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If you use Respondus, in the near future you may receive a warning that your license key has expired. The new license key is now available through AU Install. Log into AU Install, scroll to the Respondus link, and on the next page, copy the key from the website.

While you’re updating the license key, it’s a good time to check to see if there are any updates. Click Help at the top left, then “Check for Updates.”

If you have any questions, please let us know.

If you have required the Respondus Lockdown Browser for quizzes in Canvas, your students will see this message when they open it:

Your browser doesn’t meet the minimum requirements for Canvas.

Students should ignore this message and use the Lockdown Browser anyway.

This message is being displayed because of some recent changes to Canvas, but it is not accurate and does not apply to the Respondus Lockdown Browser. Instructure is aware of the problem and is working on a hotfix.

Bottom line: Canvas will work just fine in the Respondus Lockdown Browser. On a side note, the Lockdown Browser for Windows has just been updated with bug fixes that make it faster. We recommend that students update their version by re-downloading the installer and choosing the “reinstall” option.

We received an e-mail from Respondus urging everyone “very strongly!” to update to the latest version of the Respondus Lockdown Browser. If you’re currently using the browser, please check for the latest updates:

1. Start Respondus LockDown Browser
2. Either click the ( i ) button from the toolbar (Windows) or click the “About” button (Mac).
3. Click “Check for Newer Version.”
4. Follow the prompts for updating the software.

As they say in their e-mail, “nearly 50% of all support issues for LockDown Browser are the result of students running old versions of LockDown Browser!”

From Respondus:

We’re big fans of Apple, but recently they’ve been making it hard on third-party developers who rely on WebKit and Safari.

On Thursday, May 10th, Apple began pushing out their latest update to WebKit that contains an unfortunate bug: single-line text entry fields appear in black. So, for example, the login fields for an LMS appear in black, as do text entry fields for fill-in-the-blank questions. This makes text entered by users unreadable (black on black).

Apple and Webkit are aware of the issue. But until it is resolved, we’ve issued our own fix to the Mac version of Respondus LockDown Browser. It requires the reinstallation of LockDown Browser, which can be accomplished with these easy steps:

1. Start the Mac version of Respondus LockDown Browser
2. Select About from the toolbar, and select “Check for Newer Version”
3. Follow the on-screen instructions to download and run the patch.

Alternatively, you can do a full reinstallation by going to your institution’s download link for LockDown Browser and following the installation steps shown.

After patching or reinstalling, the About toolbar button should show a version of 1.0.4.38 or higher.

If you have questions regarding this issue, please open a support ticket at www.respondus.com/esupport.

Respondus is unable to connect properly with Canvas to upload quizzes/questions. We’re working with Respondus to resolve the issue and will update this post once we have more information.

Respondus works properly with Canvas now.

Update: If you have a Mac computer, be sure to update to the latest Lockdown Browser as Respondus has issued a temporary fix until Java is fixed.

From Respondus:

An important issue has come up for Respondus LockDown Browser users who run Mac OSX with the latest release of Java (version 1.6.0_29).

The issue is that WebKit-based browsers running with Java 1.6.0_29 will crash if a Java applet is encountered. Respondus LockDown Browser relies on WebKit so it exhibits the same behavior. (Note that Chrome and other browsers based on WebKit exhibit the same problem, although Apple has modified its Safari browser to work around the issue.)

For Blackboard Learn customers, Java applets are encountered when an exam containing essay questions is started (the rich-text editor for essay questions uses Java applets). For Blackboard CE/Vista customers, a crash occurs at the login page since Java applets are used with the browser checker.

The developer community anticipates that either WebKit or Apple will resolve this issue in quick order. Unfortunately, at the moment, WebKit feels that Apple should fix the issue, while Apple feels that WebKit should provide the fix. In the meantime, however, we are doing two things:

1) We have issued a patch for the Mac edition of LockDown Browser. Once the update is applied, LockDown Browser will detect, upon startup, whether a user is running Java 1.6.0_29. If this combination is found, they will receive this message:

———————————

WARNING: Java version 1.6.0_29 detected.

This version of Java is known to be incompatible with your learning system and may cause this browser application to crash.

We recommend that you do NOT continue. As a work-around, you may consider using a different computer.

[Quit]  [Continue]

———————————–

IMPORTANT: In order for users to be aware of this update, the institution’s Administrator for LockDown Browser should login to the admin area (https://www.respondus.com/campus-portal/login.php) and select “yes” for the setting “Check for newer version of LockDown Browser” (the default setting is “no”). This will enable Mac users to receive a notice each time they start LockDown Browser that an update is available.

2) Simultaneously, we are working on a solution where our own version of WebKit will be embedded with each installation of the Mac LockDown Browser software. This will require substantial QA testing and our hope is that the issue will be resolved by WebKit or Apple before we have to resort to distributing our own WebKit.  However, given no official response on timing of the solution from either WebKit or Apple, we feel this is a prudent path to pursue.

We hope this information is helpful. If you have questions about this issue, please don’t hesitate to open a support ticket at www.respondus.com/esupport.

While using the Respondus Lockdown Browser, students are currently unable to log into Blackboard. We are aware of the issue and are working with Respondus to find a solution. In the mean time, we recommend not using the Lockdown Browser until the issue has been fixed.

Update: The issue has been fixed. Lockdown Browser now loads the Blackboard page and you may choose either AU Access Blackboard or Open Blackboard.

Respondus is a great tool for creating multiple quizzes and uploading them to multiple Blackboard courses. However, Respondus’s unique file management system may lead to confusion on how to backup your files. But it is possible to backup all your quizzes to a flash drive or any other location. We recommend doing this at least once a semester, just to ensure you always have your quizzes handy. And since Respondus 4.0 is now available, now is a good time to backup those quizzes!

As a final note, if you have trouble running Respondus or if all your classes do not show up in the course list, you can fix this issue by reinstalling Respondus. Uninstall the software, then delete the Respondus Projects folder (C:\Respondus Projects). Be sure to backup your quizzes before deleting! Then reinstall Respondus and it should run properly. Otherwise, give us at call at 844-5181.

Online quizzes are an excellent way to gauge student performance and progress. Respondus, a quiz creation tool, can streamline the process of creating a quiz or even importing an existing quiz from Word. Once this quiz is finalized in Respondus, the quiz can be uploaded to multiple Blackboard courses at once. In addition, Respondus can download quizzes directly from Blackboard.

If you’re concerned about academic dishonesty, we recommend using the Lockdown Browser with quizzes through Blackboard. The program will prevent students from opening multiple windows, printing the quiz, or opening other websites.

Respondus is available through AU Install. To require the Lockdown Browser for quizzes, select Edit Properties for the quiz and scroll to the Security section.

Respondus, the quiz creation tool that interfaces with Blackboard, has a new licensing password for the upcoming academic year. Respondus users will not need to re-install Respondus, but will need to enter the new password. The new license password is available through AU Install at http://www.auburn.edu/download. Scroll down to “Respondus 3.5″ and select the Windows icon for a link to the new password.

If you have any questions about the new license password, or about Respondus in general, please call the IMG at 844-5181 or e-mail img@auburn.edu.