Use a Lockdown Browser

Lockdown browsers prevent users from printing, copying, going to other URLs, or accessing software applications. There are several commercial lockdown browser products, but probably the most widely recognized is Respondus. Watch how Respondus works.

Benefits

Using a lockdown browser has several benefits.

• Learners are unable to easily use other computer resources.
• There are fewer technical issues resulting from user error.
• It levels the playing field as learners who do not cheat are not unfairly discriminated against.
• Printing costs are leveled or omitted.

Disadvantages

One identified disadvantagesof using a lockdown browser is the inability of learners to use supplemental resources during testing. For example, assume that you wish to refer learners to a PDF of a scenario by which to answer test questions or a nursing faculty wishes test takers to identify heart and breath sounds. Respondus requires faculty to build exams using Respondus itself in order to permit these uses. Another disadvantage is that learners must have administrator rights to their computers in order to install the lockdown browser software.

Instructor Detective

• Linda's Story

  Linda had been giving online tests for a hybrid nursing class for several years, utilizing the computer lab in her nursing building and proctoring them herself.  Normally, she required the lockdown browser to be used for the students to access the test, but one day she was informed by the IT staff that the lockdown browser was not working, so she was not sure how to proceed except to hold the test. She walked around the room a few times during the test, made sure all the students' material was in bags and out of the way, but was in the front of the room for most of the testing period.  About an hour after the test finished, a student knocked on her door and informed her that she had seen another student searching the Internet for answers during the test.  Linda was able to pull the computer search records and therefore was able to identify all the terms that were searched by the student during the test period.  Linda utilized the school's academic integrity policy to address the situation, but moving forward, determined that if the lockdown was not functioning, that she was standing in the back of the room, able to see all the students' computer screens.

The lockdown browser addresses cheating potentials in testing situation, but what about when the assignment is for written papers. Our next topic is plagiarism detection software.