Safe Exam Browser is used to make Moodle quizzes more secure. It "locks down" students' computers, so that students aren't able to access any other programs on their computers while taking the quiz. For example, students are prevented from accessing the internet, opening files, and using applications on their devices.
Plan for a preliminary quiz
In order to take a quiz using Safe Exam Browser, students will need to first download and install software onto their computers. This process takes time, and some students may need help from ITS to install the software. Rather than go through the installation process during an actual quiz, we strongly suggest creating a preliminary quiz in Moodle to ensure that the students are prepared to use Safe Exam Browser. This preliminary quiz should be set up to use Safe Exam Browser, but only contain a trivial question; e.g., "What is 2 + 2?". After completing this preliminary quiz, students will have Safe Exam Browser installed, will be familiar with its operation, and should be ready to use it successfully during an actual quiz.
Setting up a quiz to use Safe Exam Browser
When setting up your quiz, scroll down to the Safe Exam Browser section and set Require the use of Safe Exam Browser to "Yes - Configure manually."
Choosing this option will expand the section, revealing many additional settings. However, all of these settings can be left on their default values. It's particularly important to leave both Enable quitting of SEB and Show Safe Exam Browser download button set to "Yes."
The settings in the Safe Exam Browser section are the only ones you need to set up to use Safe Exam Browser with your quiz. Scroll down and save your settings after setting up the time, review options, etc.
What the Students See
When the students go to a quiz configured to use Safe Exam Browser, they'll see the screen below. For the preliminary quiz only, they'll use the Download Safe Exam Browser button and follow the process outlined below to install the software. For both the preliminary quiz and the actual quiz, they'll use the Launch Safe Exam Browser button when they're ready to actually take the quiz.
You and the students can ignore the message saying "The Safe Exam Browser keys could not be validated. Check that you're using Safe Exam Browser with the correct configuration file." This message appears because we used the Moodle interface to set up the quiz.
Downloading Safe Exam Browser
Safe Exam Browser is software that students install on their computers, and it will launch when they're ready to take a quiz. They only need to install it once, regardless of how many quizzes they take in your course.
After clicking the Download Safe Exam Browser button shown above, students will be brought to the download page on the Safe Exam Browser website.
Students will scroll down to find the download link for the type of device they're using --- either Windows, macOS, or iOS.
For the Windows and Mac versions of Safe Exam Browser, we recommend using the Download form GitHub project site link, rather than the Safe Exam Browser for Windows/macOS button. The link will simply download the program, while the button leads to another page filled with ads.
Safe Exam Browser is not available for Chromebooks. If a student only has a Chromebook available and needs to use Safe Exam Browser, contact ITS ([email protected]) to see if there is a laptop the student can borrow to take the quiz.
After downloading, students install the software. If they need any help with this, they should contact ITS ([email protected]) for assistance.
Completing a quiz using Safe Exam Browser
After installing Safe Exam Browser, students can return to the preliminary quiz. The screen below will appear again, and they should click the Launch Safe Exam Browser button to take the quiz. After taking the preliminary quiz, they'll be familiar with Safe Exam Browser. When it is time to take the actual quiz, they'll use the Launch Safe Exam Browser button to take it.
Remember that students only need to download Safe Exam Browser once -- after downloading it in the preliminary quiz, they do not need to download it again in the actual quiz.
