Open-book Exam

An open-book exam might be the right form of assessment to evaluate your course, when you want to assess knowledge, insight and higher-order skills of your students. Students can be stimulated to look at a problem from multiple perspectives. To adequately implement this type of examination in a course, it is important to realize how it is best constructed, and which potential pitfalls to take into account. Let's have a look!


An open-book exam is a type of assessment that can be used in all forms of teaching. Just like a take-home exam, it is a form of examination not to determine whether your students can memorize and recall certain information, but for them to demonstrate that they have understood the course material and are able to apply it to a different situation than the one they know from the books. On this page you will learn more about this type of assessment and which steps you need to take to implement it at the end of your course.

The way to do this #1:
Create open questions that will challenge students to analyse and apply their existing knowledge to a case or practical situation.  
The way to do this #2:
The number of questions should be sufficient, but not too many. This way, students are tested on their preparation, but they still have enough time to formulate well-founded answers.
The way to do this #3:
Prepare students for an open-book exam by providing them with clear instructions and one or two practice exams.  
The way to do this #4:
Use a plagiarism check.

 

How you can prepare your students

Pitfalls

  • Students often mistakenly think that open-book exams are easy and don't need much preparation as they can look everything up on the spot. However, students shouldn't have enough time to learn new things during the exam, especially if they get application questions. So communicate the expectations clearly to all the students. 

  • Since students are likely to make the open-book exam at home without surveillance, they can use all the resources at their disposal, including help from others. Therefore, always use a plagiarism check and make sure there is too little time for consultation with others.
 

Designing an Open-book Exam
Now you know that properly devised open-book examination require students to answer in more critical and analytical ways, it is important to show you which steps you should take to design this type of assessment.

Click on the button below to open a file with four tips you should take into account when designing an open-book exam.


Download step by step guide open-book exam

 



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