LockDown Browser® (LDB) is a custom browser that locks down the testing environment within a Moodle Quiz.
When a student takes a quiz:
- Browser menu and toolbar options are removed, except for Back, Forward, Refresh and Stop
- Prevents access to other applications including email, messaging, search engines.
- Printing and screen capture functions are disabled
- Copying and pasting anything to or from an assessment is prevented
Typically, an ‘in-class’ test will take place in a computer room on campus and the quiz must be launched from the Chrome browser.
If your ‘in-class’ test requires students to write an essay or report then you simply set up your Moodle quiz with a single ‘Essay’ type question. But you can also create traditional quizzes with multiple choice and short answer questions.
The following instructions explain how to set up a ‘single essay question’ quiz.
Create the quiz activity
- Go to your Moodle course and Turn editing on.
- Go to the section where you would like to add the quiz and click ‘Add an activity or resource’.
- Select the ‘Quiz’ activity and give your quiz a name.
- Expand the ‘Timing’ section. Enable the quiz opening and closing times and set the start and end date and times.
- Make sure ‘When time expires‘ is set to ‘Open attempts are submitted automatically‘.

- Expand the ‘Grade‘ section and set ‘Attempts allowed‘ to ‘1‘.
- Expand ‘Review options‘ and uncheck all options.
- At the bottom of the page, click ‘Save and display‘.
Add an ‘Essay’ question to the quiz
- Click the ‘Questions’ tab.
- On the right, click ‘Add‘ > ‘a new question‘.
- Select ‘Essay‘ and click ‘Add‘.
- Give the essay question a name and enter the question text.

- Scroll down and click ‘Save changes‘.
- Change ‘Maximum grade‘ to ‘100‘ and click ‘Save‘.
- Click the edit icon next to ‘Maximum mark‘, type in ‘100‘ and press Enter.

Add the LockDown browser block to your course
- Return to the course home page.
- From the block drawer on the right click ‘Add a block‘.
- Select ‘Respondus LockDown Browser’. The block should appear on the right side of your course.
Configure your quiz to use LDB
- From the ‘Respondus LockDown Browser’ block click ‘Dashboard’
- Locate the quiz you just created, click the down chevron and select ‘Settings‘.
- Choose ‘Require Respondus LockDown Browser for this exam’.

- Click ‘Save + Close‘.
- LockDown Browser will now be marked as ‘Required‘ in the list.
That’s it – the set up of your LDB quiz is now complete.
Tip:
As a course editor you can switch your role to Student to experience the quiz as a student will.
Instructions for students
- Log on to a Brookes PC.
- The Oxford Brookes Apps page launches automatically. If you have closed this page, then you can launch it again from the ‘Apps Anywhere‘ icon on the Desktop.
- In the ‘Search Apps‘ box (top-right) type ‘Lockdown’ to locate the ‘LockDown Browser’ app.
- Hover over ‘LockDown Browser Respondus‘ and click ‘Launch‘. You will briefly see an Apps Anywhere window as LDB is loading in the background.
- Now, go to your Moodle course and click on the link to the Quiz.
- Click ‘Launch LockDown Browser‘.
- After about 25 seconds LDB will launch.
- Next you may see a message “You must close the following program before starting LDB, Microsoft Teams (msteams.exe)…“. If so, click ‘Close Process‘ to close Microsoft Teams.
- Click ‘Start Quiz‘.
Note:
If a student has Screen Capture apps added to their Chrome browser, then LockDown Browser will alert the user to close those apps before the test can start.