Respondus Examguard for eCollege Installation Guide

Respondus is a program used by schools to ensure that students do not have access to other resources while taking an exam, quiz, or other assignment. This typically is used to discourage cheating while in such assignments, but can be used for whatever needs may arise. The Respondus LockDown Browser enables the course website to prevent all computer activity outside of the exam for the duration of the exam, while having a minimal impact to the computer’s overall operation while not in use. In order to accomplish this, the Respondus software is installed to the computer as a stand-alone program, to be used by the web browser when the proper configuration is used within a course.

Respondus is generally more responsive than the previous Questionmark Secure Player, but there are a number of changes that have been made to contemporary versions of Windows that can complicate the installation process. The purpose of this document is to provide detailed directions for not only how to install this software successfully, but also how to deal with the usual errors that you may see during the installation and loading process. This document is not an exhaustive list of all possible errors, but rather a general manual for how the Respondus installation and operation will work for 95% of all cases. Assuming that a user’s computer is operating correctly, there are no programs interfering with the Respondus software, and the user has full Admin access to the computer, installation should be straightforward.

Please note that if, however, there are any Operating System errors, viruses, malware, restrictive settings, or extremely high security programs on the computer in question, there are likely to be errors in the installation process, some of which may be un-resolvable.

Step 1: Clear any pre-existing conditions

Most likely, there are going to be users contacting you who have used the prior version of Examguard, or who may have some strange settings on their computer. While the first step is largely a precaution, it is highly recommended unless you are dealing with a new computer, or a computer which you can reasonably suspect will have no prior errors. If this is the case, you may, at your discretion, skip to Step 2.

The initial goal is to return the computer to a standard state in which the web browser and Respondus will operate correctly. One problem we frequently see with ongoing users who have only recently upgraded to Respondus is that the old Questionmark Secure Player will cause the Respondus program to not be recognized by the web browser. Therefore, our first step is to remove both programs from the computer, through the following steps:

Go to the Control Panel. In Win XP, click on “Add or Remove Programs”, in Vista or Win 7, go to “Uninstall a program” (If not immediately visible, this may be under Programs and Features).

Locate any and all instances of “Questionmark Secure Player”, “LockDown Browser”, “Respondus” or “Examguard” items, and remove/uninstall them from the computer.

This will be a good first step with regards to the software side of things, but the browser is also integral to this process, and as such, Internet Explorer also needs basic maintenance. One of the problems, however, is that Respondus uses IE extensively, and as such, errors within IE may cause Respondus to fail, even if Firefox is used. For this reason, basic maintenance on IE will include the following:

Go into Internet Explorer and go to any page other than the school site. From here, have the user clear cache and cookies in the same manner normal for their browser version. Once the cache and cookies are cleared, close completely out of IE, and restart it. At this point, you will need to ensure that the settings in both the Privacy and Security tabs are on Medium.

Depending on the circumstance, you may also need to recommend the user reset Internet Explorer to default settings. This can be done by going into the Tools menu, then down to Internet Options, and clicking on the Advanced tab. Within that area, there is a Reset option at the bottom of the page, as shown. Click this, and Internet Explorer should reset to defaults.

Please also take note of any toolbars that the user may have installed to their version of Internet Explorer, as toolbars may cause frequent issues with blocking access to the courses, or may otherwise interfere with the user’s ability to correctly access their exams. In order to change these settings in Internet Explorer, go to the View menu, then down to Toolbars, and uncheck any non-standard toolbars.

Having done this, the only other system that may further complicate matters would be the user’s internet connection, and the devices that manage this connection. The first step in this process is to ensure that the user’s Modem and Router are reset. While this step may not be necessary in all cases, connection issues with exams can be frequently caused by temporary glitches with the modem and router, and a reset is generally a safe way to prevent these.

The process of doing this is fairly simple, in that the user need only pull the power cords from their modem and router for roughly 15 seconds, then plug them back in, and allow them to fully sync with each other. This is also a good opportunity to remind the user to use a hard-line

connection over a wireless connection, given the frequent problems that users on wireless connections can experience during exams, such as connection interruptions and disconnects.

