After using SEB, my home screen is different and i do not know why.

[debug8377]

Describe the bug
After using the application, i reopened my home screen and noticed it looks different. Is this a new feature or a bug? if this is, i would suggest to remove it since it is very annoying to have to rearrange your home screen after every exam. I had exams a month ago and i have not noticed this problem, though with an exam i had today it seems like it's the first time this has occured.

To Reproduce
Steps to reproduce the behavior:

1. Open SEB
2. Enter Exam mode
3. Input the exit password
4. See error (which in this case is the different home screen

Expected behavior
If you have arranged your home screen prior to opening SEB, it will probably be messed up.

Screenshots

the home screen prior opening SEB, taken way before the exam today

the home screen after opening SEB, taken earlier today after the exam)

Version Information
Please complete the following information:

• OS: iPadOS 17.6.1 (21G93)
• SEB Version 3.4

If this is a new feature, please tell me how to deactivate it, or add a feature to deactivate it. If this is a bug, please fix it immediately. Thank you.

[danschlet]

That must be a bug in iPadOS. SEB cannot in any way access or change the home screen or any other system components or other apps. But Apple changed the functionality of the Automatic Assessment Configuration (AAC) Assessment mode (which SEB uses) to include the new multi-app feature, which temporarily removes items from the home screen. Of course the home screen should look the same after the AAC mode is ended. It looks like the changed AAC mode doesn't work well on at least iPadOS 17.6.1, see also this issue: #445 (reply in thread)

I will report this issue to Apple. I would recommend to update to iPadOS 17.7 or 18, hopefully this bug is fixed there. At least the updated AAC mode works better on iPadOS 18.

I will remove support for this updated AAC API when running on iOS 17.x just to be sure in the next SEB update as well.