This document outlines the steps students need to follow to launch a monitored exam session using Smart Exam Monitor (SEM). This 3rd party tool is a mechanism to provide proctoring for online exams at-a-distance when students cannot complete exams in person. SEM has been approved for use at the U of A by the CISO who has created an Information and Privacy statement regarding remote exam proctoring for any interested students to review.

To ensure the integrity of the exam-taking environment, the tool monitors (and records) the computer screen, the webcam, and the microphone during exams. SEM requires the following for use:

Basic Requirements

- Operating System: macOS, Windows, ChromeOS

- Browser: Chrome

- Webcam

- Microphone

- Internet connection

- System task bar set to display on the bottom

The tool is accessed through Canvas or eClass and runs in a browser window (no software installation is required.) Users are required to validate and grant permission to their webcam, microphone, and grant permission for screen recording. See below for detailed setup instructions. In general instructors will always provide a practice session before a 'real' midterm or final and students should ensure they take this opportunity to test that their device functions normally on SEM in advance of any high stakes exams. Students who do encounter issues should check the troubleshooting tips here and contact eClass Support if the problems persist.

General Exam Taking Guidelines

When taking exams, the online testing environment should mimic the ‘in class’ testing environment and should conform to the conditions listed below. Please note: if any of the guidelines below conflict with a student's approved academic accommodations, they should notify their instructor immediately.

Testing Environment

• Sit at a clean desk or clean table (not on a bed or couch).

• Lighting in the room must be bright enough to be considered "daylight" quality. Do not sit with your back to a source of natural light (overhead lighting is preferred.) Your face must be clearly visible in the displayed webcam preview and you should complete your exam with your face in roughly the same position in the centre of your webcam.

• Be sure the desk or table is cleared of all other materials. This means the removal of all books, papers, notebooks, calculators, etc. unless specifically permitted in posted guidelines for that particular exam.
  
  
• Second monitors should be disconnected. If two monitors are connected, the attempt will be flagged.

• No writing should visible on the desk or on the walls.

• Close all other programs and/or windows on the testing computer prior to logging into the proctored test environment.

• Do not have a radio or television playing in the background.

• Do not talk to anyone else -- no communication with others by any means is permitted.

• No one except the test-taker is permitted to enter the room during testing.

• Ensure that your webcam captures a view of your entire face, and upper body, as best you can.

Behaviour

• Dress as if in a public setting.

• You must not leave the room during the testing period at any time, unless specifically permitted in posted guidelines for that particular examination. You must not take the computer into another room to finish testing (exam must be completed in the same room the “Exam Environment View” is completed in.)

• No use of headsets, earbuds, earphones (or any similar audio devices) is permitted.

• Do not use a phone for any reason. The only exception is to contact eClass Support or your instructor in the event of a technical issue.

• You are required to properly establish identity following the procedures outlined in the SEM pre-exam setup.

• You are responsible for self-testing the functionality of the system in advance of all SEM exams in your courses so that any troubleshooting that is required can be accomplished. A practice exam will be provided by the course to validate SEM functionality. In the event one is not provided, students may also self-enroll into a test practice course here.

Policy Violation Consequences

• If you are flagged for cheating, you will be contacted directly by your instructor and subject to sanction based on the University of Alberta’s Academic Integrity Policy and the Code of Student Behaviour.

Getting Help During Exams

• Contact your instructor first if you are encountering issues to advise them of the difficulty and allow for any adjustments they can provide.

• Contact eClass Support at 780-492-9372 or by email at eclass@ualberta.ca for any technical issues.

Smart Exam Monitor Setup Instructions

Please note: Google Chrome is the required browser to use the Smart Exam Monitor. Students should ensure they clear their browser cache and restart their machine before launching SEM sessions 

Students can also view a short video walkthrough of the setup process.

SEM exam sessions are accessed through an external tool link in Canvas or eClass:

Students should select the exam required:

Before beginning a session, students must give the program permissions to access the screen and webcam on their device. The program first requires users to agree to the terms of use:

Next you are required to give permission to share your screen. Users must select ‘Your entire screen’ and click Share:

Please note: If the Share button remains greyed out on this step, it may mean that the full screen option has not been selected. Users must click on the full screen preview to allow 'Share' to be selected.

Next, SEM requires media permissions to use the webcam and microphone - users must select Allow (this step is remembered by your browser and may not be required if you have already taken exams using SEM):

If screen sharing and webcam are functioning correctly students will see live previews of what SEM records during exams: the screen share on the left and the web camera on the right and can confirm by clicking I can see my screen and camera video: 

Students who are having issues with providing the correct screen, webcam, and microphone permissions to SEM should consult Granting Device Permissions for Remote Monitoring Applications.

Once the permissions and basic functionality and the screen and webcam feeds are visible, SEM will then begin the exam check by recording the screen and checking it. Users will need to select and Share the screen again twice and wait 30 seconds while the software takes a recording:

The SEM program will next complete a test recording using the microphone.

Students need to say the phrase “Penguins live in Antarctica”:

Last, students must use their webcam to confirm their identity and the integrity of their testing environment. There are 3 steps for this validation:

 1. The webcam will record a picture of your photo ID - center your OneCard in the left hand window and click Confirm ID. If you have a U of A Virtual OneCard, this validation step will work fine if you hold your mobile device up to your webcam with the Virtual OneCard displayed.

