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[kedves]

I wonder if anyone has an effective code or trick to prevent tests from being printed or copied in Blackboard.  I have tried the ones I've found around the internet but without success.  I'm using Blackboard 8.0. 

[zuzu_]

I have not tried to do this, but I've been told that Respondus Lockdown Browser prevents this.

[scampster]

"Respondus Lockdown Browser" sounds like a spell from Harry Potter.

[larryc]

I love it when Harry Potter invokes his Blackboard spell! He points his little wand and declares "Blackboardpileofcrapius!" Within seconds the person hit by the spell is pulling his hair out, uttering swear words, and crawling under the desk to unplug his computer.

[larryc]

Serious answer--I used to do this all the time by pasting a line of HTML into one of the questions. About two years ago the BB tech at the school where I used to work sent around an email saying that BB had disabled this because they didn't like other peoples code running on BB and that it would no longer work. However she said, existing tests with the no-print comand would still work so long as you did not alter certain features--I can't remember whet, but if I was careful I could copy a test I had used before and keep the question with the HTML but change all the others and the no-print would work.

I don't know about Respondus.

[kedves]

Thanks, Zuzu.  I am in love with Respondus Lockdown Browser!  It's fantastic--I want to marry it!  

Now I have to figure out how to get my university to pay for it.

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Thanks, Larry.  That must be my problem.  Apparently, I did not try to do it before the door of opportunity closed.  I think I started trying last fall.  Too late, too late!  Ye can not enter now.

[larryc]

There really needs to be on the internet a BB support group not run by BB, where suffering faculty can share frustrations and tips. Anyone know of such a place?

[soofry]

I wonder if anyone has an effective code or trick to prevent tests from being printed or copied in Blackboard.  I have tried the ones I've found around the internet but without success.  I'm using Blackboard 8.0. 

How can there exist such a prevention? The PrtScn (print screen) button will allow an image of the web page to be captured. Even if that button is disabled, a camera pointed at the screen could capture the image.

[larryc]

Soofry: Sure, but the no print command makes the process that much more difficult. And tons of students don't know about PrtScn. It is a game of odds.

[soofry]

Soofry: Sure, but the no print command makes the process that much more difficult. And tons of students don't know about PrtScn. It is a game of odds.

I agree. And if you're invigilating students taking tests in labs where you can see them, then you may well be able to prevent them using certain options.  I wanted to point out that it is about throwing up extra barriers to reduce the odds, not about making it watertight.  But you made the point better than I did :-)

[georgiaprof]

We use Respondus Lockdown here and it is wonderful.  Of course one alternative is to have a huge test bank. I have taught online for 10 years and add a bunch of questions each time I teach.  I set my exams to pull a single question out of a choice of about ten.  The odds that someone will get the same test - or even one close to it - are slim.  I also set my exams so that you can only view questions one at a time and the exams are timed pretty closely (about a minute per mc question).  If a student goes in and views every question without answering them and then comes back later and takes the test, I know to suspect something.  I reserve the right to ask a student to come in to my office to re-test.