I think having it only be an option for any quiz, not the default and not just on password protected quizzes (see the comments at the end of the thread) solves all of these concerns.
Also, if the quiz is specific to your content, Google doesn't help, the student needs to know it from your content. We're looking into Respondus- it's going to be a giant pain. All we want is a quiz setting to not let users log in to other Canvas pages during a quiz/test attempt. We don't want, and in some cases can't have, the rest of the features.
Our kindergarten parents would flip if we told them their webcam was being used during a test to monitor their 5 year old and our fourth graders definitely do not have state issued or school IDs. Downloading and supporting a different browser sounds like the worst. We don't want Respondus, we just want this feature.
This is for tests taken at a testing center. Therefore, a password is set. What we want to prevent is that the student use the course material as reference.
Issue one: In a testing center setting a proctor enters the password when the student comes in. Therefore, the test is not taken randomly. However, the test will also expire. As soon as the test expire, the student should be able to go back in.
Issue two: The student could refer to practice tests and other reference materials in the course. The course material is the best reference and we would like to prevent access in testing centers by cheating.
Issue three: Lock down browsers do not work well on all platforms such as thin clients. Thin clients make very good testing computers and they are easy to lock down in many areas and they are very economical. In addition, lock down browsers do not work for courses in Canvas that links to other sites such as McGrawHill,, Aleks, Pearson, etc. We have several such courses testing in the testing center.
Thanks for submitting this feature idea Tina. As Brandon mentioned there is currently a solution like this that one of our The specified item was not found. offers. Have you had a chance to try their solution, specifically?
Nevertheless, I will move your idea forward so you and the rest of the community can begin voting for this feature to be "baked in" to Canvas as a core feature, on November 4th.
Jordan,
Respondus is the browser I've tested in our testing center. It specifically does not work when students are linked to other sites through Canvas. We have some tests this is the case. Respondus is also hard to implement on thin clients.
Tina:
We have been a Respondus site for several years now, and that is the one negative I have noticed - if a quiz item requires the students to view another website, Respondus cannot be configured to support that. This feature would be a great addition to the Respondus Lockdown Browser, and is something I have suggested to Nick Laboda on several occasions.
Kelley,
It definitely would be a nice feature in Respondus. But I wonder if that would mean a major overhaul of their code. However, it is also a matter of cheating in general. Some students could try to open Canvas on their cell phones. The Canvas app is really nice and a convenient.
Tina:
Respondus Lockdown Browser now supports iPads, and permitting iPad use is one of the settings in the control panel (along with supporting screen readers). No android or phone settings yet, but suspect they are coming.
Kelley,
Support for electronic devices is going to be great. We use tablet in certain area of testing. However, cell phone cheating is a real issue. When cheaters try to use their cell phone during a test, it makes it easier for them when the apps are readily available and easy to navigate. This is why is suggested this feature in the first place.
It's been years since I had to go to a testing center - but in the ones i've attended it would be pretty hard to use a cell phone without getting caught. Keeping kids from cheating with cell phones is 100% classroom management in my opinion. You may be able to prevent them from going to another page in canvas, but you couldn't prevent them from googling or going to notes posted elsewhere.
I know you've had issues with lockdown browser in your lab, but others needing this type of security could get by with lock down browser and the monitor tool from Respondus, which I believe takes pictures or video from the webcams while the students are testing.
Agreed, Brandon, but forcing students to go to a testing center removes one of the great advantages of online courses - not having to go anywhere, arrange a sitter, travel long distances, miss work because of testing center hours, etc. Lockdown Browser and Monitor provide a viable if not completely fool proof option.
Kelley,
I was responding back to the original poster - she mentioned in an earlier post that this was for a testing center.
I coordinate one of the assessment centers at Salt Lake Community College. We have 185 HP Thin Clients in 6 rooms. I have Respondus loaded on about 35% of my computers, but the others are older models that do not have enough storage to allow the program to reside on the machines. We also need to use our computers to access material on the internet and other internet based testing sites. For scheduling purposes we simply cannot dedicate some of our computers only to Canvas-they all need to be able to do everything. Likewise re configuring computers between testing periods is impractical.
