What Safe Exam Browser Does
Safe Exam Browser is an online service for taking exams securely by restricting resources. The platform blocks keyboard shortcuts, some URLs, protects the program with a password to prevent abandonment, runs in fullscreen mode (so the student cannot minimize or resize), disables the Start menu and the Run window, and can restrict specific processes. This makes it very difficult for students to get external help.
With Safe Exam Browser, you will have an environment for taking exams securely and avoid students cheating. All you have to do is configure the platform and start taking the exam.
Configuring Safe Exam Browser
After installing the program, you will install the “SEB Config Tool”. When you open the Safe Exam Browser interface, you will be directed to the configuration tools. There you will find the following sections:
- General: In this section, you will specify an administrator password (to enter the settings) and a password to return to the environment interface after abandonment.
- User Interface: Here you can customize the appearance of the program (fullscreen mode, choose some specific MAC settings, etc.).
- Browser: You can enable or disable browser components such as Java, JavaScript, block popups, allow audio and video capture, etc.
- Applications: Restrict resources that will not be accessible during the test. Also, you will specify a whitelist of processes.
- Network: In this section, you will activate “URL Filtering” (block content based on URL and regular expressions).
- Hooked Keys: You will block all Windows keyboard shortcuts so that students don't cheat during the exam.
Once you have customized the configuration options, you will need to start the platform and begin taking the exam.
As you can see, the most complicated part of the utility is the configuration of the environment, but thanks to its functions, you can export the configurations and import them on other computers. Safe Exam Browser is a free, open-source program available for Windows, Mac OS X, and iOS mobile devices.