Note: If your picture ID check fails (for example an expired OneCard as in the example above or if your OneCard is lost and you have used another form of photo ID), you will be given an option to proceed with existing photo ID saved. You will be allowed to complete your exam and your instructor will receive a flag to validate your ID manually.

2. You will next need to take a photo identifying yourself. This will be matched against your OneCard photo.

Note: If your Face Match check fails (for example if it is too dissimilar from your Photo ID screenshot), you will be given an option to proceed with the existing face photo saved. You should click proceed as you are still allowed to complete your exam and your instructor will receive a flag to validate your photo manually.

3. Last you will have 20 seconds to record your surroundings. You should make sure to capture the surface you are working on and the area immediately behind the monitor. Once you have a recording, it will be previewed back to you. You should confirm your full test-taking environment is recorded and then click Confirm and upload (this may take up to a minute to upload):

Once the setup is complete, you will see a preview of the webcam and screen recordings on the left-hand side. If it is before the specified start time, there will be a countdown timer in the center of the page until the exam launch time is reached.

Students are responsible for ensuring that their screen recording is complete and accurate. If users accidentally click Stop sharing, they will receive a notification from SEM that screen sharing is stopped and they can click on the button at the bottom right of the SEM Launch page to re-launch screen sharing:

After the exam start time is reached, you will see instructions for completing the exam. At this point, the exam instructions you receive will depend on the specific mechanism your instructor has chosen for quiz delivery and you should follow the instructions provided to you. 

Important note: Some exam delivery options may require you to navigate to specific tools, resources, or applications to complete your exam (as specified by your instructor) and SEM will allow this, however, you must not close the Smart Exam Monitor browser tab, click Finish exam, or click 'Stop sharing'. This will be flagged for your instructor and may invalidate your exam submission.

- For basic quizzes, there will be a Launch button to begin the exam and a password may be provided with the option to copy it to your clipboard. You can then paste the password on the Quiz Attempt Start page:

- For ExamLock quizzes, the session code should be provided and you will need to launch the Examlock application and enter the code.

- Some quizzes will launch a new window to enable full-screen mode for the duration of an exam. Exams configured this way will launch a new browser tab that must be maximized to continue. Instructions are provided for maximizing the window for the operating system you are using either Mac:

or Windows: 

If students have configured their browsers to force pop-ups into full-screen tabs, the step above may not be required.

Note for Windows users: Your taskbar MUST be located at the bottom of the screen for the maximized window to work. If it is located at the top or to the left or right, right-click on the taskbar and click on Taskbar settings, and then set 'Taskbar location on screen' to Bottom.

Once maximized, the window will automatically launch the quiz. If there is a password required for the quiz, you should take note of it (or copy it) to launch the quiz. Navigating away from the full screen exam window will be flagged as an academic integrity violation.

- Students can add more time to the recording of SEM if they need to by clicking on the + next to the amount of recording time left. This adds time in 10-minute increments, click the + sign as often as needed to get enough recording time. Note: This only extends the duration of the recording and NOT the duration of the exam. 

Once you have completed the exam and completed the submission in Canvas, eClass (or ExamLock), navigate back to the SEM browser tab and click Finish Exam at the top right:

Smart Exam Monitor (SEM) is a vendor-provided external tool that allows instructors to remotely proctor online exams. It can be added as a resource in eClass or Canvas courses.

SEM uses the student's webcam and microphone to confirm their identity and then record them during a remote exam attempt. Their onscreen activity is also recorded and the system intelligently monitors for suspicious activities. It is authorized in accordance with the UofA's Security and Privacy policies.

SEM can be used for remote proctoring a variety of assessment activities in eClass such as eClass quizzes and Assign2. It can be used in conjunction with ExamLock and also Access restrictions (see Common Practices). It can also be used as a monitoring tool for other web-based activities.

New in Spring 2026, support for SEM Version 1 has been discontinued by the vendor. SEM version provides  increased monitoring reliability and ease-of-use for students so is now the only SEM version available in Canvas. Instructors can review the vendor-supplied documentation for more information on using the tool and provide their students the article Using SEM Version 2.

 

System requirements for using SEM:

• Google Chrome browser
• Desktop or laptop computer (i.e., Windows, macOS)
• Chromebooks are supported, but iPads and tablets are not, i.e., no Apple iOS or Android devices, etc.
• Please note: SEM does NOT function reliably with the LabConnect software provisioned in most on-campus computer labs. Instructors should arrange for a different proctoring mechanism in those environments.

Determining whether to use SEM:

Guidelines for delivering remote exams

SEM known Issues, system limitations, and recommendations

Adding SEM to your course:

(Video: Setting Up SEM for base eClass Exams)

1. Activate Edit mode in the top right of your course page:activated,

2. Click on the 'Add an activity or resource' link:

3. For SEM version 1 (for SEM version 2 see bullet 5), select Smart Exam Monitor:

4. At the next screen, enter a name and click "Save and return to course":

5. To use SEM Version 2, users must be select that option from the dropdown list of preconfigured site-wide tools when selecting a 'basic' External tool:

Configuring SEM:

Now that you have added the SEM activity to your course, you can add SEM sessions within it to connect to an eClass quiz activity that you have created. (To do this in SEM Version 2, please see Creating an Exam Session in SEM V2.)

