Establishing Settings for Secure Exams

To make an exam secure as well as define other settings for a test, follow the steps listed below and refer to the Settings Availability screen.

1. Select the Settings Tab along the top of Respondus' main development page.
2. Select the Availability tab along the left side of the Settings screen.
3. Type in instructions for your exam. These will be displayed at the beginning of a test.
4. The Make exam visible to students checkbox enables students to see an exam as soon as it is published to Blackboard. If you are using the Exam Pool option, however, you will still need to create the exam in Blackboard from the published question pool, post that exam to a Blackboard content area and select the make the test visible option within Blackboard before the exam would be available to students. If you are uploading the questions as an exam and not a pool or if you have already created an exam in Blackboard, you can make the exam visible to students by checking this option in Respondus and publishing those settings to Blackboard.
5. Check the Allow multiple attempts box if you plan on having multiple attempts available to students. Type the maximum number of attempts you want a student to take the test in the Number box. If you leave the Number box blank the exam can be taken an unlimited # of times.
6. Other options are Force Completion, Set time limit for Exam, Display After and Display Until options, Password protect option (see below) and Require LockDown Browser. The instructor generated password is not the same as Respondus' system generated password when the Lockdown browser option is selected.
7. Select the LockDown Browser checkbox if you want to make the exam secure. For more information on this feature see Using the LockDown Browser section below.
   

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Using the LockDown Browser

An instructor creates or converts test questions on his or her local computer system, selects the LockDown browser option and publishes the test to Blackboard. This setting can only be made within the Respondus Authoring Tool and cannot be made within Blackboard.

To activate the LockDown browser feature, the instructor checks the "Requires Respondus LockDown Browser for this exam " box.

The "At the end of the exam title, display the text 'Requires Respondus LockDown Browser' option will be checked automatically.

View more information on how to create a secure test using Respondus LockDown Browser. (Flash Movie).

In order to test the functioning of an exam using the LockDown browser, it is recommended that an instructor take a sample test at one of the ACC Testing Centers using a sample student.

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Instructor Generated Passwords

In addition to selecting Require Respondus LockDown Browser, an instructor can also require students or a proctor to enter an instructor-generated password to access an exam. Generally, however, it is not recommended for an instructor to add an instructor generated password if an exam already requires a Respondus Lockdown Browser.

Due to the multiple security levels which already exist with a Respondus, system-generated password and with a secure on-line test, it is not necessary to add another instructor generated password to the exam. The exception to this, however, would be if an instructor wants to deliver a computer-based exam via Distance Testing.

When the student launches an exam from a Testing Center, a Password dialog box will be displayed asking the student if the instructor has issued a password for the exam. If the student selects Yes and there has not been an instructor-generated password for the exam, the student will be unable to access the exam. It is important to notify your students that if and instructor-generated password has NOT been created for the exam, they will need to select NO when asked if there is an instructor password for the exam.

NOTE: ONCE RESPONDUS HAS ISSUED A SYSTEM GENERATED PASSWORD, IF YOU MODIFY THE SYSTEM GENERATED RESPONDUS PASSWORD WITHIN BLACKBOARD IN THE MODIFY TEST OPTIONS AREA, THE EXAM WILL NO LONGER BE SECURE AND WILL NOT WORK CORRECTLY.

Note: There are two locations to enter an instructor generated password:

1. within the Modify Test Options area of Blackboard.
2. from the Settings screen of Respondus.

The Password field on the Modify Test options screen of Blackboard contains ONLY ONE password text box. If you have already created an instructor generated password for an exam within Blackboard and then you add a Respondus system-generated password, ONLY THE RESPONDUS SYSTEM-GENERATED PASSWORD WILL BE DISPLAYED WITHIN BLACKBOARD. IF THE INSTRUCTOR GENERATED PASSWORD WAS NOT REMOVED WITHIN BLACKBOARD PRIOR TO ADDING A SYSTEM-GENERATED PASSWORD, THE INSTRUCTOR GENERATED PASSWORD WILL REMAIN IN EFFECT OR WILL CONTINUE TO BE A REQUIREMENT FOR THE EXAM BUT WILL NOT BE DISPLAYED IN BLACKBOARD.

If you have an instructor generated password within Blackboard, it is recommended that you remove or delete it BEFORE uploading or publishing the Respondus system-generated password setting (i.e. Requires Respondus LockDown browser).

Once the Respondus system generated password has been added to the exam, the words "Requires Respondus Lockdown Browser" will be added to the title of the exam, the password box will automatically be checked within the Test Options screen of Blackboard and a very long alpha numeric, randomly generated system password will be displayed in the password text box. Do not change either the system generated password or the title of exam.

The Lockdown browser within the ACC Testing Centers will automatically check for and verify the system-generated password. The student does not need to type anything. Once the Testing Center computer has automatically detected the Lockdown browser, the password will automatically be inserted into the password text box of the log in screen. All the student needs to do is click submit and the exam will be launched.

Demonstration and more information on the LockDown Browser.

After you have established the settings for your exam, you are ready to publish the exam to Blackboard.

Before an exam can be available in Blackboard, the Respondus Authoring Tool needs to know where to put the exam information. When an instructor connects the Respondus Authoring tool to Bb for the first time, he or she must input such information as the Blackboard URL, and Blackboard log in, course and control panel information.

After the initial Bb connection has been made, an instructor can upload or publish an exam to Blackboard.