their browser to open in full screen mode during tests to prevent themselves from accessing other applications or websites on their computer. It will also disable instant messaging services to provide them with some much-needed breaks during long exams.
Overall, Brightspace software is fairly straightforward to set up and use; however, some students have reported issues with it not functioning as intended; these issues should typically be remedied using either its built-in troubleshooting feature or 24/7 live chat technical support. Taking an exam in browser requires an Ethernet (wired) connection; this will prevent dropped or interrupted connections with Brightspace server that could lead to lost exam positions or lost exams altogether.