When it comes to taking assessments online, security is a top priority. Whether you’re administering high-stakes exams or daily quizzes, it’s essential to maintain the integrity of the testing environment. Edcite provides educators with a range of powerful security features to ensure that assessments are conducted fairly and securely. Let’s explore some of these security features in detail!

1. Student Work Backup for Cheating Detection

Edcite’s student work backup feature allows teachers to review a detailed log of student activity during assessments. This includes a timeline of when and how each question was answered, helping educators spot suspicious behaviors like unusually fast responses or inconsistent answer patterns. The backup can also reveal signs of cheating, such as copied or altered answers, providing teachers with evidence for further investigation.

2. Setting Time Windows on Assessments

One of the most effective ways to maintain control over an assessment is by setting specific time windows during which students can access and complete their tests. Educators can configure precise start and end dates for each assessment, ensuring that students only have access to the test during the designated time frame. This feature helps prevent unauthorized access and ensures that students cannot take the test outside of the allocated period. It also gives teachers more flexibility in scheduling assessments, while minimizing the risk of cheating or unfair advantages.

3. Using the Randomized Answers Setting on Questions

To further increase the security of assessments, Edcite allows educators to randomize the order of answer choices and/or questions for each student. Randomizing answer choices is particularly useful for multiple-choice and true/false questions, as it ensures that no two students will receive the same exact set of answers in the same order. For math questions, you can also create randomized questions within a set of parameters for Multiple Choice questions or Open Response. By randomizing answer choices or questions, Edcite minimizes the chances of students copying answers from one another.

4. Controlling What Students See on their Reports After Submission

After completing an assessment, students typically receive feedback on their performance. However, not in all situations should feedback should be shared immediately. With Edcite, teachers have the ability to control exactly what information students see on their reports after submission. Educators can choose to withhold detailed answers or scores until a certain point in time or release them selectively. This allows teachers to prevent students from simply reviewing their results and making corrections before they retake the test. This feature is especially valuable in high-stakes testing environments, where preventing immediate score-sharing is crucial for maintaining fairness.

The next 3 features are only available to users of our premium school and district platform, Edcite Schools. For more information on Edcite Schools, click here.

5. Creating Locked Common Assessments

For educators who need to ensure consistency and security across multiple classrooms or schools, Edcite allows the creation of locked common assessments. These assessments cannot be altered once they’ve been locked, which guarantees that all students across different classes or districts take the same version of the test under identical conditions. Locked common assessments are particularly useful in standardized testing environments, ensuring that test security is maintained and that every student is evaluated fairly based on the same set of questions and standards.

6. The Use of Access Codes for Opening an Assessment

Another valuable security feature Edcite offers is the ability to use access codes to control who can access an assessment. This prevents unauthorized individuals from accessing the test and ensures that only students who have been assigned the code are able to take the exam. Access codes add an extra layer of authentication, particularly for high-stakes assessments, and can also be used to limit access to specific groups of students or cohorts. Every common assessment distributed by an administrator provides a general test code that can be used for anyone assigned the assessment as well as class-specific codes. For the most secure administration, teams can use the class-specific codes to prevent a student from 5th period accessing an assessment early with 1st period’s code, for example.

7. The Lockdown Browser

For assessments that require an added layer of security, Edcite offers a lockdown browser that restricts students from navigating away from the test during the exam. Once the assessment begins, the lockdown browser prevents students from accessing any external websites, applications, or unauthorized resources on their device. This ensures that students can only focus on the assessment itself and prevents the use of search engines, notes, or other potentially cheating methods.

Conclusion

By leveraging Edcite’s security features, teachers can ensure that their students are evaluated in a secure, controlled, and equitable environment—whether they’re taking a quiz, a final exam, or a district-wide assessment.