Retirement Date: August 2022 release
The "Disable Right Click” option is available to instructors when editing a Quiz under Edit Quiz > Properties > Optional Advanced Properties > Disable Right Click. The intention of this feature was to improve the security of a quiz by making it more difficult for learners ability to copy or print the quiz and share the quiz with other learners who have not yet taken the quiz.
Why are we retiring this capability?
Browser security and fairness
As the web has developed and browsers have become more secure, browser have reduced the ability for web sites to control end-user behavior.
Browser vendors have introduced this as sites could use this to maliciously interfere with the user’s interactions with the browser. For example – some sites used to interfere with the browser’s back button, making it difficult for users to escape a malicious site.
Today, when learners are using a standard, non-proctored browser, they can install extensions such as Allow Right Click or use the browser developer console to skirt any restrictions that are applied to their interactions with the page. As such, the “disable right click” setting was not necessarily able to be applied to all students, and it provided a false sense of security around quiz content.
In addition, even if using a proctored browser that cannot be modified, if a learner is using their own hardware, they’re also able to use tools such as the screenshot tool or their smartphone camera to share quiz content with others.
Accessibility
Assistive/adaptive technologies such as screen readers (JAWS, NVDA) and speech command systems (Dragon Naturally Speaking) often need to inspect a page to be able to provide context to the user. Attempting to disable right click on a page can interfere with assistive technologies, making the entire experience frustrating and sometimes impossible to complete.
Some organizations have even requested the ability to remove the “Disable Right Click” setting at an organizational level (D7267) – to avoid having their learners be unable to complete a quiz attempt due to interactions with their assistive tech.
What does this mean to me?
In the August 2022 release, the “Disable Right Click” setting will no longer be available or visible for instructors when configuring a quiz. Existing quizzes that had “Disable Right Click” enable will no longer enforce the setting when a learner is taking a quiz.
No action is required on the part of instructors or admins to change the setting on existing quizzes, after the August 2022 release, the setting will disappear from the Edit Quiz page, and the setting will no longer apply.
The setting will still be visible as part of the Quiz Objects dataset, likely until the January 2023 release.
How can I tell is this setting is being used on my Brightspace site?
The disable right click setting is visible as part of the the Quiz Objects dataset (DisableRightClick) – you can use this dataset to determine which courses and quizzes are currently using this setting.
Questions or Concerns?
Please contact your Customer Success Manager, Technical Account Manager or leave a comment on this blog article!