§ How it works
One connected path from Canvas to a secure assessment.
Enable SEB on an assessment
From course navigation, the instructor turns on SEB for a Classic or New Quiz. The assessment stays in Canvas, with the policy and protected setup handled alongside it.
Prepare before the assessment
The student connects Canvas and can complete a setup check ahead of time. When it is time to begin, Safe Online Exam prepares the configuration for that assessment.
Apply the institution’s exam policy
Safe Online Exam builds the Safe Exam Browser configuration around the assessment, the approved tools, and the device policy your institution has established.
Confirm the right environment
Safe Exam Browser opens the configuration and returns to the Canvas quiz. Safe Online Exam checks that the expected assessment environment is in place before the exam begins.
Move the student into the assessment
Once the required checks pass, the student proceeds into Canvas without an extra password, a copied code, or a confusing handoff from one system to another.
Take the exam
The student takes the assessment in Canvas with the approved tools and the Safe Exam Browser restrictions your institution has chosen.
Finish through Canvas
Canvas confirms the assessment is complete before the student leaves the secure exam flow, giving the experience a clear and dependable end.
What happens when someone tries
The workflow is designed to catch the wrong setup early
The assessment does not simply trust a downloaded file or a browser tab. Safe Online Exam checks the necessary conditions as part of the launch, then gives students a clear next step if something is wrong.
Copies the .seb file to their own laptop
It will not decrypt. The private identity lives only on approved managed devices, and the service never holds it.
Reuses last week's working config
Its settings fingerprint no longer matches, so Config Key proof fails and no code is returned.
Opens the quiz in a normal browser
There is no SEB JavaScript API to produce a Config Key hash, so no proof exists and Canvas still demands the code.
Replays the request that returned the code
The proof token is single-use, expires in two minutes, and the response is no-store and session-bound.
Tries to quit part-way through
Quitting needs the exit password, and the in-exam quit link only appears once Canvas reports the assessment authoritatively complete.
One piece lives in Canvas
A detector script, loaded by your theme
The in-page half of the flow is a small script served from the deployment and loaded through your Canvas account theme. It runs only on assessment routes.
Served from the stable path /js/canvas-seb-detector.js. The script is only an affordance — the SEB URL filter in the configuration is the control.
What it does on the quiz page
- 01Render the SEB-required view and launch handoff
- 02Read the Config Key hash via the SEB JS API
- 03Request a proof, redeem it, fill the code prompt
- 04Show the approved exam tools
- 05Detect completion and surface the bound quit link
Need the technical detail for your review?
The security page explains the controls, data boundaries, and operational limits your technical reviewers will want to assess.