ExamLock is a quiz integrity application developed by the IST eClass team. The tool can be installed on Mac and Windows computers and limits students to a quiz interface while an exam is being completed and will block them from using a number of other applications.

ExamLock is installed in most campus computer labs and can also be installed by students on their own devices. Instructors should also be aware of our current list of known issues. and should review the list of potential issues during exams and the recommended mitigation steps. 

This article describes how instructors can add the ExamLock Manager to courses to deliver their quizzes securely as well as the configuration required on quizzes to allow this. Please note: the creation of quizzes and questions is separate from the ExamLock setup. For the basics of adding questions to quizzes instructors should use Adding and Managing Quiz Questions and for high-stakes, summative exams where randomization is recommended, instructors may also want to consult Creating and Managing Large Question Banks.

It is essential that prior to any exam, instructors run a practice session on their quiz in ExamLock (using the created code) to ensure that all the questions appear correctly and to identify any potential performance issues (especially in large quizzes with numerous images.)

 Contents:

Setting up your ExamLock Manager in your eClass Course

1. The first step is to add the ExamLock Manager to your course, start by activating Edit mode at the top right corner of your course page:
   
   
   
   
2. In the desired topic, click the Add an Activity or Resource link:
   
   
   
   
3. You can select the ExamLock Manager external tool directly from the activity chooser by selecting ExamLock Manager:
   
   
   
   
4. Enter a name for the activity: you can use ‘ExamLock Manager’ (or anything you like)
   
   
   
5. Expand the Common module settings area and set ‘Availability’ to Hide on course page:
   
   
   
   
6. Scroll to the bottom of the page and click on ‘Save and return to course’ (or ‘Save and display’ to launch the ExamLock Manager immediately)
   
   

Settings for ExamLock-compatible quizzes in eClass

Quizzes must be set up in a specific way for them to function within ExamLock. Until these settings are correct, instructors will not be able to create ExamLock sessions for their quizzes - there will be an alert that the quiz is 'Not compatible with ExamLock' and a link to view the Incompatibility details.

Required quiz settings:

1. Next, create a new quiz (or verify that the settings in an existing quiz) to deliver securely are compatible with below:
   
2. When setting up a quiz to use ExamLock, you will need to configure your quiz with the following quiz settings:
   • In the Timing section, the Open the quiz and Close the quiz settings must NOT be enabled.
   • The Time limit setting must NOT be enabled.
     
     
     
     
   • In the Grade section, the Attempts allowed setting must be set to “1”.
     
     
     
     
   • In the Extra restrictions on attempts section, the 'Require password' field MUST have a password set. Any password is allowed but should not be shared with students in order to prevent unauthorized access to the quiz.
     
     
     
     
     
   • Optional: In the description of the quiz, enter the following: “This quiz will be delivered using ExamLock and will not be accessible until [enter exam dates].”
   • Important Note: The quiz activity MUST be available to students for it to be taken using ExamLock, i.e., it cannot be hidden or have restricted access.
   • Students are prevented from taking the quiz in advance of the ExamLock session because of the password set in section d) above (which should not be given out to students under regular scenarios.). If you do not want the quiz to appear at all on your course page, you can also set it to be hidden but not shown on the course page.
     
     

Within-quiz features that are incompatible with ExamLock

ExamLock will allow students to complete quizzes that include most of the features of regular eClass quizzes.

ExamLock is not compatible with:

• the 3 drag-and-drop quiz quetion types (Drag-and-drop into text, Drag-and-drop markers, and Drag-and-drop onto image)
• the STACK mathematical question type
• questions that use Mathjax to display mathematical notation in questions
• .svg image types

A known issue also sometimes prevents some images from displaying in quizzes: when new versions of images are uploaded into questions with the exact file name as existing images, these provide the option to 'overwrite' the file. In the underlying html of the image this appends a timestamp code that breaks the image display in ExamLock.

Instructors who have replaced images in questions should check their questions for this issue by editing the question, opening the html view, and looking for the syntax shown below. This can be deleted from the code to resolve the issue.

Once a quiz has been created and configured correctly, instructors must create sessions for their exams following the instructions in Creating ExamLock Sessions for eClass Quizzes.