1. Click on your newly created SEM activity.

2. Click the '+ New Exam Session' button.

3. Complete the fields:

• Exam Title (required): Visible to students when session is toggled available.
• Description (required): Visible to students when session is toggled available. Create a brief or generic description for students.
• Exam Instructions (required): (Visible to students when session is toggled available. Write any special instructions or leave a generic statement.
• Exam password: Visible to students only after the SEM session start time is reached. Enter the password set in the activity SEM will launch. The password will be hidden until SEM reaches its start time where students are given a button to copy the password or copy/paste it from the screen. Enter the password EXACTLY as it is set in the activity and be sure there are no leading or trailing spaces.
• Date/Time Details: The date and start must be filled out completely, but the Time Zone setting should be ignored (all exam start times assume Mountain Daily or Standard time offset).
  • Any SEM session that is toggled 'Open to students' (see below) will allow them to complete the SEM setup on their device. Once complete, they will see a timer counting down until the Start time is reached at which time a Launch button (if an Exam URL is entered) will appear for them.
  • The start date and time MUST match EXACTLY with the quiz activity (as in this example) or occur AFTER the quiz is open and available to students in eClass.
    
    A SEM session that 'launches' a closed or hidden quiz will cause confusion for students as they will not be able to open their exam and may not realize they need to refresh the quiz launch page after the actual start time in the quiz settings is reached.
    
    
• Rec Duration (hrs): This specifies the maximum number of hours that SEM can record up to (i.e., this is NOT the same as the quiz length setting).
  
  This number should be your longest anticipated time for any test taker, including any accommodations plus 30 to 60 minutes for potential issues. For example, if you have a 60-minute exam with a 2x time accommodation, you should set the recording duration to 3 hrs. Students can add time if they require longer monitoring by clicking the Add Time button in the SEM tab. They can also disable the monitoring once their exam is complete by closing the SEM browser tab.

Exam Types (monitoring presets):

• Open Book: For any eClass quiz where students are permitted access to course materials, online textbooks, or other resources.
  • Default toggles for this option:
    • AI Monitor (On)
    • Monitor Audio (Off)
    • Monitor Desktop (Off)
• Closed Book (Full Screen) - recommended: For any eClass quiz or activity. These settings offer the highest security as they will force students into a full-screen browser view. Any attempts to leave the exam browser tab will be flagged.
  • Can be used to launch Crowdmark, Exam.med, Assign2, and static exam files hosted somewhere
  • Default toggles for this option:
    • AI Monitor (On)
    • Monitor Audio (Off)
    • Monitor Desktop (On)
• ExamLock: For use with ExamLock
  • The popular use case for using this combination: Prevents desktop screenshots during exams and provide exam continuity in case of internet disruptions.
  • Default toggles for this option:
    • AI Monitor (On)
    • Monitor Audio (Off)
    • Monitor Desktop (Off) - ExamLock will handle this operation.

Monitoring options:

The monitoring options determine (pre-set by the exam types above but still editable) what automatic flagging models are enabled:

• AI Monitor: model uses the student webcam feed to identify and flag:
  • Use/presence of cell phones, laptops or other electronic devices
  • Other people in the room
  • Students who leave the testing area
• Monitor Audio: model alerts for ANY audio activity (i.e., students communicating with one another). The system attempts to transcribe audio where possible.  Monitor Audio should be disabled if the exam will display audio or requires a student to speak aloud.
• Monitor Desktop: model will monitor and flag any navigation away from the exam or any Allowed sites. (Do not override the toggle to On for Open Book exams).
  
  

• Exam URL: Entering a URL will give students a Launch button in SEM when the start date/time is reached. This URL can be anything you want students to immediately start with. The URL must begin with http:// , https:// , etc.
• Start Exam Template: not required for eClass
• End Exam Template: not required for eClass
• Allowed sites: Add any URL that a student is allowed to visit during an exam. e.g., Library, PDF files in your eClass course, and certain external URLs. Leave these fields blank if only the quiz is permitted.

4. Save when complete.

Once the exam session is saved, you may click Open to students. Students can begin the SEM setup process and can start the SEM monitoring (along with Launch and Copy Password buttons) during the time specified in the SEM session settings.

The session will have Edit and Proctor buttons available.

Recommended practices:

• Multiple SEM tool links can be added to a course so it may make sense to have a monitoring session link for each different exam that needs to be proctored. 
• As an alternative to manually toggling sessions 'Open to students' shortly (or an hour) before the exam start time, it is possible to use access restriction settings to automate the visibility of the SEM tool link, i.e., set the SEM session 'Open to students' on when created and limit access to the tool link to a certain time:

• Access restrictions can be used to group students into specific SEM tool links (eg. separate tools for sub-sections of a consolidated course or a number of different AR tools).

• Please note these additional warnings about using Access Restrictions in relation to time limits.
• It is recommended that you only have SEM sessions with at most about 600 students using them. If there are more than that, then when you are proctoring exams, then you should make multiple SEM sessions for students to take the exam, perhaps separated by last name (e.g. a last name starts with A-M session and a last name starts with N-Z section, for example).
• A quiz's availability setting can be set to 'Make available but not shown' so that students do not accidentally bypass the SEM process (screenshot below). If doing this, please note that any other course links to the quiz will also allow students to access it, i.e., calendar, upcoming events, gradebook, so it is imperative that quizzes have passwords to ensure students don't accidentally access without initiating a monitoring session.

6. With all these items configured, once an exam start time is reached students will be ready to launch their monitoring session:

Please consult Proctoring and Reviewing SEM Exam Attempts for details on what to do during and after exam sessions.

