Overview
Respondus LockDown Browser® is a web browser that increases the security of online testing in the D2L Brightspace Learning Environment. When students are required to use Respondus LockDown Browser to access a quiz, they are unable to print, copy, go to another web site, or access other applications. Students can be locked into a quiz until it is submitted for grading. Setup is done through courses in D2L Brightspace.
What you need to know...
When using this tool, we recommend setting up a one question test quiz to allow students to get comfortable with Lockdown Browser and troubleshoot any potential issues. You can make this quiz always available and give students unlimited attempts so they have as many opportunities to work out issues as they need. We recommend making this available at least a few days before the exam. Students may need to update their Lockdown Browser, so that gives them plenty of time to do so. Instructions on updating Lockdown Browser can be found on the Respondus help website.
Any loses of connection or restarts of the Lockdown Browser system will be logged for your review. We also recommend that, if you have an enforced time limit on the exam, you set it to “Allow the student to continue working”. This will flag the quiz as late, but give you and the student flexibility should an internet issue occur. That way, a technical issue won’t shorten their time or otherwise inhibit them from finishing.
This tool is most effective in classroom settings. For high stakes quizzes and exams outside of a classroom setting, please consider Respondus Lockdown Browser with Live Instructor Proctoring.
Enabling Lockdown Browser
Enter D2L Brightspace and select the course with the exam or quiz that will require LockDown Browser. Then, click on Quizzes from the Assessments dropdown.
On the Quizzes page, select the Lockdown Browser tab to open the Lockdown Browser dashboard. After the dashboard loads, a list of your Quizzes for this course will appear.
Click the drop-down menu to the left of the quiz name and select Settings.
Click Require Respondus Lockdown Browser for this exam to require students to take the exam using LockDown Browser.
Optional:
- You may check off the box here (2) to require student's to view quiz feedback and results using LockDown Browser. To learn more about reviewing Quizzes with your students, view the Submission Views page.
- You may create a password that students must enter to start the quiz (3). You as the instructor would then need to provide this password to the students.
If you are finished, click Save and Close. Your students will now be required to use LockDown Browser. Continue reading if you would like to learn about the Advanced Settings.
Advanced Settings
After clicking on Advanced Settings, there are five options:
- Lock students into the browser until exam is completed: Select this option to prevent students from exiting LockDown Browser before the quiz is submitted. This setting is only recommended if the quiz is being proctored by an instructor. When this option is selected you will have the option to set a password that can be entered into the student's browser to exit the quiz early. This is best used for a proctored exam when the proctor has the ability to enter the password.
- If this option is NOT selected, a student is able to exit the browser if their internet connection fails or for any other emergency. A student will be warned twice before being able to close the browser. The student will also be prompted to enter their reason for exiting the quiz early. The student's response will be available to the instructor from the Respondus Dashboard under Review Early Exits on the drop-down menu next to the quiz name.
- Allow students to take this exam with an iPad: The iPad edition of LockDown Browser (available from the Apple App Store) enables a student to use an iPad to take exams that require LockDown Browser. Students should follow this iPad LockDown Browser Guide to setup and use the app to take quizzes. (D2L Brightspace is referenced as Brightspace on the Respondus site).
- Allow access to specific external web domains: By default, links in Lockdown Browser will allow the student to open the linked web page, but block all links and navigations from that page. This option overrides that to allow students to navigate to any page within a specified domain. Select this option if you would like students to be able to access all pages on a website. This option is useful for letting students access an online resource, such as an e-book.
- Enable Calculator on the toolbar: This enables a standard or scientific calculator on the LockDown Browser toolbar.
- Enable Printing from the toolbar: This enables a print button on the LockDown Browser toolbar, allowing the exam screen to be printed.
