Can Moodle detect cheating or tab switching in a quiz?

Not on its own, at least not in the way most people imagine. A standard Moodle quiz runs in a normal web page, and it cannot see other tabs, other programs, a phone on the desk or another person in the room. Standard Moodle quizzes do not include tab-switch detection; some third-party plugins and proctoring tools add it.

What Moodle does record:

• When each attempt started and finished, and how long it took.
• Each response, with timing, in the quiz reports and response history.
• Logs of activity, including IP addresses.

Teachers use this data to spot patterns, such as very fast attempts, identical wrong answers or attempts from the same address, but it is evidence to look into, not proof.

Settings that make cheating harder (in the quiz settings):

• Open and close times, and a time limit with automatic submission.
• Random questions from a question bank and shuffled answers, so learners see different papers.
• Sequential navigation (no going back).
• Require a password, or restrict to a network address range, which the documentation notes is useful for a supervised (invigilated) quiz in a room.
• "Full screen pop-up with some JavaScript security". Moodle's own documentation says this is not fool-proof.

Tools that add control:

• Safe Exam Browser, a free lockdown browser that Moodle supports directly (see the separate question).
• Proctoring tools, which monitor the learner by webcam, microphone or screen. These raise privacy and legal questions, especially in the EU.

In practice, no technical measure stops all cheating. Many teachers combine sensible settings with exam design that makes cheating less useful.