This article outlines how instructors can set up exam accommodations for students who are taking fully remote exams. Instructors should also ensure they are familiar with the accommodation guidelines provided by the Academic Success Centre. In addition, instructors working with student accommodations, should also remember to create their class test definitions in ClockWork's Instructor Services Portal 5 days before your scheduled exam and no later than the middle of March for end-of-term exams.

This guide covers the different setups for accommodations across a range of different delivery methods available for delivering remote exams. Instructors may also need to consult Creating Custom Versions of Exams for Audio Accommodations if that is required. 

Sharing Activities or Resources with Specific Students or Groups

When a student requires access to a different format of an exam, for example, an audio file version, these can be shared with students through eClass. The general guidelines for uploading media files apply but instructors should note that audio files will not embed and playback if the option to prevent users from downloading is applied. If this is a requirement, it is possible to request the Alternate Formats (AF) team to produce .mp4 exports with only audio that do function when that setting is checked.

To Add restriction, go to the activity of your choice and click on the Settings tab at the top of that page. Then scroll down to Restrict Access.



Files, resources, or activities on eClass can have access restrictions applied to limit their use to specific time ranges and to specific users. It is important to note when restricting access to toggle the eyeball closed on any restriction that could reveal private information to the course at large:

When more than a few students require access to a resource or activity, it can save time to add all the students into a group through the course participants list and use that group as a criterion for restricting access.

Adding Time or Attempt Overrides for Quizzes or Assignments

eClass quizzes (and assignments) have a built-in mechanism to change the delivery mechanism for particular users. The article Modifying Quiz Settings for Select Users has more details but it is a straightforward process to provide a different exam duration or open/close time for specific users (or groups.)

Setting Up SEM Monitoring for Different Periods

When using Smart Exam Monitor to have students provide a record of their academic honesty during remote exams, instructors can set up alternate exam durations in a couple of ways.

The easiest is to use the same SEM session for everyone and simply extend the monitoring duration to a time that encompasses the longest required time multiplier. The control of an individual's quiz duration is then handled by their quiz attempts directly in eClass or in ExamLock (see below).

If required (for example if all the students need to FINISH their exam attempts at the same time), it is possible to set up multiple SEM tools in a course and restrict access to them (see above for restricting access).

A last point about monitoring is that in case a student encounters technical challenges or need additional time during a session, they are always afforded an alert that their monitoring session is going to close when the duration is going to expire and have an option to extend their monitoring session to provide a complete record of their exam.

Setting Up Individual Student Time Overrides when Using ExamLock 

When delivering exams through ExamLock, it is possible to add additional time to each student requiring it by pre-populating the list of students and entering different exam durations. This is equally possible after the exam has already started as ExamLock checks for time extensions every 3 minutes and alerts the student if any have been added. This would be the method to use if a student encounters technical issues requiring additional exam time. 

1. Click on the ExamLock activity in eClass and then find the required exam based on its session code and click on the "Monitor" button (far right side of screen). 
2. Click on 'Import Users' icon near the top-right of the screen to 'Import Users from eClass'. 
   
   
   
   
3. You will now see a list of students and can search for a particular student's name (tip: make sure that "Rows per page" at the bottom-right of the webpage is set to "All" and then search quickly with ctrl/cmd+f and start entering the students name in the box that appears in the top right of the screen). 
   
   
   
   
4. Once you find the student, click on the clock image to the right to add additional time. In the pop-up window, enter the amount of additional time in minutes that this student will get for this attempt. For example: a student with a 1.5x time accommodation on a 60-minute exam would get an additional 30 minutes. In the box you would put 30 and click "Save".
   
   
   
   
5. If the clock icon now displays +## the time has successfully been added. 
   
   
   
   

Setting Up Multiple ExamLock Sessions

If numerous accommodations are required for the same quiz, it is also possible to create multiple ExamLock sessions: one exam for the intended duration, another for 1.5x the intended duration, and another for 2.0x the intended duration (assuming all 3 are required). 
In ExamLock you can create as many sessions from a compatible eClass quiz as you need and each would have their own 5-letter session code that could be shared with the different students. 

This article outlines how instructors can use ExamLock Manager to manage existing secure exam sessions and review student activity during quizzes. Instructors should follow the instructions for Using ExamLock to Promote Quiz Integrity in eClass to configure their quizzes and create exam sessions. It is also recommended that instructors consult our current list of known issues before delivering exams using the tool and may find it helpful to review the latest troubleshooting steps for common issues during exams in advance to be prepared in case of issues.

Instructors should contact eClass support in advance of any exams if they have questions and are also encouraged to register their exams. 

Please note: if instructors elect to also hide eClass course content sections during their ExamLock exams, this should be done well before students launch their ExamLock attempts as otherwise there may be performance issues launching student sessions.

Managing Entire Exam sessions

On the ExamLock manager, instructors will see the list of all the exam sessions that they have created with action icons in each row to edit the session details, lock the session, and view session activity.

Adding extra time:

During an exam, if there have been disruptions or students need a longer time to complete the quiz, instructors can extend the time of the quiz for all the attempts. 

To add extra time for all students, click the Edit session settings button (pencil icon) in the row for the session:

Then, enter the desired time extension, in minutes, into the Extra time field:



Any students who have not yet submitted and have more than 2 minutes remaining on their own quiz timer will receive an alert in their quiz attempt indicating that they have received an extension. From that point onwards, their quiz timer will show the time added.

See below for adding extra time to an individual student's attempt. 

