§ Features
A better way to run Safe Exam Browser assessments in Canvas.
For instructors
Keep assessment setup where instructors already work
Instructors work from course navigation in Canvas. They do not need a second roster, a separate admin portal, or a new exam-day process.
Assessment discovery
Find Classic and New Quizzes in Canvas, then turn on SEB for the assessments that need it. The tool keeps the assessment context in view.
Less to distribute and remember
Safe Online Exam creates and manages the assessment access code in the background, so instructors are not maintaining another exam-day handoff.
Course defaults that still allow judgment
Set a clear course baseline for the lockdown experience, then tailor an assessment when its teaching needs are different.
Built-in exam controls
The required SEB controls are part of the assessment setup rather than a separate checklist instructors have to recreate each time.
Approved tools, where appropriate
Support the web tools an assessment genuinely needs while keeping the policy clear for instructors and students.
The right view for the right person
Instructors manage assessments. Students get a focused launch path. The experience follows the roles already established in Canvas.
For root-account administrators
Give the adoption team a way to support the whole institution
A separate root-account view lets the Canvas and academic-technology team guide the rollout, support active courses, and step in when an assessment needs help.
A practical view across courses
See connected active courses and their assessment state in one Canvas-embedded dashboard, instead of piecing together the rollout course by course.
Help when an assessment is near
Support a course when an instructor is unavailable: recover the information that needs controlled access, refresh an assessment, or restore its approved defaults.
Consistent policy at institutional scale
Create reusable tool presets at the account level and apply them across courses without asking every instructor to recreate the same policy.
Designed for the right level of oversight
The administrator experience lives in the Canvas root account, where institutional teams can provide help without taking over the instructor workflow.
For students
A clear path into the exam
Students do the preparation before exam day, then follow a guided path from their Canvas assessment into Safe Exam Browser.
Setup check before exam day
Students can confirm their device and Safe Exam Browser setup before an assessment matters, giving support teams time to resolve issues early.
Guided launch on the quiz page
The assessment page guides students into the required exam environment instead of leaving them to reconcile separate Canvas and SEB instructions.
Fewer steps at the moment of truth
The launch flow handles the protected handoff in the background, so students do not need to copy, type, or hunt for an assessment code.
A clearer finish
Students exit the secure assessment flow only after Canvas confirms they have completed the assessment.
For the institution
Built to fit an institutional environment
Safe Online Exam keeps an institution’s Canvas environment and data separate, while offering a supported route for managed operation or a documented route for teams that self-host.
A deployment built for real operations
The service uses a durable PostgreSQL store and supported deployment patterns, giving your team a dependable operational footing.
Clear responsibility boundaries
Your device-management and Canvas policies remain yours. The service is designed to fit alongside them without absorbing responsibilities it should not own.
A policy that reaches the exam device
Safe Online Exam carries your assessment settings into Safe Exam Browser on supported macOS and Windows clients.
One product, two operating models
Managed hosting and self-hosting provide the same Safe Online Exam capabilities. The choice is whether your institution wants to operate the service itself.
Compatibility
What it plugs into
Safe Online Exam is intentionally focused: it connects Canvas and Safe Exam Browser, rather than asking your team to replace either one.
LMS
Canvas
one tenant / deploy
Integration
LTI 1.3
course-nav placement
Assessments
Classic + New
same policy model
Client
Safe Exam Browser
macOS, Windows
Runtime
Node.js 24 container
Cloud Run or Docker
Store
PostgreSQL 17
atomic claims + locks
Contracts stay stable. Public routes such as /lti/config, /.well-known/jwks.json, and /js/canvas-seb-detector.js do not move without a coordinated Canvas registration change.
Scope
What it deliberately is not
Worth stating plainly, because the category is crowded with products that blur these lines.
Not proctoring
No camera, microphone, recording, behavioural scoring, or human invigilator. Identity verification is a separate arrangement alongside this.
Not device management
It assumes a managed-device baseline; it does not create one. The private identity is deployed by your MDM, and version pinning is your policy.
Not a Canvas proxy
It calls a constrained set of Canvas endpoints on the configured origin. It is not a general gateway and does not mirror data it has no use for.
Not a replacement for SEB
SEB stays independent, free, and maintained by its own project. This tool is the Canvas-side integration around it.
See what the experience looks like from setup to completion.
Follow the institutional, instructor, and student journey through a Safe Online Exam assessment.