Prevent Printing or Copying of Blackboard Vista Quizzes

Electronic quizzes can be a wonderful assessment tool. Faculty can create test banks of questions (or use a publisher's test bank) and then set the quiz to randomize a group of questions so that every student gets a different quiz or a different order of questions. Faculty can even randomize the answers in individual questions so that even if two students get the same question on a quiz, their answers will be in different order! Quizzes can be set to turn on and off to limit student access and can be set so that students can take them multiple times. The best part is that these quizzes are electronically scored and recorded. This means that as soon as the students submit their quizzes, they get their grade and then the grade is automatically added to the online grade book in Blackboard. Pretty nifty!

However, one concern that faculty who use these quizzes have had is that students can print out a copy of the quiz or copy-paste the quiz into Word. Here is a script that can be pasted into the Customized Instructions block of a quiz that will actually prevent students selecting the questions, copying any of the questions and answers or printing the test using a right-click. This code works with recent versions of Internet Explorer, Firefox and Netscape.

To use this option:

  1. Create a quiz in Blackboard Vista
  2. Once the quiz shows up in your list of assessments, click on the down arrow next to the quiz title and choose Edit Properties
  3. Scroll down to the very bottom of the Properties window and click next to Customized Instructions to expand that option. This area is usually used to add a note or instructions for your students that they will see before taking a quiz. However, you may also use it to add scripts or HTML code to your quiz. Note that if you've already added instructions for your students that this script must be pasted in before your instructions.
  4. Copy the following code starting from the <head> and ending with the last </script> and paste it into this text area, then click in the box next to Use HTML and then Save. The code itself will be completely invisible to your students but they won't be able to copy or print the quiz from the menu bar or with right-click features like control "a" / control "c" / control "v" ability to select, copy and paste. Pretty cool, huh!
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<HEAD>
<META HTTP-EQUIV="imagetoolbar" CONTENT="no">
</HEAD>
<STYLE media="print">BODY {display:none}</STYLE>
<BODY ondragstart="return false" onselectstart="return false">
<script language="JavaScript">
var message="It is against the WIT Student Code of Honor to copy or print a quiz!";
function clickIE() {if (document.all) {(message);return false;}}
function clickNS(e) {if
(document.layers||(document.getElementById&&!document.all)) {
if (e.which==1||e.which==2||e.which==3) {(message);return false;}}}
if (document.layers)
{document.captureEvents(Event.MOUSEDOWN);document.onmousedown=clickNS;}
else{document.onmouseup=clickNS;document.oncontextmenu=clickIE;}
document.oncontextmenu=new Function("return false")
function disableselect(e){
return false
}
function reEnable(){
return true
}
document.onselectstart=new Function ("return false")
if (window.sidebar){
document.onmousedown=disableselect
document.onclick=reEnable
}
</script>

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To test the code:

  1. You can either switch to the Student tab and start the quiz or you can stay on the Build tab and click on the down arrow next to your quiz and select the Preview option. A preview of the quiz will appear in a popup window.
  2. Attempt to right-click. Either nothing will happen or a popup warning message that says "It is against the WIT Student Code of Honor to copy or print this quiz!" should appear.
  3. Attempt to select some text. You should not be able to.
  4. Attempt to print. A blank sheet of paper should come out of your printer.
  5. If you are using Internet Explorer, and if the quiz contains an image, attempt to right-click the image. A popup warning box should appear ("It is against the WIT Student Code of Honor to Copy or Print a Quiz") and the IE-specific "Image Toolbar" should not appear.

For more help with these features, please contact one of the TD team

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