Schoolyear for students

What is Schoolyear?

Schoolyear Lockdown Browser is a secure environment that helps maintain academic integrity by limiting student access to unauthorised websites, applications, and resources during online exams.

Schoolyear is currently only being run in a select number of digital exams. Check with your subject coordinators prior to your exam to know which Lockdown Browser you will be using and prepare accordingly.

If your digital exam uses Respondus Lockdown Browser, see LockDown Browser student guide.

Preparing for a Schoolyear digital exam

Only laptops are considered an acceptable device to bring into the exam venue. Tablets, mobile phones and other digital devices may not be used to take your digital exam.

If you need to borrow a University laptop with Schoolyear Lockdown Browser, pre-installed, fill in the request to borrow a laptop form available on the laptop preparation (on-campus exams) page.

Note: You will not receive a confirmation email and you will need to fill out this form for each exam you require a laptop for.

Downloading and installing Schoolyear Lockdown Browser

You will need to download and install Schoolyear Lockdown Browser prior to your exam.

For more information on how to download and install Schoolyear into your device, see:

Launching a Schoolyear Lockdown Browser exam from Canvas

Schoolyear Lockdown Browser exams are compatible with Google Chrome, Firefox, Microsoft Edge, and Safari.

To launch a Schoolyear exam, see the following:

  1. Log into Canvas and navigate to the Assignments page for the relevant subject.
  2. Click into your exam in the Assignment list. If you have never taken a Schoolyear exam, click Authorise to allow Schoolyear to link to your Canvas account.

Screenshot of the Schoolyear LTI authorisation window on Canvas. There are two buttons prompting users to either cancel or authorise the LTI access to their Canvas account.

  1. Click Launch Schoolyear. A new tab will open in your browser for the Schoolyear exams page.

Screenshot of a LMS Classic Quiz start window. The quiz’s due date, points, number of questions, availability window, and time limit is visible. At the bottom of the image, there is a blue ‘Launch Schoolyear’ button.

  1. Click Launch Schoolyear and allow any required permissions when prompted by your browser. If there are any updates to Schoolyear, this will run automatically.

Screenshot of a window prompting users to launch Schoolyear. There is a blue ‘Launch Schoolyear' button in the middle of the window, and a smaller, white ‘Download now’ button underneath it for users who have yet to download the software to their devices.

  1. Ensure that you have saved any work on your laptop. Any applications that you have open will be closed in the next steps.
  2. Click Launch your Workspace. Schoolyear will perform a series of checks before starting the exam.*
    1. If you are on a Mac device, the Schoolyear Exam Workspace will launch.
    2. If you are on a Windows device, you will be logged out of Windows. Log back into Windows and the Schoolyear Exam Workspace will launch.
  3. Click Take the Quiz to start your exam in Canvas.
  4. Follow the instructions in Canvas to complete your exam.

* If any of these checks fail, raise your hand to get assistance from exam staff on the day. If you are launching your exam before the official start time, it is normal for these checks to pause at the Load configuration step. The checks will continue at the exam start time. When all the checks pass, the Schoolyear browser will open the exam launch page in Canvas.

Taking a practice Schoolyear Lockdown Browser quiz

You can take a practice exam to check your Schoolyear Lockdown Browser set-up. To do so:

  1. Self-enrol in the Schoolyear Test Community.
  2. Take the practice LMS quiz with Schoolyear Lockdown Browser installed on your device.

Laptop checks for Schoolyear

Prior to sitting for a Schoolyear exam, you will need to perform laptop checks on your devices.

For detailed instructions on how to run a laptop check for your device, see:

This guide was last updated 18 Sep 2026.

Submit an LMS support request for further assistance or to report any errors or omissions in this guide.