Issue 1

Respondus message states that the quiz requires LockDown browser even though user is in LockDown Browser.

Solution

For a single student (not all students), a "You need LockDown Browser" inside LockDown Browser is commonly due to incorrect or corrupted navigation when starting a Canvas Classic quiz.
 
Prior to the exam, we recommend doing a power down restart of the computer then close down any apps that re-opened at login. Establish a wired Ethernet connection if feasible, otherwise try to be as close as possible to the wireless access point or router.
 
For Instructure Canvas Classic Quizzes with "manual launch", it is important for students to close all standard browsers, start LockDown Browser only, log into Canvas, WAIT until the Canvas home page fully loads (no spinning circle in the browser tab), navigate to the course, wait until the course home page fully loads (no spinning circle in the browser tab), then go to the Quizzes or Modules area to start the direct link to the exam with "-Requires Respondus LockDown Browser" in the quiz title. Students should not use any "shortcut" or "notifications link" in the Canvas home page or course home page.

Please do not access the quiz from the Canvas Calendar link or the “To do” list. Please access the Quiz from the courses Modules or Quizzes area.

Issue 2

When trying to access a Quiz in Lockdown Browser it states that the browser does not meet the minimum requirements for Canvas.

Solution

The warning message you are seeing is produced by a browser checker built into your Canvas instance. However, it will not prevent students from logging in and taking an exam.
 
LockDown Browser 2.1.0 uses Chromium Embedded Framework (CEF) version 106, and additional upgrades to CEF are not planned for several months as it's a lengthy and complicated development project.
 
We've spoken to our contacts at Canvas Support to see if they can push a fix to remove the browser checker warning for LockDown Browser.
 
Until such a fix can be released by Canvas, students should ignore the message.

Issue 3

“Unable to continue. Exam title indicates a webcam must be used but the course is unknown to our systems. Ask instructor to check settings”

Solution 1

Instructor should go into Canvas and select the “LockDown Browser” option in the course navigation menu and make sure there are no errors.

Solution 2

The error can occur if the computer and/or network is blocking access to the Respondus servers located on Amazon Web Services (*.amazonaws.com). This is especially critical if the exam requires Monitor (a webcam). If the connection to our servers on Amazon Web Services cannot be completed, then we deny entry into the exam. Temporarily relaxing anti-virus and firewall software is a good troubleshooting step. If doing this permits the student to avoid the error, then they can be pretty confident that the security software on their computer is interfering. They'll then need to reactivate that software, permitting LockDown Browser to make the necessary outbound connections (*.amazonaws.com, *.respondus.com, *.respondus2.com).

Navigating too quickly through the Canvas home page and course before the web pages are fully loaded can also trigger the warning.

It is important for students to first start LockDown Browser, log into Canvas, wait until the Canvas home page fully loads (no spinning circle in the browser tab), navigate to the course, and wait until the course home page fully loads (no spinning circle in the browser tab), then go to the content area to start the direct link to the exam with "-Requires Respondus LockDown Browser" in the test title. Students should not use any "shortcut" or "notifications link" on the Canvas home page or course home page.

Issue 4

Lockdown Browser states an error, “Lockdown Browser OEM was unexpectedly launched without a custom URL to Process”. This error usually occurs if the browser was not installed with the specific CWU instance of the browser.

Solution

All institutions have their own custom instances of the browser. For CWU’s specific instance always use the following URL, https://download.respondus.com/lockdown/download.php?id=715433924