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Download Safe Exam Browser For Mac: A Comprehensive Guide to Installation and Configuration



Note: This version does not contain the Zoom integration for exam proctoring or exam support which was contained in SEB 3.2rc. There is a non-public SEB Alliance Edition, which continues to support Zoom integration. If you are interested to use this Zoom integration, please contact alliance@safeexambrowser.org.




Download Safe Exam Browser For Mac




SEB for Mac OS X is based on the WebKit browser engine, which is also used by Safari, Apple Mail and many open source browsers like Google Chrome (in contrast to the Mozilla Firefox/XULRunner/Gecko engine used by SEB for Windows). There are some small differences and issues regarding rendering of web pages and some content in ILIAS and Moodle, so you should check all functionality of your quiz in SEB for Mac OS X before using it in exams.


SEB for Mac OS X can be used together with additional (third party) applications during an exam. You can download and open files linked in your online exam, edit it in a third party application and then upload the results to your online quiz/LMS again. For this case and high security use in exams, the current version of SEB for Mac OS X should be used in a managed environment. See below under which circumstances you can achieve a quite secure environment.


SEB preferences are saved according to macOS standards in the user's Library/Preferences/ directory. The file named org.safeexambrowser.Safe-Exam-Browser.plist is generated after you start SEB the first time, open preferences and save them. You can deploy this file to the user's Library/Preferences/ directories on other computers (for example in a computer room in a university or school) to get them opening the same Start URL and using the same passwords. Or use the write settings to app bundle option to create a pre-configured copy of SEB (this feature is not available in the Mac App Store version). Even though the preferences file is partially encrypted, you should prevent users from accessing this file, see Secure Environment for Exams with SEB for Mac OS X. You can also edit this standard .plist-File using Apple Xcode.


In a separate user account managed by OS X parental controls you can run additional (third party) applications during an exam together with SEB. You can download and open files linked in your online exam, edit it in a third party application and then upload the results to your online quiz/LMS again.


Prior to your first Safe Exam Browser (SEB) exam, you will need to download Safe Exam Browser plug-in. Students will only be able to attempt the quiz if they are using SEB. If you do not have a laptop, you can reserve one at Media Services, which is located in Belk Library.


Safe Exam Browser is a customised web browser, available for Windows (7, 8.1, 10), macOS (starting 10.7, recommended 10.11 or newer) and iOS (9.3.5 or newer). The application must be downloaded and installed on the device that the student uses to attempt the quiz. The restrictions placed on students are similar to those in the quiz Extra restrictions on attempts > Browser security "Full screen pop-up with some JavaScript security" case, but because Safe Exam Browser is software running on the student's computer, it can do a much more effective job of restricting their actions.


5. To test the Safe Exam Browser, open the program. This should open the lockdown browser and start on the UT High School Online CBE login screen. Students will login to this page when they are ready to take their online exam. If an error appears that says "Third Party Application Not Found," just click OK.


Safe Exam Browser (SEB) is a reliable, free, and useful internet browser environment to conduct online assessments securely. The education program transforms a basic computer into a secure workstation. In order to support an anti-cheat mechanism, the tool controls access to various resources, including system functions, access to third-party apps, etc. This helps prevent unauthorized access to resources during an examination.


Safe Exam Browser is a hassle-free web browser environment to conduct online examinations securely. The program transforms a computer into a secure system. In addition to this, it regulates access to a range of resources, such as third-party applications, websites, system functions, and more.


The teaching software comes with three components. The main components include a browser interface and a kiosk application. These run on an exam tablet or computer. The kiosk app locks the exam device, while the browser component communicates over a LAN or internet connection with the quiz module on a server.


With this training tool, an exam can be configured to run just with SEB, not any other internet browser. Earlier, the SEB and LMS extensions had to be installed separately to achieve such connectivity. With Safe Exam Browser, these have been integrated into the latest versions of various learning management systems.


As compared to the Windows version, the online exam tool for iOS and macOS is available in the form of a monolithic application. It uses an internet browser framework instead of the standard browser runtime. Additionally, it uses the reliable WebKit engine, which also works with Safari and other leading open-source web browsers. Apart from this, the iOS and macOS version of SEB connects to learning management systems in the same way as the counterpart.


