How do you handle updating client on students BYOD endpoints?

[MarkBlondal]

How do you guys handle the update process for students needing to update their SEB client?
Currently we have ~100 students running SEB 3.6 (The version, where the save as window doesn't work) which is manageable.

But in a month I'm looking at 1.000+ students running SEB, and it struck me that I don't know how the software handles updates?
It would be quite the hassle to have a large part of the students stuck on an old version, if we run into an error that gets fixed in a newer version. As is the case with 3.6 and the updated 3.6.1 version, fixing a critical bug.

So how are you handling the running update requirement?

[danschlet]

There is a feature for a version check in SEB for Windows and SEB Server. Because of lack of developer resources, the feature wasn't added to SEB for macOS yet (should come soon, but it won't be helpful for a while as long as older versions are in circulation). Best would be anyways to check the SEB version server-side, which some assessment systems and LMS actually do.

Currently the only client-side way how to enforce specific SEB versions to be used would be to use the BrowserExamKey in an assessment system/LMS, as the BEK is version-dependent (but not easy to use).

But if we provide the version check for all platforms, we could theoretically add a more or less automatic *Download SEB update" dialog and feature for the case students use an outdated SEB version to access an exam (opening its SEB configuration with a version restriction set). Maybe if confirmed, SEB could trigger the download of the latest version and upon completion instruct students how to open the new version or start an installation/update process and then quit itself.

We don't really want to add a fully automatic auto updater process, which would constantly be running in the background, as that would not align with our software strategy.