"Ghost copy-pasting" in essay questions

[swz23]

We've been noticing a strange problem during SEB exams using Moodle. While writing in essay text boxes, text bits are randomly inserted and replaced in the current text box, but also in the question text. The text fragments come and go as the user types or even drags the text window to resize it.

Here are two videos showing the problem:

https://github.com/SafeExamBrowser/seb-mac/assets/151922501/480b479f-ff32-4d51-b008-dc6b3e1d87d4

https://github.com/SafeExamBrowser/seb-mac/assets/151922501/9045d4b8-7470-48aa-8417-2ce18ae4187d

Observations:

• Only happens on Macs (Both Intel and M1), not on Windows
• Only observed on macOS 14.0 and 14.1.1
• started happening around two months ago (around release of macOS 14)
• Only affects a sample of users, perhaps 5-10%
• I personally can't replicate it on an Intel MacBook Pro with macOS 14.1.1 and SEB 3.3
• Doesn't affect users every time, sometimes it works fine (without hardware / software changes)
• Page reload / previous+next page doesn't solve it
• hasn't been observed without SEB
• occurs on SEB 3.3
• Moodle version used: 4.1.2+ (Build: 20230318), no 3rd party theme etc.
• The text pieces are fragments of previously written text in the same quiz

We'd be very grateful for tips and ideas on causes and solutions, thanks a lot and best regards! Happy to provide further info as needed.

[danschlet]

I have the feeling that this is similar to what I observed with the current Safari version and the GitHub text editor (on macOS 13, but Safari always has the latest WebKit version, should be same as on macOS 14).

I guess you're using a recent Moodle version? Can you pinch-to-zoom with the trackpad (that shows if SEB is using the modern WebView)?

I guess we should do an Internet search if this happens in Safari or in other browsers/apps using WKWebView on macOS 14.

[danschlet]

PS: This is with high certainty a macOS/WebKit issue. SEB doesn't implement the web engine itself, that's an API in the operating system. Don't think that any customizations which SEB does (on a higher level) could cause such an issue.

[swz23]

Thanks for the quick feedback!

We're running Moodle 4.1.2+ (Build: 20230318), pinch-to-zoom works.

[swz23]

Curious: In case you're able to reproduce the similar problem you mentioned with Safari and the Github text editor: Does it persist with macOS 14.1.2?

[swz23]

I can confirm that it still happens with macOS 14.1.2. Let's see whether 14.2 helps. edit: Still happens with 14.2.

(02.02.24) and still happens with macOS 14.3 and SEB 3.3.2

[danschlet]

Duplicate of https://github.com/SafeExamBrowser/seb-mac/issues/341.

Not the same editor though, I removed the duplicate label, but I assume it's the same underlying WebKit issue.

[swz23]

This thread seems to deal with the exact same problem: https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/new-text-typing-bug-where-text-gets-randomly-replaced.2407661/

macOS 14.3.1 was just released and should hopefully fix the issue. "Today's update addresses a frustrating ‌macOS Sonoma‌ bug that could cause text to get randomly replaced while typing." (https://www.macrumors.com/2024/02/08/apple-releases-macos-sonoma-14-3-1/)

[danschlet]

Yeah, I thought the same when I saw the release note for iOS 17.3.1, which seems to have had the same issue. Let's hope this is really fixed.

[swz23]

I think this issue can be closed, haven't seen it happening on any updated devices in the last few weeks.

[moehzhaw]

Hi We guess that this happens when you have more than one essay question on one Moodle-Test-Page. I can't confirm this guess yet... but according to this guess, there should be no problem when you put only one essay question per page.

[danschlet]

This seems to be fixed in current macOS and iOS versions.