We have tightened the security on many of the browsers and sites we use however to make these other testing sites function some of the most restrictive security cannot be implemented.
Canvas is a great program that allows instructors to put reference material and practice tests all in once place for students to use. I am concerned however that instructors do not realize that material can often be accessed during a quiz by students, when the instructors intend that no reference material be used.
It would make my responsibilities easier if there were a feature in Canvas, which, while a student is logged into a password protected quiz, would detect if that student attempted to open any new tabs, webpages, browsers or any other program. If the feature detected such action it would lock the student out of the at quiz until reset by a proctor or instructor. It would also be useful if this feature could be enabled or disabled by an administrator.
One thing that canvas probably could do to help with test security would be to write a browser extension for the supported browsers that takes a screenshots randomly during a quiz, publishing them to a page for proctors, teachers, etc - and also to the quiz log for each student.
This idea has moved to the next stage and will be open for voting among the Canvas Community, from Wed. November 4, 2015 - February 3, 2016.
Check out this doc for additional details about how the voting process works!
I think this would be a great OPTION for quizzes, whether they are password protected or not.
I think this should be an added OPTION for all quizzes, but not be required for password protected quizzes.
I assign some quizzes/exams that are closed book/resources and others that are open book/resources. So it would be unfortunate not have the option to have a password protected be able to be open book.
Maybe it should be an option to be set by instructors, as some exams are open book, open notes?
I completely agree. We don't password protect because we're asynchronous and it would slow students down (from working at their own pace) but we would still like only certain quizzes to be 'locked' like this. Some are meant to be simply review, so we wouldn't want it to be a default, just an option.
We're looking into Respondus as well, but requiring a separate browser download (and support) on top of the adding of all of those settings across an entire K-12 curriculum on top of it really doing WAY more than we need it and then adding the price to all of that... it's daunting. We just want students not to be able to look at other Canvas pages, we don't need (or want ) the rest.
We feel like we're looking into buying a Lexus for the radio.
It would be nice if Canvas provided an option to "lock" or "not lock" for testing purposes. I hope you share this post with people around you.
I agree, and I have I know how hard it is to get attention for an idea that is sort of stuck 'in the middle' of the voting pack
Yay, we're up past 100! It doesn't guarantee anything, but hopefully Canvas will decide it's feasible
Oh wow - Today I Learned (TIL) that my students may have been cheating on my exams for the last 5 years. How is this not standard? How soon can I see a fix? I feel like this makes all my password protected and campus proctored exams 'broken' and I should dig up my paper exams. That is super disappointing!
Good morning everyone,
Thank you for the great discussion on this feature idea. Features liked a locked-down browser or limited browsing during a learning activity--like a test--are things we discuss. We have partners that provide solutions for these features in some form, partners like Respondus or ProctorU. We take security seriously and are thinking about ways to enhance security for a quiz/test, but developing our own locked-down browser is not among them. Thank you for sharing your concerns; we will take them all into consideration for our The specified item was not found.. For now, we will archive this conversation as we will not develop this specific idea in the near future.
Kind regards,
Jason
Hey Jason Sparks,
Unless I missed the boat on this, I don't think most people are asking for a locked down browser. That is actually the piece my school likes the least about Respondus (that it is a separate browser). I, at least, am really just looking for the student's Canvas account to not be able to log on to other Canvas pages (anywhere they use their account, not browser specific) while a quiz that is marked 'restrict access' or whatever is open. Is that still outside of the scope?
Our school looked at Respondus, but it has features we can't use (like requiring an ID - our students are K-12) and has a ton of things that are going to make support miserable and we don't care about. We'd love the way-simplified version to be built into Canvas.
Hello Jason,
We use the Respondus Lockdown browser and are still seeing issues. Students will bring in cell phones and log into the Canvas app while taking a test in Respondus. A lockdown browser cannot prevent students from logging in to other areas of Canvas with other electronic devices. The described feature would prevent that. Is there other ways to prevent such security holes? The above feature would be an option to select if the instructor so desires and not mandatory for all tests. Consequently, it would be a feature that provide an optional security coverage which lockdown browsers and other measures cannot cover.
