M09d4 - Moodle Quiz Safe Exam Browser

Moodle Quizzes can be run so that students complete the Quiz in a locked down browser called Safe Exam Browser (SEB). 
The Safe Exam Browser restricts what students can do whilst completing the Moodle Quiz. Typically, the student will be unable to access any other application or web page on their computer apart from the Quiz itself.

Moodle's SEB is one of many approaches to supporting academic integrity, and should be considered in the context of assessment design for academic integrity.

If you are running a summative test or exam in Moodle, you should refer to the Module Assessment guidance in the Academic Manual and M09d2 - Moodle Quiz for invigilated and non-invigilated online examsPreview to ensure you have set up the Quiz or Assignment properly and have considered what to do in case anything goes wrong with the technology. 

What is the Safe Exam Browser?

The Safe Exam Browser is a customised web browser that limits what students can do on their computer whilst they are taking a Moodle Quiz.

To familiarise yourself with the Moodle Safe Exam Browser, we recommend you:

1. Read the student guide

2. Complete the practice exam

Who sets up and manages the delivery of Moodle Safe Exam Browser assessments?

Safe Exam Browser assessments are departmentally managed. This means that departments are responsible for all aspects of administering the assessment, including the Moodle quiz setup, invigilation (online & in-person), marking, and student communication and support.

The guidance on this page should be used by departments coordinating and running Moodle Safe Exam Browser assessments locally. In addition to this guidance, departments are strongly encouraged to conduct their own research into the suitability and feasibility of implementing this assessment option.

Key Considerations

There are several factors you should consider before proceeding with Moodle Safe Exam Browser assessments:

Proficient Moodle experience

The Safe Exam Browser assessment includes advanced features and settings, such as quit passwords and access to in-browser tools (i.e. permitted internet sources). Administrators setting up the assessment within your department should have a strong grasp of these features to ensure correct setup.

Sufficient departmental admin and invigilation resource

You will need to consider the availability of staff to manage all aspects of the Safe Exam Browser assessment delivery, managing the online and in-person logistics involved, from set up to invigilation support on the day and marking of submissions.

Appropriate equipment and venue

In the case of in-person delivery, it is the responsibility of departments to ensure that every student has access to a suitable device pre-tested with the Safe Exam Browser application, as well as reliable Wi-Fi connection and power supply. Additionally, departments will need secure a suitable venue for conducting the assessment, such as securing UCL PC cluster rooms on campus.

Safe Exam Browser is currently installed in all PC cluster rooms (except Birkbeck rooms for which it is not currently supported).

It can be installed on Windows, macOS, and IOS devices. It does not work on Chromebooks. 

Student preparation and familiarisation

Departments should ensure their students are informed of their requirement to complete a Safe Exam Browser assessment well in-advance of the assessment day. Students should be provided with an opportunity to practice on a demo Quiz - on the same device intended to be used on the day - before their summative assessment.

Assignment content

While traditional in-person exams comprise pen and paper formats, Safe Exam Browser exams necessitate students to work within the confines of a browser. Therefore, departments should pay special attention to the content of the assignment or question paper, to ensure the instructions are appropriate for this assessment method.

Responsible for 'troubleshooting' on the day

With the heightened security measures involved in a lockdown browser assessment, unique issues may arise that would not otherwise in pen and paper or non-lockdown browser assessments.

Assessment regulations

Your assessment records and information should accurately reflect the delivery of an in-person digital exam (such as a lockdown browser exam). Departments must ensure that the relevant parties have been consulted (i.e. Student Lifecycle team) and changes have been requested and approved (please refer to UCL's assessment review guidance and module amendment regulations).

• Remind students they will need to use the Safe Exam Browser to complete the Quiz and so students will need to remember their password. 

Safe Exam Browser recommended settings

Open

To enable Safe Exam Browser, go to the quiz Settings.

The dropdown contains the following options:

• Yes – configure manually (Option A required if you want to allow certain webpages to be accessible to students)

• Yes – Use an existing template (Option B you can select from existing UCL templates.)

• Yes – Upload my own config (Option C advanced users only)

• Yes – Use SEB client config (not recommended as this will use any configuration the student’s SEB has rather than the configuration you have set up.)

There are three recommended options:

Option A: Configure manually

This option allows you to configure the basic settings of the Safe Exam Browser. It is required when you want students to access specific webpages outside of the Quiz.

