Up to August 2022, the "Disable Right Click” option was 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 to copy or print the quiz and share with other learners who have not yet taken the quiz.
Why did we retire this capability?
Browser security and fairness
As the web has developed and browsers have become more secure, browsers have reduced the ability for web sites to control end-user behavior.
Browser vendors have introduced this as sites could 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 to avoid having their learners be unable to complete a quiz attempt due to interactions with their assistive technology.
Impact of change
Since the August 2022 release of Brightspace, the “Disable Right Click” setting is no longer available or visible for instructors when configuring a quiz. Existing quizzes that had “Disable Right Click” enabled will no longer enforce the setting when a learner is taking a quiz.
No action was required on the part of instructors or admins to change the setting on existing quizzes, after the August 2022 release. The setting was removed from the Edit Quiz page, and the setting no longer applied to any existing quiz.
The setting was still visible as part of the Quiz Objects dataset, however it was removed in the January 2023 release of BDS version 8.
Questions or Concerns?
Please contact your Customer Success Manager or Technical Account Manager.