Search & Destroy Guide- Blackboard

This guide is specificly for Blackboard and Blackboard Ultra with Classic View, for Canvas & D2L please click here Search and Destroy Guide- Canvas & D2L and for Third Party Assessments, click here Search & Destroy Guide- Third Party Assessments.

Exam content is often shared online and students can find exam's questions and answers with a simple Google search. Our revamped feature provides the structure to protect your exam questions, and encourages students to maintain academic integrity. 

As an instructor or exam administrator, you need clarity on which of your questions have been shared online and clear actions you can take to protect your exam's integrity.

Utilizing Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) takedown functions is part of the challenge, but what about questions that have leaked out onto multiple websites? Sending emails to several sites is not an effective solution. Honorlock's revamped Search & Destroy^TM will identify these commonly found questions, empowering you to update your exam content to be more secure. In addition, Search & Destroy^TMputs the control in your hands regarding DMCA takedown requests. You can select specific questions or send DMCA takedown notices to the entire batch with one click.

This feature is available to all Honorlock clients at no additional charge. Once your Blackboard exam is enabled with Honorlock, you will have the ability to export your exam questions and upload them into our LTI to utilize Search & Destroy^TM. Currently, Search & Destroy^TM may only be initiated once per exam, so please be mindful to complete this process once your exam questions are ready to be processed. 

How It Works (Blackboard)

In order to use Search & Destroy^TM, you must export your questions from Blackboard. In these next steps, we will provide instructions on how to upload your exam questions 

1) Upload Your Exam Questions 

1. Once logged into your Blackboard instance as an instructor, navigate to your desired course. 
2. Remember you need to have created an assessment within the Learning Management System and enabled it with Honorlock. For more information on enabling your assessments with Honorlock, please visit the Using Honorlock with Blackboard knowledge base article and for more information, please visit the Honorlock Knowledge Base.
3. Next, within the menu on the left-hand side, proceed to click on Course Tools. Once the drop-down list expands, click on Tests, Surveys, and Pools.

2) On the Tests, Surveys, and Pools page, click on Tests.  

3) To export your desired exam, hover over the name of the assessment and click on the gray drop-down button. Proceed to click on Export. Please note that the exported file will save as a .zip file. You will need to be able to access this file when importing your exam questions into our LTI. Therefore, it is important to save the exported file to your computer, or know how to access the file via the Downloads directory within your browser.

4) Once you have exported your exam questions, navigate to the Honorlock LTI within your course. Please reach out to your institution's or organization's Key Administrator if you require additional assistance with locating our LTI. 

5) Locate your enabled assessment and proceed to click on Settings.

6) Click on the Search & Destroy^TM tab and then proceed to click on Question Upload. 

7) From the upload page, you will have the ability to either drag in, or select, your .zip file containing your exam’s questions.

8) Once you have selected your question file, review the questions to ensure that they have been uploaded correctly. Once you are satisfied, proceed to click on Save to process. 

9) Within the Honorlock LTI, select Results on the assessment you want to manage.

10) Navigate to the Search & Destroy^TM tab.

In this tab, the assessment’s search results will appear. Questions are placed into three categories: Compromised Items, Commonly Found Items, and Unique Items.  

Compromised Items:

These questions were found on five or fewer supported websites. Honorlock can process DMCA takedown requests for at least one of these websites if the exam administrator owns the assessment content. 

To initiate the DMCA takedown process for questions in the Compromised Items category, select the Send Takedown to All button. If you wish to view detailed results within this category, select the dropdown icon on the right.

Commonly Found Items:

These questions were found on more than five websites, or on zero supported websites. We recommend changing these questions.

Unique Items:

These questions were not found in Honorlock’s search results. These are unique questions your students will likely not find online. Remember to click on the dropdown icon on the right to view detailed results of your questions for any of the result categories.  

Click Search and Destroy FAQ for Frequently Asked Questions.