Tool Spotlight: Respondus

What Is It?

Quizzes in Canvas are a great way to assess learning and gather feedback from students. Quizzes can be used for exams, surveys, check-in quizzes, or other course assessments.

For graded assessments, it is recommended to use Respondus LockDown Browser to prevent interference from browser extensions or students accessing non-approved resources during the assessment to ensure that the quiz is an accurate reflection of a student's knowledge.

Respondus is centrally licensed by Northwestern to provide added security to assessments administered in Canvas quizzes. Respondus is available for use with Classic Quizzes or New Quizzes.

Respondus has two features: LockDown Browser and Monitor. A Canvas quiz can use just LockDown Browser or LockDown Browser and Monitor together. The LockDown Browser function forces students into a custom browser while taking the quiz and blocks access to any other functions or files on a student’s computer during the administration of the quiz. This can be used for remote or in-person (computer-based) assessments.

The Monitor feature uses the student’s computer camera to record the student during the assessment. The recording is only available to the course instructor(s) and can be used to check for accessing unauthorized resources or receiving unauthorized assistance during the assessment. 

How Does It Work?

Respondus is available in all Canvas courses. The instructor first creates a quiz, including quiz settings and questions. Once the quiz has been created, the instructor goes to their course Settings and selects the Navigation tab to view all course menu items and tools. If it is not already present in the enabled tools, the instructor will enable it in the Navigation area and click save.

In the Respondus tool, the instructor can decide which quizzes should have LockDown Browser and/or Monitor enabled. The instructor can also determine custom settings, such as allowing access to specific external websites during the assessment.

Note that quizzes with Respondus that have been imported from another course need to have Respondus enabled again in the new course. The course instructor MUST go to Respondus in the new course to ensure that Respondus is activated in the course.

Tool Time Updates

Keep up with the latest updates to tools supported by Northwestern IT.

• Want to take a deeper dive in using Respondus Lockdown Browser and Monitor? Sign up for one of their webinars, offered weekly.
• Perusall, the social annotation tool covered in last month's Tool Spotlight, is offering upcoming workshops for Northwestern instructors. Register for an upcoming session here.
• After successful pilots, Padlet and Poll Everywhere are available to instructors. Learn more about Padlet and Poll Everywhere in the Canvas Learning Center.