eSAM - Choosing restrictions

The Restrictions tab decides how tightly the PC is held during your exam. It starts from the profile you chose on the quiz, so for most exams you will change nothing. When you do need to change something, this is what each setting means.

Profiles and overrides

A profile is a named set of restrictions your college keeps in one place. Four ship with eSAM Closed book, Closed book + calculator, Open book with documents and Teams invigilated and your college may have added its own. Changing a setting here overrides the profile for this exam only; the profile itself is untouched, and so is every other exam using it.

Adding a document does not change your profile. Any profile can carry documents, so Closed book + calculator with a case study attached works exactly as you would expect. Open book with documents is only for documents that open read-only in Word. See Giving students documents.

If you find yourself making the same override on every exam you set, ask for a profile instead. That is a five-minute job for whoever administers eSAM and saves you doing it every time see Exam profiles.

The settings, in plain words

Exam screen mode

How the PC is locked to the exam. Separate desktop is the most secure: the exam runs on a desktop of its own, and nothing else is on it. Standard desktop is needed for Teams invigilation and for screen readers, because those need to reach the student's normal desktop.

Keyboard shortcuts

Blocks the shortcuts that would let a student leave the exam — the Windows key, Alt+Tab, print screen and the rest. Ctrl+Alt+Del cannot be blocked by any software; the Windows security screen setting below is what limits what it offers.

Windows security screen

Hides Task Manager, Lock and Sign out on the Ctrl+Alt+Del screen for the exam. Everything is put back afterwards.

Clipboard

Copy and paste: off, allowed only within the exam, or on. Off is the usual choice.

Printing

Printing from the exam and from exam documents.

Blocked software

Other browsers, remote-access tools, command prompts, screen recorders, AI assistants and similar. eSAM ships with this list and keeps it up to date; you do not maintain it.

Allowed apps

The programs a student may open. Set these on the Apps tab, not here.

Web pages, downloads and uploads

Where the exam browser may go. Your Moodle site is always allowed. Add any other site the exam needs, and students reach it from Exam menu → Websites; each opens in a window with no address bar, and a link off the list will not open. Turn uploads on if any question asks students to attach a file.

Network lockdown

Limits the PC's network access to Moodle, eSAM and whatever allowed apps need. It stands aside for an exam with a Teams invigilation meeting, so a lockdown cannot kill your own call. Powerful, and worth testing on a real exam PC before you rely on it.

Extra screens

What happens when more than one screen is connected: allow, warn the invigilator, or refuse to start. Checked again if a screen is plugged in mid-exam.

Virtual machines

Whether an exam may run inside a virtual machine. Warning is the usual setting: some students legitimately run Windows in a VM on a Mac.

Remote access

Whether someone could be viewing or controlling the PC remotely. Blocking this is the normal choice for a supervised exam.

USB and removable storage

Stops files being written to USB sticks and other removable drives during the exam. Always on when a document opens read-only in Word, because that is the one mode where a student has a real file in front of them.

Window focus

Records when something other than the exam comes to the front, and raises an alert after a number of seconds you set.

Sleep and screen-off

Keeps the PC awake so a student is not locked out part-way through.

Leaving the exam

When a student may close eSAM, and whether an invigilator's release code works for this exam. Closing the window and Alt+F4 are always blocked. Leave release codes on unless you have a reason not to: they are the only way out for a student whose PC has lost its connection.

Two rules worth remembering

A screen reader needs Standard desktop. If a student uses one, that exam or that student, through an adjustment cannot run on a separate desktop. eSAM handles this for you when you apply the screen reader adjustment.

Warn rather than block when you are not sure. A blocked start on exam morning is a student who cannot sit the exam. A warning reaches the invigilator, who can make a judgement with the student in front of them.