Respondus has made their LockDown Browser product free through the end of the 2019-2020 school year. We currently do NOT have the “Monitoring” functionality in Lockdown Browser, so in a remote environment, nothing prevents the student from using two devices, minimizing the effectiveness of the Lockdown Browser.
These video resources walk through the teacher and student experience when using LockDown Browser within Schoology:
Instructions for Teachers
When introducing LockDown Browser into your course, it is recommended that you set up a short practice assessment to allow yourself and students to work through any technical issues prior to the actual assessment.
Create your quiz in Schoology. Do NOT have anyone take the quiz before setting Lockdown Browser settings.
Select Lockdown Browser on left side menu of Schoology
Select Settings from the dropdown next to the quiz
Select “Require Respondus Lockdown Browser for this exam”
Select Advanced Settings
Select “Allow students to take this exam with an iPad”
Do NOT select “Lock students into browser until exam completed”. Students will still take the quiz in a locked down mode BUT if there are technical issues they are allowed to quit the test after providing a reason which is saved for teachers to review.
Click Save and Close
If your course utilizes Linked Sections, repeat the above for each section using the section drop down menu in the top-left of the LockDown Browser settings page.
Instructions for Students
The Lockdown Browser has been installed on all Student iPads.
When students click on the quiz within the “Materials” section of your Schoology course, they will automatically be locked in. If a student exits the “lockdown”, they will need to provide an explanation of why they exited and that information is available for your review.
When students submit the quiz to Schoology, they are removed from the Lockdown Browser.
Troubleshooting
Below is the most common error students see when testing with the Lockdown Browser. This error is typically caused by the teacher not enabling the Lockdown Browser for the quiz in EACH linked section (see Instructions for Teachers, step 9) or the teacher reusing an existing assessment that had already been taken by some students prior to setting the Lockdown Browser settings. To reuse an existing test/quiz, make a new test/quiz by copying it into Resources, copying it back to your course, and then setting the Lockdown Browser settings.
Students locked into the quiz and cannot escape the lockdown. This is caused when a teacher selects the Lockdown Browser setting, “Lock students into browser until exam completed” and the student tries to exit the quiz or the teacher changes the Lockdown Browser settings while the quiz is in progress. Again, do NOT set “Lock students into browser until exam completed”. Students will still take the quiz in a locked down mode BUT if there are technical issues they are allowed to quit the test after providing a reason which is saved for teachers to review.
Additional Resources
Lockdown Browser: https://web.respondus.com/k12/lockdownbrowser/resources/