The Safe Exam Browser Server web application simplifies and centralizes the configuration of Safe Exam Browser clients for exams. It interacts with a learning management or exam system for setting up and conducting e-assessments with Safe Exam Browser. It also improves security by allowing to monitor connected Safe Exam Browser clients in real time during e-assessments.
Safe Exam Browser (SEB) is an application to carry out e-assessments safely. The free-ware application is available for Windows, macOS and iOS. It turns any computer temporarily into a secure workstation. It controls access to resources like system functions, other websites and applications and prevents unauthorized resources being used during an exam. Safe Exam Browser can work with Open edX to control what a student can access during a Open edX quiz attempt. With the SEB Open edX plugin you activate the SEB support in Open edX and now only students using an approved version of SEB and the correct settings will be able to access the quiz in your Open edX course. The Safe Exam Browser is offered under a Mozilla Public License and supported by the SEB Alliance.
While the interaction with SEB is well known in Learning Management Systems (LMS) like Open edX, Moodle etc. the SEB Server is an entirely new component to set up secured online exams. It interacts with the assessments system/LMS as well as with SEB on exam clients. It supports exam scenarios on student owned devices (BYOD) and on managed devices.
SEB Server is a modern webservice with a REST API and a GUI service on top of it. SEB Server is written in Java and uses Docker for installation and setup.
SEB Server provides a range of basic functionalities:
- Built-in institutional multitenancy
- Linking of multiple Learning Management Systems (LMS). Currently supported LMS: Open edX, Moodle, OLAT, ANS
- Accessing the Course/Exam-API of a linked LMS to import a courses or exams for managing with SEB Server
- Creation and administration of SEB Client Configurations that can be used to startup a SEB and that contains SEB Server connection information for a SEB Client
- Creation and administration of SEB Exam Configurations that can be bound to an imported Exam to automatically configure a SEB Client that connects to an exam that is managed by SEB Server
- Automated SEB restriction on LMS side if the specified type of LMS supports the SEB restriction API
- Monitoring and administration of SEB Client connections within a running exam
The image below shows a very simplified diagram that locates the SEB Server in a setup with a Learning Management System (LMS) and the Safe Exam Browser (SEB). The SEB Server communicates with the LMS for managing and prepare exams as well as with the SEB Client to ensure a more automated and secure setup for high-stake exams.
With the new SEB Server release, SEB Server makes a major version change from 1.x to 2.x. This is mainly because of the new Screen Proctoring feature for SEB integrated into SEB Server and the removal of live proctoring with Zoom and Jitsi Meet that is no longer available for SEB Server version 2.x.
For a migration from a running SEB Server setup with version 1.x to new major version 2.0, please also read the migration guide.
- New Features:
- Screen Proctoring with SEB and SEB Server. Can be enabled and configured for an Exam. SEB takes and sends screen shots plus Metadata to SEB Server. With monitoring and search functionality.
- Moodle Integration: SEB Server Exam creation from Moodle site with new SEB Server Moodle Plugin 2.0.
- Moodle Integration: Auto Login to SEB Server monitoring for Moodle Teacher with dedicated privileges. Comes with Moodle Plugin 2.0
- Exam Test Run. There is now the possibility to apply an test run for an Exam that is in coming up status. Exam is then in "Running" like state and SEB clients can connect as well as supporter can monitor the exam.
- Improvements:
- Improvement of user ID resolution and handshake completion for SEB connecting with SEB-Server. SEB client now sent as much client information as possible and finish up the SEB Server handshake more quickly.
- Connection Configuration Improve (or remove) Date Filter.
- DB Migration Table charset fix for all tables, set to "utf8mb4_general"
- New SEB Settings in SEB Server GUI for version 2.0
- Table sort direction selection and table column length selection stick to User Session
- Bugfixes:
- Missing Pending Notification Page Update in Monitoring Detail view
- Importing an exam without template throws error
- LMS name resolving sometimes gets "null" values for names
- New Ready State is not involved within the Filter numbers
- Page of ASK Grants in Exam has table selection action problems
- Sorting of start and end-date in Assessment Tool Lookup not working as expected
- Running Exam without LMS is greyed out without reason
The table below shows available and upcoming SEB client versions that has SEB Server integration support and are compatible with particular SEB Server versions. There is an entry for each platform with a beta or testing release date and an official release date.
SEB Server Version 2.0.x
| Platform / OS | Release Version |
|---|---|
| SEB Client for iOS | 3.4 (3.3.3 without screen proctoring) |
| SEB Client for Mac | 3.4 |
| SEB Client for Windows | 3.8 |
For a complete guide to install SEB Server please go to SEB Server Installation Guide
For a complete SEB Server user guide please go to SEB Server User Guide
The SEB Server is currently build and maintained by ETH Zürich and by the Swiss MOOC Service that is founded by leading Swiss universities EPFL, ETH, SUPSI, USI and HES-SO. The Swiss MOOC Service was financially supported from 2018-2020 by the Swissuniversities´ P5 program.
We want to make contributing to this project as easy and transparent as possible, whether it's:
- Give us a star
- Reporting a bug
- Submitting a fix
- Proposing new features
- Becoming a SEB Alliance member
We use github to host code, to track issues and feature requests, as well as accept pull requests. And we use Github issues to track public bugs. Report a bug by [opening a new issue]();
Before enter a new bug-report, ensure the bug was not already reported
Please fill and provide all the information suggested by the bug-report template Great Bug Reports tend to have:
- A quick summary and/or background
- Steps to reproduce
- Be specific and give sample code if you can. Can also be Pseudocode.
- What you expected would happen
- What actually happens
- Notes (possibly including why you think this might be happening, or stuff you tried that didn't work)
We Use Git-Flow for Code Contributions
Pull requests are the best way to propose changes to the codebase. We use Github Flow. We actively welcome your pull requests:
- Fork the repo and create your branch from development. The development branch always has the newest changes.
- If you've added code that should be tested, add tests.
- If you introduce new API also add clear documentation.
- Ensure the test suite passes.
- Make sure your code lints.
- Issue that pull request!
Use a Consistent Coding Style
Have a close look to the existing code stile that is used within SEB Server and adapt to it as close as possible. We reserve the right to adapt contributed code to the code style matching SEB Server code style before or after a pull request.
Any contributions you make will be under the Mozilla Public License Version 2.0
In short, when you submit code changes, your submissions are understood to be under the same Mozilla Public License that covers the project. Feel free to contact the maintainers if that's a concern.
Becoming a SEB Alliance member
The SEB Alliance is the body which sustains ongoing funding of the Safe Exam Browser open source project to continue its maintenance, development and support activities. ETH Zurich provides the infrastructure for the management and the software engineering of the SEB project and appoints an alliance manager who will provide administrative support to the SEB Alliance, and ensure the day-to-day running of the SEB Alliance. ETH Zurich leads the Alliance and offers different contribution levels to parties interested in the evolution of the SEB open source project.
More information about joining the Alliance is available in our benefits and documents section.
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