Quiz security

Question

I am curious if Canvas is working on any built-in features for preserving quiz/exam security for NEW Quizzes.  Is there any way to be able to disable the print feature? or also to make sure that students are not navigating away from the quiz screen?

I know that 3rd party software has these features. However, they do not work on new Quizzes. Also, many institutions are worried about the other features that proctoring software employs.  Thus, they are moving away from Proctoring software altogether. Unfortunately, that leaves instructors with few options to just preserve test security.  I am familiar with allowing 1 question at a time and also scrambling answers, and using test banks.  However, disabling print would be a large step.  IS there are information about these types of features being developed?

nwilson7 · Accepted Answer

@HeatherRothenbe Obviously this information could have changed but I asked our CSM this question several months ago and was told Canvas was not interested in developing any "proctoring" software/features.  I was mainly looking at the secure browser portions like I think you are referencing.  She did say there was more of a chance for that but it was still not on the radar as something currently being explored.

As a side note, there are some proctoring systems that do work with New Quizzes (at least to some extent).  I know many started down that path and had issues so they pulled back but I have seen some work pretty successfully.  Also, some do offer just a lockdown browser instead of all the AI proctoring/monitoring stuff that has been controversial.

I know that is not the answer you were looking for!

-Nick

nathanboettcher · Accepted Answer

I think it's important to note a few things as we all grapple with this. I certainly don't have the answers. The first is that any remote test taking is going to be controversial. Putting a lockdown browser on your computer? Data privacy. Doing room scans? Physical privacy. Not doing any of those things? Test integrity. There's risk involved with everything. I mean, the whole point of these exercises is to keep an eye on test takers for the purpose of test integrity after all. Nothing's going to be perfect.

The other thought that comes to mind is the additional amount of data held by an entity, in this case, Instructure. If they were to implement a program that stored room scans or installed applications on people's personal devices (like some sort of lockdown browser), that would add to the already substantial amount of data they manage. This is a risk management concern.

Just my opinions, not speaking officially for anyone, but I, too, have thought a lot about this. I don't think anyone really knows what the future looks like for remote proctoring in the long or even medium term.

Take care!

Nathan

Chris · Accepted Answer

Hi @heather_rothenb @HeatherRothenbe,

I would agree with some of the concerns raised by @nathanboettcher and @nwilson7.  I work as a Canvas admin for a higher-ed institution, and because of the numerous issues both technical and pedagogy related, we have instituted a policy banning remote proctoring and lockdown browser services.  I know this is a very controversial issue, but it seems you may already be aware of some of the issues involved.  I don't think there is much Instructure themselves could do about this within Canvas, as many of the issues come from the way the web works inherently...  Locking a user into a certain site while taking an exam?  Not something a normal web browser would allow (think of how hackers could use that kind of ability for bad reasons, like locking you to their own website until you pay a large sum of money to them).  Disabling print? While it sounds good, is not very useful in the big picture because students can just take pictures of their computer with their phone...  I know saying "no" is not great, but in this particular situation, unless you're willing to live with the challenges of proctoring or lockdown browsers, I don't know how else anything could realistically be done.

I have marked a couple of the answers as a "solution" as the community site uses that terminology to basically mean there has been some sort of answer given so community members can better see which threads have had no answers at all yet.  At any time, any Community member can click the “Not the Solution” option and then respond in-thread with your follow-up questions. It’s important to include @CommunityForums in that reply so we can restore the entire topic to our list of unanswered questions we check routinely.

-Chris