To use this option, select the following:

• Require the use of Safe Exam Browser: Yes - Configure manually

• Show Safe Exam Browser download button: Yes

• Ask user to confirm quitting: Yes

• Enable quitting of SEB: Yes

• Quit Password: Generally recommended to prevent student exiting the Safe Exam Browser during the assessment. Required if exam is being completed on an iPad.

• Enable URL filtering: Yes. Note: Advanced users only!

• Expressions allowed:

  • Add any URLs you want students to be able to access. You can use * as a wildcard to allow multiple pages from the same domain. For example, adding https://bnf.nice.org.uk/ will allow the BNF homepage, whereas https://bnf.nice.org.uk/* will allow a student to access any BNF page.

  • You must also add the following link to ensure the student can start the Moodle quiz: https://moodle.ucl.ac.uk/mod/quiz/* or for extend https://extend.ucl.ac.uk/mod/quiz/*

The remaining manually configurable settings can be completed as required.

Option B: Use an existing template

This will work for most Quizzes where the student does not need to access webpages or applications outside the Quiz.

The 'Exam - all settings enabled' template applies the following settings:

• Quitting SEB without a password allowed.

• Enable reload.

• Show SEB task bar, reload button, time, keyboard layout, and Wi-Fi control.

• Enable audio controls.

• Enable spell checker.

• URL expressions allowed: none (No external webpage access allowed).

To use this option, select the following settings:

• Require the use of Safe Exam Browser: Yes - Use an existing template. This is a preconfigured set of options.

• Safe Exam Browser config template: Select the template you wish to use.

• Show Safe Exam Browser download button: Yes

• Enable quitting of SEB: Yes

• Quit Password: Generally recommended to prevent student exiting the Safe Exam Browser during the assessment. Required if exam is being completed on an iPad.

To submit a template to be available across UCL, please contact One Desk IT

Option C: Upload my own config

This option is for advanced users only. It requires you to download the Safe Exam Browser and run the included program called “SEB Configuration tool”.

Specific settings including access to applications can be allowed. Any configuration should be extensively tested.

The configuration can then be exported and uploaded to Moodle to apply the settings for the Quiz.

The file must be saved with the setting “Use SEB settings file for...:” set to  “starting an exam” so that the configuration file is not encrypted and it can be used on Moodle.

Open

For guidance on configuration please see the Safe Exam Browser documentation.

Designing your Quiz: Allowing external URLs

Allowing external URLs is only recommended for advanced users only.

You must first configure your SEB manually and allow URL filtering as explained above.

To ensure students can navigate to the external URL, you must:

• Provide the URL to the student within the quiz. The best way to do this is to add a question to your quiz and select the “Description” question type.

• Add the link in the description so that it opens in a new window. This ensures students can navigate to the resource and back to the quiz.

Tips

• You should provide students with a practice Safe Exam Browser exam before the day of the actual exam so that students can install and test Safe Exam Browser works on their own device.

• You must set a Quit password if students are completing the Quiz on an iPad. Otherwise, the iPad will not lock down the screen and students will be able to change applications.

• You can add PDFs to the Quiz by creating a link in the text of a question or in the text of a description. Ensure that links are set to open in a new window so that students aren’t taken away from the quiz page. You should open the PDF and then add the URL to the file to the the list of allowed URLS in the Safe Exam Browser settings. Always print out spares of any PDF document to have just in case.

• Students who require specific accessibility tools such as a screen reader will need to sit their own version of the Quiz without the Safe Exam Browser to use their assistive technology or a custom configuration (option C above) will need to be configured and tested.

• Students may need to authenticate their account using MFA when they log on to Safe Exam Browser which will require their phone.

Troubleshooting

• If a student enters the password incorrectly and a second quiz window appears, this is due to a setting in the Quiz activity:

  • Go to Extra restrictions on attempts and check the Browser security setting. If it is set to Full screen pop-up with some JavaScript security the quiz will open in a new browser window. To prevent this, change the setting back to None.

• If you suspect that there has been a problem with security or cheating during the exam, please contact Digital Education who will be able to advise you on how to proceed.

• If there are technical problems, you should allow extra time for students to complete the exam, so they are not disadvantaged.

• If you are having problems during a digital examination call the One Desk IT on 020 7679 5000 (Ext: 25000 within UCL).