For the educators, open book exam can allow them to create more open-ended questions, which can encourage students to think more creatively and apply their knowledge in new and innovative ways, especially final year students whom we hope to be able to show the effect of the education that they have had at UM. Done correctly, it can save educators time on grading and creating exam questions since they do not have to worry about memorization-based questions. What is needed from students is the problem solving skills. Open book exams align better with real-world problems simulating real-world scenarios, where resources are readily available. This requires a departure from lecture-based teaching which focuses on facts instead of application of knowledge.
Open book exams can improve teaching practice as answering it require deeper understanding of the subject matter and so educators need to develop skills to get students to apply knowledge even during class time. Prof Aziz, our resident expert argues that questions for open book exams are synthesised in such a way that the students are allowed to refer to resources (partially, fully or limited) and done with or without supervision (in the exam room setup, or online with monitoring or without monitoring) and with special requirements imposed (plagiarism, time, no communication tools, etc). There are restrictions that could be instated as a policy to limit the number of reference material for a more controlled open book where materials are scarce, or an allowed ‘cheat sheet’ limited to several pages of notes that students could carry into the exam. These resources can be in the form of reference books, articles, notes, that students bring themselves into the exam hall, apart from the exam materials supplied by the university such as statutes, standard forms, and the like.
Open book exams are simply assessments of learning that allows the exam takers to refer to external resources during the conduct of the exam. The objective of these exams are two-fold, to develop students’ higher-order thinking skills and their ability to communicate it effectively, whilst also mitigating the potential for cheating during exams, especially online exams. This blog post aims to elaborate on the practical aspects of implementing open book exams and to discuss effective strategies for conducting them. The Guideline for Open Book Exams has been endorsed by the university senate in June 2022 to provide more comprehensive information on the purpose and execution of such exams.
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