Open Book Online Exams as Opportunities for Authentic Problems Solving
How to craft thought provoking exams that allow students to apply and expand upon their learning.
By Gwenna Moss Centre for Teaching and LearningStart with the “Why” of Assessment
When planning online exams, it's crucial to start with the fundamental questions:
- What do we want students to be able to do?
- How can they best demonstrate that?
These questions guide the type of assessment we choose and its design.
Limitations of Open Book Exams
Open book exams are not ideal for assessing basic knowledge and understanding. When students have access to resources during an exam, it becomes challenging to evaluate their ability to memorize or explain fundamental information. Therefore, open book exams should not be used to assess learning outcomes that require memorization or basic comprehension.
The Value of Open Book Exams
Open book exams excel at assessing higher-order thinking skills and the authentic application of learning. They are particularly effective for evaluating students' ability to apply, analyze, or evaluate information, and to create something based on their knowledge. This mirrors real-world scenarios where individuals have access to various tools and resources.
Importance of Authentic Problem Solving
Authentic problem solving is vital for learning because it helps determine if students have met course learning outcomes. It allows students to apply their knowledge and skills in varied ways, making connections between classroom learning and real-world contexts. This practice enhances their ability to transfer learning to future situations.
Traditional exams often fall short in assessing students' ability to put knowledge into action. Open book exams that involve authentic problem solving provide opportunities for students to practice and deepen their critical and creative problem-solving skills.
Designing Open Book Assessments to Support Authentic Problem Solving
In order to give students optimal opportunity to engage in authentic problem solving, consider the following suggestions for its design:
- Give students sufficient time to complete the exam. Open book exams may be lengthier than other types of exams as authentic problem solving takes time.
- Consider allowing collaboration. Most real-world problem solving allows for collaboration. Students may collaborate on the whole exam or hand in their independent work and then redo it together with a group or undertake additional exam questions with a group of peers.
- Provide real world scenarios specific to your discipline. If you are having trouble building scenarios with sufficient detail you may want to ask AI for some ideas.
- Incorporate reflection questions. This encourages students to reflect in other situations and gives the instructor a chance to see students’ thinking processes and where they may need further support. When assigning reflection questions consider how to best format them to encourage students to complete them independently rather than with AI.
When you are writing questions that include problem solving situations use question types that support high order thinking. Some easy ways to do this include:
- Scenarios or case studies – present a scenario and have students think deeply about it, analyze elements of it, or make decisions about the best course of action.
- Data analysis or visualization - provide data for students to analyze, make predictions with or model.
- Critical review– provide examples or texts for students to critically evaluate.
- Improve upon an exemplar – provide students with a sample and have them identify and correct issues or improve it in a specific manner you have indicated.
- Design tasks – have students design or propose something new and share their reasoning regarding their choices for their creation.
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This article was created with the assistance of AI tools, as described in the GMCTL AI Disclosure Statement.