While this is occurring, you should also flush a user’s DNS resolver cache, in order to ensure that they can access the exam servers without resolution errors. This is a fairly simple process, and generally safe; however, please warn the user that in the event that their Internet Service Provider is having a DNS outage, flushing the resolver cache may leave them unable to access any websites until their ISP corrects the issue. Flushing the DNS resolver cache involves going to the Start menu, then up to Programs, and into Accessories. In this area, have Windows XP users left-click on the Command Prompt icon to bring up the DOS command prompt. Windows Vista and 7 users may need to right click on this icon, and choose “Run as Administrator” in order to have appropriate permissions. Once in this small black window, please have the user enter the following command as shown below, and hit enter: (ipconfig /flushdns)

Ensure that the user gets the “Successfully flushed the DNS Resolver Cache” message.

With any Examguard products removed from the computer, the connection system freshly cycled, and Internet Explorer completely reset, the computer needs to be restarted in order to ensure that all current processes complete. After a complete restart, the computer should now be in a state where installing the Respondus software should be a simple matter.

Step 2: Install Respondus Software

Once the computer comes back up, Respondus needs to be installed to the user’s computer. Start off by having them log into the course site, and go to the exam they wish to enter. This should provide them a link to download Respondus as shown in the examples on the next page.

Clicking on this button will give the student a file to download to their computer. In most cases, I would recommend the student Save the file in question to their desktop, rather than opening or running the file from the current location. An example of this is below… Alternatively, the user can install from http://www.respondus.com/lockdown/informationb.pl?ID=451214388 .

Once the file is fully downloaded to the student’s computer, they can run it by double-clicking on the file in Windows XP. Windows Vista and 7 users may have to right-click the file and choose the “Run as Administrator” option. If any Security warnings appear, make sure to allow them, or grant User Account Control access if prompted in Vista or Win 7.

Please note that the installer for PC is typically compressed within a .zip file. Typically, if the file itself does not open within a standard compressed file program, you may need to have the user either change the file association within windows, or download WinZip (trial version available at www.winzip.com ) or a similar program to enable to computer to handle .zip files.

This should run the installation file, which does not require any special settings changes in order to correctly install to the computer. Simply have the user hit next on the first screen…

…and likewise for the second screen, unless they need to change the installation path…

Once they click “Install” to confirm on the third window (which provides no other options, beyond cancel), the program should install to their hard drive, and show a small “ExamGuard” icon with a picture of a lock on the desktop.

At this point, the Respondus software has been installed to the user’s computer. The last part of the installation process which needs to be completed is that the user needs to once again restart the computer, as the Respondus program will sometimes not take full association of its file type until after the restart.

Step 3: Initialize and launch Examguard

Now that the computer has successfully restarted, Examguard needs to be tested in order to ensure full functionality.

Have the student double-click the Examguard icon on their desktop, or the Examguard program in their Program Files.

This will bring them to a blank screen with two buttons, “Exit Browser” and “Run Diagnostics”. Have the user click the “Run Diagnostic” Button, and they will see the following screen:

Initially, the “Tests” area will be blank, but clicking on the “Network Connections” button will bring up data relevant to the user’s connection. If there are any firewall, proxy, or similar connection errors, they should appear in the “Errors and Warnings” section. This information can sometimes prove quite valuable in determining the cause of a connection error.

Clicking on the “Browser Test” button will bring up another Internet Explorer page, which will test their browser to make sure all necessary controls and plug-ins are present and enabled.

With all of these tested and confirmed, the last step is to have the student enter the exam. Have the student log into their course, and attempt to access their exam. At this point, they should see a “Begin Exam” button below their Pre-exam Information.

This will give them another page with the standard Exam information and reminders, as well as a button at the bottom to begin their exam.

Note: If this returns the user to a blank page, their unit main page, or the Course Home section, they likely have a pop-up blocker enabled. Check the browser window to figure out a bypass as relevant to the user’s particular pop-up blocker and/or software.

At this point, the user should find themselves in a mostly blank window that has a “Click to begin exam and start timer now” button. Clicking this button will begin their exam.

Also please note that if a user receives a notification that Respondus cannot start due to another program, the user should allow Respondus to close that program, or otherwise kill the process if unable to do so automatically.

Pearson eCollege, 2011 Revision 1.19