Find tools for running exams online at UBC. Broader guidance on alternatives to in-person exams is available on the Keep Teaching site. All tools recommended by the LT Hub receive central technical and pedagogical support.
Non-Proctored Exams
If you don’t require proctoring, you can use the quiz tools here or explore other UBC-supported tools for formative quizzes.
General Tips
- Question pools that randomly assign questions to students is one way of allowing for individualized assessment and discouraging student collaboration.
- When using exams that provide different questions to each student, ensure that each student is still being evaluated on the same learning objectives and at the same degree of difficulty.
Canvas Quizzes
Distribute exams for students within your Canvas course using the built-in quizzing feature.
What are the benefits?
- Canvas quizzes support twelve different question types, including multiple choice, true/false, fill-in-the-blank, multiple answers, matching, numerical answer, formula, essay, and file uploads.
- Most Canvas question types can be automatically graded, with the exception of essay and file upload questions that require a person to review.
- You can randomize question order and allow submissions only during a specific time window to encourage academic integrity.
LockDown Browser
Cost:
Free
Bandwidth:
Low demand
Privacy:
Additional step required. Verified by UBC’s Privacy Impact Assessment process, provided you use the instructor settings specified in our guide.
LockDown Browser
Require students to use a browser that prevents them from opening a new tab, switching applications, taking screenshots, copying questions, or printing while taking a Canvas exam.
What are the benefits?
- LockDown Browser works with Canvas quizzes, so you can use all the features of a Canvas quiz and then add this extra layer of security on top.
- While LockDown Browser doesn’t prevent students from using other devices or texts, it does discourage easy access to online answers.
- LockDown Browser requires less technical equipment and setup from students than remote proctoring tools, but is most efficiently used in conjunction with in-person invigilation.
Remotely Proctored Exams
Online proctored exams involve having students record themselves taking the exam or using web-conferencing to let you or other invigilators watch them take the exam. Both approaches help promote academic integrity.
General Tips
- Web-conferencing invigilation can be used with exams that cannot be invigilated effectively any other way (e.g. open-book exams, essay questions, equation-based questions).
- Give students a chance to test out whatever technology and restrictions you will use in advance of the real exam. This practice works out the technical issues and builds student confidence before going into a high-stress exam situation.
- Send your students to the Keep Learning site for more online exam tips.
Cost:
Free
Bandwidth:
High demand
Privacy:
Verified by UBC’s Privacy Impact Assessment process. However, you should advise students not to sign in to free Zoom accounts.
Zoom Breakout Rooms
Invigilate remotely by watching video feeds of students as they take their exams.
What are the benefits?
- Using breakout rooms in Zoom, you can create smaller subsets of a class for you and other invigilators (like teaching assistants) to monitor.
- You can ask for identity verification and be available to answer any questions during the exam.
- Depending on your computer capacity, Zoom can display up to 49 video feeds at once, which makes this option more useful in larger classes, though the feeds will be broken up over several separate pages.