I work as a Network Manager for a secondary school based in the UK and I am currently working with one of our exam boards, looking at a way we can run Computer Science (Python) exams on Chromebooks. We are a mainly ChromeOS school and have been using Repl.it for Computer Science lessons and would really like to be able to use Repl.it for exams as well . We can lock down the chromebooks so they can only access whitelisted URL’s but have run across a few issues. I have been trialing Repl.it teams and creating a blank Python IDE which is then shared with exam accounts. But due to needing to allow access to Google authentication sites and a few other URLS so they can login etc I can not fully lockdown the site so they can not access the help sections of the website. Just wanted to pick your brains to see if there was a way this could be done or if anyone had already put a solution in place. Thank you.
You can whitelist the URLs required for login in with google but block docs.google.com, drive.google.com etc so they can still log in but cant access any of that well taking the exam.
Thank you for your time. That’s how I have it setup, I am just using the url blocking section on google admin as it needs to be easily replicated for any school. But when they access the different sections of the website it will load it and they can navigate the page and it will only block it if the page is refreshed.
The chromebook it set to block all traffic on login except for the login urls and the url for the classroom In teams that I setup and that works if they try to navigate to any other site but they can still access all sections of the website until they refresh the page then the block kicks in. I have even tried adding the individual url for each page into the block list ie Templates - Replit but the same thing happens they can access the page at first but when the page is refreshed it’s blocks it. I am not going to lie it’s confusing me as the block works but only after a refresh of the page.
Can’t think of anything else other than right before the exam the proctor/teacher walks around and makes sure all the students don’t have anything else open that might help them cheat. And/or you can use software so the teachers can view all the student’s screens on their computer so they can see if a student cheats.
I use private repls on the Hacker plan to allow locking and unlocking of individual student assessments. We have just finished our second year of running this and, apart from a big red “remove all access” button we have a pretty good system.
Happy to chat it through in a call if useful! Let me know.
No it just allows me to lock down individual access to a repl. Our assessments are moderated open book so we are in the room with the students as they complete them however they can look up teaching resources etc.
If you were looking to keep the students on a particular page during the assessment maybe using locked mode on Chromebook or guided access on iPad would be a better option?
If we can get something working for you I’d appreciate it if I could pick your brains so that I can write up a doc for other schools wanting to do the same thing. I know I’d appreciate being able to send my network admins a link to a guide rather than letting them derive everything again from first principles!
I’m just replying to keep an eye on this progress. Currently for my closed book coding exams I give them a sheet of paper with code snippets (I don’t expect them to memorize everything) but I ask them to code on paper.
Would love to use replit for this in a quasi-secure environment. Our IT won’t make individual mods for us so it would need to be something I could control on the classroom level for it to work for teachers in my district (AB, Canada).
@ISimpson I’d be up for a chat to see how you do this. I’m all for moderated open book but really want to restrict copying from/communicating with classmates
I have just created an extension that removes all the elements of the website that students should not have access to during an exam. It is available on the web store. This extension teamed with URL blocking within the Google Admin console will now allow us to use Replit for exams. I have just uploaded an update that also removes access to GitHub repros and the Trending section, this is just waiting for approval. Please see download link below. Hope this can help someone else.
Yes, this would only work if they were using a managed ChromeOS device. Our exams are only allowed to run at the centre with invigilators. Would you be running a centre exam or would it be an exam you were running yourself.