Jason,
We realize that students cannot be prevented from using separate electronic devices. However, it is a well known security loophole and we are trying to find practical solutions to such problems. We believe that this feature would be a solution. We sincerely hope that you will take a look at it in the very near future. We are interested in learning what the Modern Quizzing Engine will bring and especially what the timeframe of such a release is.
While you can't possibly keep students from using a separate device to look for answers outside of Canvas (since there's no reasonable way for Canvas to detect that), many sites (such as Google) have an option to revoke sign-ins from other devices to your account. Sites such as Netflix also have a way to detect and limit simultaneous logins and restrict how many devices are using an account at a given time. I believe those are the kinds of features being asked for here, since that's something Canvas could logically do based on the fact that other sites do it.
This feature could be coded to revoke all other active sign-ins (as Google lets you do manually) and prevent new sign-ins until the quiz is submitted, or refuse to let other devices use that login while a quiz in a progress (as Netflix does if you go over your simultaneous device quota).
This will be a great tool if Instructure can make it work.
What is the status of this feature? Is it still on the Product Radar or has it move beyond? Is it expected to be implemented?
I agree that this will be a very useful feature, especially in our Testing Centers, to prevent cheating. However, it does need to have the option to be disabled, because there are plenty of instructors who allow the use of online materials during exams.
The Radar idea stage has been removed from the Feature Idea Process. You can read more about why in the blog post Adaptation: Feature Idea Process Changes.
This change will only impact the stage sort of this idea and will not change how it is voted on or how it is considered during prioritization activities. This change will streamline the list of ideas 'open for voting', making it easier for you to see the true top voted ideas in one sort, here.
Adding this feature to new quizzes would be an important compliment to integrating with security LTI's like lockdown browser. This is important, because even with lockdown browser, some students are using a second device to log into canvas and copy answers from other parts of the course. The security LTIs prevent cutting and pasting, but they don't stop students from using other devices. The single easiest source to copy answers from is the course itself. Cheating from all other sources can be limited by using questions that do not return easy answers from google, and timing the quiz. The course canvas site, with its easier access to answers in the course content, needs to be off-limits to complete the security.
While in the middle of taking a quiz that is restricted to a security LTI, the student should see only a warning message when they attempt to log into the course through canvas separate from the security LTI (on either mobile devices or other computers). Any students who log in during an ongoing quiz without that security LTI, should be notified that their attempt to re-enter the course has been logged and reported to the instructor, and that they can resume the course on their own as soon as they complete the quiz that is in progress in the appropriate security LTI. It should also include a button to "click here to ask your instructor to conclude the current quiz attempt." Timed quizzes will already conclude on their own, and a student initiated notification to the instructor could include an option to moderate by concluding the ongoing quiz attempt. Until the ongoing quiz concludes, everything except the warning message should be hidden from student view.
Also, students who attempt to open multiple instances of the quiz while using the security LTI should have to chose which instance to cancel before they are allowed to proceed in either instance. Students who try to do this (to get around view one question at a time) already end up losing responses from all but one window. While they should not be allowed to cheat by bypassing the rules, there should be a warning displayed. For example, "In order to re-enter a secure quiz in this window your ongoing attempt will be closed and re-displayed here. Unsaved content may be lost. Click below to continue, or close this window to return to your ongoing attempt." Regardless of the choice, the activity should be logged for the instructor.
I could see some potential issues with this. One - lets say a student is kicked out of a quiz and just doesn't say anything. The next class they go to the student wouldn't be able to use Canvas because it would redirect them back to a locked quiz.
Two, it wouldn't really prevent cheating since they could just go to google or any other site and look up the answers.
The best solution for this would be for Canvas to release a secure browser like Respondus or Safe Exam Browser. Since it would compete with Respondus though which I believe might be a partner with Instructure I doubt they would do that.