Locking sessions: After an exam session has been launched, or after it has been completed, you have the option of locking the session so no further attempts can be started or restarted. Existing attempts can be submitted normally when a session has been locked. To lock a session, click the Lock icon in the row for the session:

Session locking might be used in large course sections during exams where it is not possible to account for all the students submitting attempts - locking would prevent students from launching sessions from un-proctored locations and can also be used to ensure that students aren't quitting and resuming their exam session in cases where close proctoring is not possible. Locking should be standard practice after exams are completed and submitted if not all students have completed the exam.

Viewing Session Activity

The Session Activity button allows instructors to manage individual student attempts and review any flagged attempts. These functions are available before, during, or after an exam has been completed.

The session activity page displays all students who have accessed the quiz, along with their current status (the help icon describes all the available statuses.)
By pre-loading, all students in the course will be populated in the session list (whereas otherwise, they appear when they launch their attempt in ExamLock).



Pre-loading allows instructors to manage any students with accommodations by adding additional time for their attempt only. To add more time to individual students, you will have to click on the Clock Icon beside the student's name to add more time just for them

The exam activity page can be filtered to show only attempts that have been flagged, allowing instructors in large live exams to more easily check for potential issues.

Managing individual students:

For each student you can add extra time to their attempts, lock/unlock their attempt, or allow them to switch devices using the icons at the right:

The Device switch toggle will allow a student to switch to a different machine in case of a machine crash or a battery problem. This toggle will allow the student to re-launch the last saved attempt using ExamLock on a different/new device. Device switching takes the student's last saved data from the Examlock cloud manager and pre-fills a new ExamLock attempt on the new device. Students should select the option to Resume exam once they have input the exam session code. This should only be used if a student has access to a different machine - it will not function on the original machine.

Reviewing Student Attempt Evidence:

The interface for viewing evidence shows the attempt details at the top left and a bar representing the total duration of the exam. Any flagged events are listed as red ticks in the horizontal bar and appear in a list below the timeline. Clicking on any of the ticks in the horizontal bar will show the screenshots for 30 seconds on either side of that time.

The list of flagged events shows when they occurred. The types of events that are captured include:

Once displayed, clicking on a particular screenshot will enlarge it to provide more detail:

At the bottom of the evidence view of a particular student attempt, instructors can mark an attempt as clean in case a student has been flagged for a harmless infraction (eg. their monitor went to sleep or a windows update alert popped up) and the instructor has already reviewed the evidence. To do this:

The student’s status will now be updated in the overall class list:

This article provides the basic details for enabling and using LockDown Browser and Monitor, along with links to vendor-provided documentation and training materials.
 

Getting Started

Instructors intending to use Respondus should make sure they aware of all the general recommendations for Delivering Exams Remotely and should also Register their Online Exams with eClass support to avoid any potential problems.

For an overview of Respondus LockDown Browser and Monitor, instructors can view the vendor-provided video Introduction to Respondus LockDown Browser and Monitor. Instructors should also be aware of the system requirements for using Lockdown browser which are also linked in the Lockdown Browser Usage Guide for Students that instructors are encouraged to provide to their students as a link in their Canvas courses. The limitations and known issues for Respondus are documented in a restricted-access google doc available only to instructors -- users will need to request access which will be granted once instructor status is confirmed.

We strongly urge instructors to add a Respondus-enabled practice exam to your course and provide an alternative option to mitigate exam-day issues (such as a pre-built exam copy that requires no monitoring.) This guideline applies even when delivering exams in an on-campus computer lab so that students are familiar with that environment. 

Instructors can view what students experience when using Respondus LockDown Browser/Monitor. When running BYOD exams, instructors should remind students to use the EduRoam (preferred) or UWS networks and not the Guest@UofA network as that is known to drop connections and can cause students to lose answers or submissions. 

To use either Respondus LockDown Browser or Respondus Monitor, instructors must first enable the tool in their course navigation by opening the course Settings, then the Navigation tab, then clicking Enable beside LockDown Browser, and finally clicking Save at the bottom of the page:

The LockDown Browser nav item will now display and can be used to add security and monitoring to an exam:

Enabling LockDown Browser or Monitor for a Quiz

When first accessing the tool, instructors will need to authorize the tool:

The LockDown Browser Dashboard will then display all the New or Classic Quizzes in the Canvas course and display which, if any, of the 2 Respondus options are already enabled for a quiz:

Once enabled on a quiz, any students accessing the quiz will be redirected to a Respondus launch page guiding them on downloading and installing the application on their first launch. Subsequent launches should trigger an immediate launch of Respondus.

Enabling Monitor (Webcam and screen recording)

To enable security or monitoring for a quiz, click the dropdown caret to the left of the title as above and enter the Settings. Then toggle the option to Require LockDown to enable security and/or monitoring for each quiz that requires it:

Once Monitor is enabled (required), instructors can select whether to enable WebCam recording, Screen recording, or both:

These basic guidelines are also available in Respondus' introductory video Securing Canvas New Quizzes.