SEB consists of a kiosk application and a browser part, which are running on an examination computer or tablet device. The kiosk application locks down the examination computer, the browser part communicates over the internet (or a LAN) with the quiz module of an LMS running on a server.


The illustration above shows the two internal components which SEB consists of, the kiosk application and the browser part. The third part of an SEB exam environment is build into the supported LMS. Optionally one or several third party application(s) can be allowed to run during an exam and are started by the SEB kiosk application.


The SEB browser loads and displays the LMS exam page using a preset URL and doesn't show any navigation elements like address bar, search engine field etc. The Windows version of SEB currently uses the Mozilla Gecko browser engine, either in the form of Firefox or XULRunner. SEB for macOS and iOS use the WebKit browser engine.


The learning management systems contain so-called quiz modules, which are used for online exams. SEB relies on extensions/skins to the quiz modules in Moodle and ILIAS for secure exams. With these extensions the user interface of the LMS is reduced to just contain navigation for the exam (no links to other pages outside the quiz) and no other undesirable features like messaging. An exam can also be configured to run only with SEB, not another browser. These SEB LMS extensions, which originally had to be installed separately to achieve this connectivity with SEB, have been integrated into the LMS in recent versions of ILIAS and Moodle.


Safe Exam Browser for Windows consists of the SEB kiosk application, which opens an own Windows desktop and blocks system commands like keyboard shortcuts (for example ALT+F4) and right mouse button clicks. The second part is Firefox, running in a so-called XUL runtime mode. The SEB XUL browser application running on Firefox connects to the LMS, using a pre-configured start URL. The SEB browser doesn't contain a URL or search field and navigation controls (back/forward, reload) can be disabled.


SEB for Windows can be used together with additional (third party) applications during an exam. You can download and open files linked in your online exam, edit it in a third party application and then upload the results to your online quiz/LMS again.


Sometimes hiding course navigation, link to the user's Moodle profile, logout etc. doesn't work as expected because some custom Moodle themes don't support the secure browser mode of Moodle correctly, they display links with which students can get out of the quiz during an exam. If this happens only with your customized theme and not the standard Moodle theme, then your theme is not implemented correctly. In that case you should fix the problem in your custom Moodle theme. You may also create URL filter rules which only allow to access the exam and no other parts of Moodle, but this is not trivial and we cannot provide you with any support on that.


Therefore using such applications requires additional measures, as for example a drive which is cleaned before every exam on a managed computer and a firewall (either hardware or firewall filter rules in a virtual desktop, see below). If you intend to use SEB with third party applications on unmanaged computers (BYOD, student owned machines), you should run the exam including those third party applications in a secured virtual machine, usually this would be a virtual desktop. This technical paper describes the virtual desktop infrastructure (VDI) environment ETH Zurich (the top ranked university in continental Europe which is the driving force behind the development of SafeExamBrowser) is using for such exams. For other (less technical) papers on our exam environment, see our publications page. Our environment runs on managed computers and uses the VMware View Client software secured by SEB on the local machine and another instance of SEB running inside the virtual desktop, allowing to use the configured permitted third party applications in addition to an exam displayed by the SEB browser. In a bring-your-own-device scenario you would ideally use VDI with a technology like VMware Horizon View HTML Access. Then students just need to install/run SEB on their Windows or Mac laptops. SEB would be configured to only load and display the HTML Access portal page in a full screen browser window (ideally without displaying the SEB task bar/dock). The entire exam takes place in the virtual desktop, which can be perfectly secured. You also don't have to worry about distributing, configuring and licensing those third party applications you want to use in exams to students, as you just have to install and configure these applications once on the master image for the VDI exam pool. If an exam computer breaks down during the exam, no data is lost, as everything is running inside the virtual desktop on your server infrastructure. Usually such exams would have a browser-based part, where you place the questions and maybe template files, which students then can open in the permitted third party applications. After they finish working on those documents, they can save the results and upload them into the exam, using a file upload question type. Students can only interact with the empty file system inside the virtual desktop, they also cannot access the local file systems or connected USB sticks on their BYOD exam computers. 2ff7e9595c


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