Can Professors See Other Tabs

Whether you’re writing an online test, in an online class, or simply browsing, you may be concerned your professor can see your activities or at the very least they might notice when you switch tabs.

One of the biggest challenges of online learning is supervising student activities during online classes and tests. Supervising an assessment remotely is harder than supervising a room, which is why institutions reach for software to do it.

This page sets out what is actually visible in each setup, and what is not. Worth saying at the top: what a tool can technically observe and what your institution permits are two separate questions, and it is the second one you are judged against.

There’s however no straightforward answer to this question as this depends purely on the scenario. So, to answer this question, we’ll first take a look at various instances where professors can and cannot see other tabs.

When Can Professors See Other Tabs

School Computer

While most schools that equip their students with laptops do not always install tracking software on them, there’re some institutions that go the distance in an attempt to monitor and limit student access to certain sites and misuse.

If you’re using a laptop provided by your institution, the institution can track your activities during tests only if they have tracking software installed. If the laptop has no such software installed, tab activity is not something the institution can see through the device itself. That is a limit of how the device is configured, not of what the exam allows — the proctoring and lockdown-browser layers below apply regardless, and switching tabs during an assessment is a violation at most institutions whether or not anything records it.

It’s worth noting that this is also contingent on the next point.

Proctoring Software

Proctoring applications have become common as institutions continue to leverage them for remote invigilation. To curb examination malpractice in online examinations, some educational institutions resort to the use of proctoring tools like Proctorio, ProctorU (now part of Meazure Learning), and Honorlock.

These tools serve as remote proctors by accessing computer webcam and microphones to record student activities during online tests. Any attempts at cheating or any activities deemed as suspicious by the artificial intelligence or human proctors would be flagged for review after the test.

They also record the computer screen during online tests and any attempts at opening another tab can also be flagged and recorded for further review. In the case where real-life proctors are on the other end, they could intervene for further clarification from students.

Not only this but some also leverage LockDown Browsers.

LockDown Browsers

If you’re in the online learning space, you may have heard of LockDown Browsers. These browsers have become popular for both positive and negative reasons.

LockDown browsers lock the testing environment preventing students from accessing other applications, switching or opening tabs, minimizing, opening other browsers, printing, copy-pasting, and various other user activities.

While their usefulness is undeniable, some students have expressed privacy concerns over the level of access LockDown Browsers have to a student’s computer during an online test.

Essentially, these browsers take a high level of control over the computer during a test, blocking activities the exam has not authorised. What any particular deployment captures is decided by the institution rather than fixed by the product, which is exactly why the only reliable answer to “what can my professor see?” comes from your own school’s published policy for that assessment.

LockDown Browsers control the exam computer, but they do not record the room, so on their own they cannot account for anything happening away from that machine. That is why institutions generally either pair them with a webcam layer such as Respondus Monitor, or use them where a real invigilator is present — in an examination center or a supervised school hall.

Respondus LockDown Browser and Respondus Monitor are two different products, and the difference matters. LockDown Browser, in Respondus’s own words, “locks down the browser on a computer or tablet” so students cannot “copy, print, access other applications, or visit other websites during an online exam”. It restricts what you can do — it does not film you. Respondus Monitor is the separate webcam layer that “builds upon LockDown Browser”, where “students use a webcam to record themselves during an online exam” and flagged events are reviewed by the instructor afterwards. An exam can use LockDown Browser alone, or LockDown Browser with Monitor added.

That is why an exam that needs remote supervision generally pairs the two: LockDown Browser closes off the shortcuts, and Monitor records the session for later review. Which combination you face is set by your institution, not by the software vendor.

School Internet

While using the school’s internet doesn’t necessarily mean the school would be able to track any open tabs, they can still track your MAC address and any sites you attempted visiting during the test.

Some may go as far as to block access to other sites so students aren’t tempted to try searching for answers online.

Event Listeners

While these aren’t LockDown Browsers, event listeners can be implemented to run in the user’s browser which can be triggered by various actions including switching tabs or windows.

Some websites can use the JavaScript Page Visibility API to listen for the visibilitychange event on the document object to determine if the document is visible or hidden. To put it simply, it checks to see whether a user has switched to another tab or window.

Users usually get a warning to refrain from switching tabs and subsequent attempts could lead to paper cancellation. The professor may then be notified should the warning show up again if a student continues their attempt to switch tabs.

When Can’t Professors See Other Tabs

Personal Computers

The device matters, but not as a way around supervision. On a personal laptop your school has no management software installed, so nothing is monitoring you outside the exam tool itself. On a school-managed computer the institution may have installed monitoring software that operates independently of any test. If you are unsure which rules apply to an assessment, the honest and far safer route is to ask the instructor what the tool actually monitors — institutions publish this, and being flagged for something you did not realise was prohibited is a much worse outcome than asking.

No Proctoring Software

Your institution is bound to inform you should your test be remotely proctored. In this case, it’s advisable to refrain from attempting to open any new tabs irrespective of whose computer you’re using.

Proctoring applications record student activities and background during tests and also record the computer screen. Any attempts to open a new tab would be flagged by these tools for review.

No LockDown Browser

Where no LockDown Browser is in use, nothing is closing off the browser itself — those tools are what restrict minimizing windows, opening applications, and switching or opening tabs. Their absence tells you the technical restriction is not there; it does not tell you the assessment permits tab switching. Most do not, and the rule is set by your institution rather than by whichever software it happened to license.

No Event Listeners

If a site has no event listeners watching for changes in document visibility (visible or hidden), a tab switch raises no warning in the page itself. That is a gap in what the page can observe, not in what the exam requires — platforms that care about this add either visibility listeners or a lockdown browser precisely to close it.

Can Professors See Other Tabs

Now that we have an idea of when and how professors can see or not see students switching to other tabs, we’ll attempt to answer the primary question.

Yes, professors can see other tabs if your online test is proctored or the testing page uses JavaScript’s Page Visibility API to identify a change in the test page’s active status. However, tests that require a LockDown Browser would restrict students’ ability to open or switch tabs during tests.

With the advancements in technology, your instructor doesn’t even need to use proctoring software to identify students who switched tabs. It’s advisable to avoid this action during online tests unless explicitly permitted by your instructor to avoid any penalties.

While your intentions may be innocent, it’s worth remembering that breaching your professor’s instructions could be considered cheating which is frowned on by most educational institutions. Punishments could range from suspension to dismissal.

Can A Website See What Other Tabs Are Open

No, websites cannot view the data in other tabs directly. However, some websites use cookies, which are little pieces of information that websites can keep in your browser. If two websites utilize the same advertising or monitoring network, your browser history on both sites may be tracked and linked.

Social network scripts may also be used as tracking programs. Users would however be informed to accept cookies before a website can store cookies in the user’s browser.

Can Teachers See Your Tabs On Zoom

No, Zoom has no functionality that allows teachers, hosts, or anyone else to see a user’s open tabs. However, sharing your screen on Zoom would enable teachers and others to see every activity on the computer screen.