Advanced Features and Settings

• Reviewing Respondus Monitor Proctoring Data
• Delivering Exams on iPad
• Proctoring MS Word and MS Excel
• Requiring students to show their work
• Setting Up a Second Camera for a Respondus Monitor Exam
• Open Book Exams (see below)

For additional, detailed explanations of the advanced settings for LockDown Browser, users can view the Instructor FAQ and/or use the detailed documentation provided within the Respondus Dashboard via the Guides and Support tab at the top of the Dashboard:

Enabling External Web Access (Open Book Exams)

By default, all external web access is initially prohibited in Respondus LockDown Browser, and any existing web browsers will be closed when Respondus launches. Instructors who wish students to be able to access specific websites -- and those alone -- can configure this in the Respondus settings. This can provide monitoring for students and allow them web access, and is as close to a fully open-book exam that Respondus offers.

Some sites can be opened if the links in the quiz description can open in a new tab and if a website does not require navigation to another site or web page to open via a link in the page or via a login screen, students will be able to open the page. More details can be found in Accessing external web domains in LockDown Browser. 

Otherwise, whether you require recording the student's webcam or webcam and screen, you can allow navigation within specific sites to be visited, such as the course content within Canvas. If you are recording a student's webcam during Open book exams, Respondus recommends decreasing the sensitivity of the automatic face detection and/or disabling the handheld device check.

To set this up, first add a link to your course in the quiz description:

You will need a link for each allowed website. Include external links that are in your course such as e-textbook sites or other external sites. Note that students can only open 6 tabs for sites allowed in a Respondus session. If additional tabs are needed, students should close unused tabs and be allowed to navigate to the quiz description to access site links.

In addition, students cannot open the allowed tabs before they start the quiz or exam. It is recommended that instructors include a statement to that effect in the instructions, along these lines: 

Include in your instructions to students:

"Do not attempt to open allowed websites until you have completely set up Respondus LockDown browser.
To open links, right-click and choose Open link in new window."

Next, in the Respondus setup just above the Proctoring settings, click Advanced Settings:

Check the box to allow access to specific external web domains. Students can access their course materials if you have entered Canvas's full domain name, canvas.ualberta.ca.

Note: https://drive.google.com is a hyperlink. Its domain is drive.google.com.

To add allowed sites, separate domain names with a comma when you add them.

For students to be able to open links that they have closed, or if they need more than the maximum tabs allowed, be sure to set your quiz to allow students to return to the top of the quiz to find the allowed sites or links:

Setting up this type of exam is also described in this Respondus support article which also includes a link to a useful Chrome extension that can identify sub-urls from pages that would need to be added to the allowed domains list.

New in Spring 2026, when delivering monitored and restricted Respondus exams, instructors may need to add the Duo MFA web domain (api-7e870e0a.duosecurity.com/) to the list of exceptions if they have any students in their courses who are U of A staff or if the have opted-in to MFA.

Known Issues

It is always recommended for instructors to deliver practice Respondus exams and to prepare for exam-day issues by preparing an exam copy that does not require Respondus.

• Devices Not Exiting Respondus During Exams 

Some devices will not exit Respondus LockDown Browser once the exam is submitted. Students may have to force their device to shut down to exit while some devices cannot be forced to shut down while Respondus is running.

One way to avoid this issue is either to uncheck the setting "Lock students into the browser until exam is completed" (recommended) or else to set a password which can be offered to students who encounter issues:

• Quiz Title Changes

When Respondus is enabled on a quiz, the name of the quiz will have the words "Requires Resopndus Lockdown Browser" appended to it. This cannot be changed or removed. If the quiz name is changed, instructors will see the following when they access the Respondus Dashboard where the MUST click Fix it to re-enable Respondus on the quiz:

This same error appears on the Dashboard if you duplicate a quiz that has Respondus enabled. If instructors are setting up one in-person exam and one remotely monitored, the correct process is to duplicate the quiz BEFORE adding Respondus. This issue is also resolved by clicking the Fix It button. 

Note: If you enable and then disable the Respondus LockDown browser, you will not be able to re-enable it if the new quiz name exceeds 256 characters. It is advised that you edit the quiz name to remove the appended title, " - Requires Respondus LockDown Browser + Webcam," or " - Requires Respondus LockDown Browser." Without restoring the original quiz name, "Fix It" may not work.

• Respondus in on-campus Mac Labs

Some users encounter errors using Respondus Monitor in lab environments where the application does not detect that the screen recording permission is enabled for the application (even though it is.) Since users do not have administrator rights on the computer, they cannot complete the troubleshooting steps required (re-install the application and re-enable the permission.) 

This issue has been escalated to the vendor but until it is resolved, the Respondus application HAS BEEN REMOVED from the on-campus Mac labs.

• Chromebook Display Issues

On some models of Chromebook, the Respondus toolbar covers the quiz timer at the top of the Canvas page. The vendor is aware of this issue and is working towards a fix.

• Quiz opens without Respondus LockDown Browser

If the Respondus LockDown Browser setup has been copied from a previous course, Canvas will not recognize that Respondus LockDown is enabled in the course until its Dashboard has been opened. It is good practice to open the Dashboard to check the settings.

Reviewing Results with Respondus LockDown Browser

If you allow students to review their responses and the grades they received, they may encounter issues later when viewing their responses on quizzes where Respondus is enabled. Students will be able to view their responses in Respondus immediately after submitting their exam if they do not close Respondus (and you have the quiz configured that way.)

Once Respondus is closed, students will receive an error if they attempt to reopen Respondus unless a due date has been set in Canvas and has passed.

If you have allowed students to review their responses in your quiz setup, they will be able to view their results from the gradebook link only if you have set a due date and only if the due date has passed.

We do not recommend disabling Respondus in the Respondus quiz setup, as we cannot guarantee that proctoring results can be recovered when it is re-enabled.

Accessibility

Respondus participates in voluntary accessibility review testing, is WCAG 2.2 compliant, and functions with a range of assistive technologies. Please review the vendor's accessibility guide for complete information about the compatible and recommended assistive tools.

In local testing performed by the Academic Success Centre, RLDB functioned normally using NVDA and Read&Write; however there are 2 know issues when using Kurzweil ReadTheWeb: quiz answers cannot be read back and the mouse hover (reading aloud anywhere the cursor is positioned) does not function. Both these issues have been reported to the vendor.

Additional Training

Instructors who prefer more formal training have several options:

• Schedule a 1-on-1 session with a Respondus trainer (available through the 'Guides & Support' link shown above.)
• Attend one of the vendor's weekly live webinars. 

Respondus will also provide training sessions for specific units or covering specific topics on-demand. Please contact IST support to arrange something for a group of instructors.  

This article outlines how users can grant applications permissions to use tools on their device. The most common use case for this is for students who need to enable monitoring software during remote exams as a proctoring solution.

The specific process users will need to follow to grant or review the permissions different applications have on their system differs depending on their operating system.

Mac Permissions

Google Chrome needs to be added to the list of allowed apps for:

• Camera
• Microphone
• Screen sharing

Note: if screen recording permissions are correctly set under and SEM is still reporting "Could not start screen capture please try again", this can sometimes be resolved by unchecking Chrome in the list of allowed apps, restarting Chrome, then re-enabling the permission for screen recording.

Windows permissions

• Camera and Microphone

Proctoring view

The proctor view can be accessed by any instructor or TA in the eClass course by accessing the SEM tool and session that has been created:

For instructors using SME Version 2, they will see a slightly different interface within the tool and can click the eyeball icon in the actions column to the right of a session to launch the monitoring:

After that, instructors can use the instructions to Monitor and Exam Session. 

Once in the proctor view, every student who launched the monitoring for that particular session will be available for review. A green check mark at the bottom right of a tile indicated that a student has not been flagged; the red stop sign indicates that there are flagged violations for the student. Please note that when proctoring live exams, this page is updated frequently and can only be reliably used if the number of students is 20 or less. For larger classes, the number sliders at the top right allow different proctors to monitor different cohorts of students.  

Instructors can use the list view of the proctor page to review summary statistics for their exams and more easily review potential issues. The List view is launched by clicking the list icon near the top right in the image above.

Before reviewing any of the data on the page, the statistics must be compiled by clicking the 3 dot icon at the top right and clicking Compile data. Note that this process may take a few minutes (or longer for large classes) to run. Instructors can refresh the page to show the completed stats.

The list view contains the following columns of information about each attempt:

• The student's name and photo from the check-in.
• The start and end time of their monitoring session.
• The monitoring duration in minutes.
• The percentage of their exam duration that was recorded.
• The number of screen and camera violations they were flagged for.

Instructors can sort by the column headers to view cases with low recording percentages (which might indicate a student has turned off the monitoring) or high numbers of flagged violations.

Verifying Student Check-in

Students who do not pass the OneCard verification and face match will be flagged for instructors to review. This would be indicated by the following red flags on a student's tile:

Hovering over a tile and clicking on the magnifying glass icon at the top right opens that student's monitoring data:

The captured images for the ID check and Face Match are located at the bottom of the monitoring data, just above the full exam webcam recording and screen recordings:

If the ID validation and face matching are fine, instructors can clear these violations at the top right of the monitoring data overlay and close the window. New violations will re-flag for that particular student. 

Reviewing Flagged Violations

Flags are raised by the SEM monitoring models for audio recorded during an exam, students navigating to different websites, student absences from the exam taking area, the use of secondary display monitors, and the use of other devices. These flags can be cleared in the same way as for the identity checks at the top right:

Note: the SEM automated flagging is being tuned over time to decrease in false positive flags. It has been the general experience in the Spring and Summer terms that turning off Audio monitoring may be a good idea to decrease flags as many students are flagged for simply reading the question out loud to themselves. Turning off this flagging does not turn off the webcam or microphone recording.

Note: The detection of multiple monitors is not 100% accurate. The system does keep the images if a certain session is suspected of using multiple monitors.

Reviewing Full Monitoring Videos

The full recordings of the webcam/audio (Exam Video) and the screen recording (Screen Video) are displayed at the bottom of the monitoring data overlay for a particular student (available via the magnifying icon at the top right of their tile or in their row on the list view). Note that videos are only created on-demand: 

To view a articular student's video, instructors can click Update video at the bottom of the student flag list. It can take between 5 and 10 minutes to complete the backend processing of a video depending on the length of the exam.

To process all the videos for a particular exam, instructors should open the 3-dot options at top right and click Process videos. This process can take a few hours depending on the length of the exam.

Additional Notes:
- Chrome is required to view the full videos.
- The full videos will not appear until a student has clicked Finish Exam to end their monitoring session or the recording duration has expired. Triggering the processing for a video BEFORE that time will only capture the progress up until that point of the exam and you will not be able to view any video from after that point (the process cannot be triggered initially and them re-triggered afterwards.)
- When reviewing videos, instructors can use the arrow keys to speed up playback. 

This article describes how instructors can set up SEM monitoring for delivering Assign2 assessments. This would commonly be used for summative exams like midterms or finals where students must complete work during a certain time period and not have any assistance.

Instructors must do 2 things prior to beginning to set this up:

1. Add a SEM tool to their course
2. Set up their Assign2 assessment

Once those things are done, instructors can enter the SEM external tool and add a new exam session that will link to their Assign2 assessment by specifying the following details:

• The 'Title, 'Description, and 'Instructions' fields should indicate the basic details for students and ensure they are meaningful enough that students will know to select this session.
• No exam password is required.
• The date and time specified will be when the monitoring session will open for student access. Before that time (or date), students will see a countdown timer on the SEM side and no launch button. When the countdown timer expires, a button to launch the assessment will appear. 
• The exam type should be Closed book.
  
  
  
  
• Instructors must ensure that direct access to the Assign2 link does not occur before the start time as students may launch the assessment without enabling their monitoring. This can be done by restricting access to the link to that particular date and time however note that these access restrictions must be added AFTER an assessment tool has been created because a known issue prevents students from automatically populating in tools where access restrictions are applied. Tools can be created initially in a hidden state and then the access restriction as below can be applied afterwards:
  
  
  
  
• Alternatively, instead of using access restrictions, instructors can also prevent students from accessing the tool by setting an open date and time for the Assign2 assessment within the Assign2 settings:
  
  
  
  
• Instructors should next copy the link to their Assign2 assessment tool:
  
  
  
  
• The Assign2 URL should be pasted in the Exam URL field (which is what gets triggered by the Launch button) AND in the Allowed Websites field.
• Pasting the start and end exam template URLS are no longer required - these have been automatically added to the backend to prevent being flagged.
• The exam session can now be saved.
  
  
  
  
• The last step is to toggle the session 'Open for students' on the list of SEM sessions (though this should be done relatively close to the exam date as students will see the 'Take Exam' button once it is opened and may be confused by launching the session, completing the setup, and then getting stopped by the countdown timer showing the remaining hours and minutes until launch):
  
  

All the general guidelines for taking exams online still apply to this version of the software, and users can still get help by contacting eClass support at 780-492-9372 or eclass@ualberta.ca.

System Requirements:

- a Windows, Mac, or Chrome device running the Chrome web browser (Unlike for SEM V1, Microsoft Edge is not compatible with SEM Version 2  recommended.)
- a built-in or external webcam

Accessing SEM and Configuring Permissions:

SEM version 2 is accessed through Canvas as a link on your course page:

The first time you run Smart Exam Monitor, you'll be prompted to validate your device:

Chrome will likely prompt you to allow camera and microphone access, be sure to click "allow" when these pop up:

When the screen-sharing prompt comes up, be sure to share your entire screen:

If the validator reports that popups are blocked, you'll need to unblock them by clicking the icon on the right side of the URL bar, then selecting "always allow":

If any of the permissions still have an 'x' beside them, you'll need to fix them from chrome://settings/content (select settings for sem2.uofa.edufide.com) and run the validator again:

otherwise, you should see this prompt to return to the home page:

You'll now be prompted to install the SEM app:

That this is a Chrome progressive web web app, which will be installed in your system's Chrome profile. The app will take an insignificant amount of disk space and can be removed any time by typing chrome://apps in chrome's URL bar.

Additional guidlelines and information are available in the vendor-supplied guide Taking an exam using Smart Exam Monitor V2.

Launching SEM Exams

Once your device is validated and you select the SEM link in your course, you will see the SEM dashboard with any available exams. Click the "Take exam" button in the popup window:

Follow the prompts to share your screen and camera, being sure to share your 'entire screen' as you did in the validation step. You'll likely be prompted to make a 20 second recording of your surroundings (you may need to scroll down to find the "record area" button:

At the 'screen' step, find the "confirm screen share" button below the preview of your screen:

Continue to follow prompts to take clear photos of your face and ID (preferably UofA OneCard). Once you've completed the steps, you can launch the exam from this window:

The window that opens will prompt you to maximize it, and once you do so, it will redirect you to the Canvas quiz page, where you can paste the password and click Submit Once the Attempt Quiz to launch the exam. You can paste the password from the clipboard when prompted:

When your exam is completed, click the "Stop recording" button or close the SEM window. 

Known Issues

• When first launching the SEM app and initializing the screen sharing, an erroneous alert saying No person detected in camera is displayed. This can be safely ignored by clicking OK on the alert, then clicking Check for person in camera to proceed.
  
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• During the exam, there will be an alert at the top of the application showing the eClass url and quiz title. Do not close the alert or you will need to re-launch your SEM session and re-access the quiz.
  
  
  
  
• Some users have run into problems having the SEM app maximizing correctly when the app is zoomed in or out. This is indicated by a magnifying glass icon near the top right of the header bar. Resetting the magnifying glass resolves this problem.
  
  

To begin, instructors can follow the basic setup for this type of assessment where they upload a PDF containing exam questions and mark out all the question areas. 

To deliver this exam to groups, instructors then need to navigate to the assessment dashboard, click the Update Settings icon (gear):

In the overlay, toggle the setting for 'Group Assessment (Beta)' on, then click Save settings:

NOTE: this step must be taken BEFORE any exams are generated. If even one exam has been created, this option is locked off for this assessment (and a new assessment must be created following the steps above.)

If this toggle is turned on before any exams are generated, then each exam cover sheet will contain bubble-sheet identifiers to allow up to 5 students to submit the same exam:

The grading interface for groups is the same for any of these assessments with the common assessments all being identified by the same id in the right side. Any changes saved on any of the pages being reflected to the other student copies.