open-book final

[Bill Purves]

Grant Cramer said/asked:

>I am considering an open-book final for my Plant Physiology class. Are
>there any pro and cons that any of you have experienced with this kind of
>exam?

There have been some useful responses already, but I'd like to chip in
with words of support:  DO IT, Grant!  But with certain limitations,
as others have already suggested.

In my last few years of teaching, I made ALL of my exams open-book.
(There was one exception, for a small, highly experimental class in
which I was doing enough nontraditional things (including having
students take their exams in student pairs) that I felt it would be
good to have SOME questions to be done closed-book.  My thought was
that if any of my traditional-minded colleagues in other departments
wanted to ask whether anything was actually being learned, I could
point to some traditional answers to traditional questions.)

There is a big con to literally open-book exams:  Students incline
to spend lots of exam time plowing hopefully through the book.  I
observed that particularly in introductory biology--during the exams
I would see dozens of students poring through stuff I knew wouldn't
help 'em.

That can be addressed by changing from "open-book" to "open-notes"
or, much better, "open-special-notes."  Several plant-edders have
mentioned little cards they could fill up for chem exams.  These
people have already pointed out the pedagogic benefits achieved
as students prepare their special notes that they bring to the exam.
I'd suggest allowing much more paper than a 3-by-5 card, though...

That, of course, is one of the pros.  There is also a big pro, mentioned
by at least one person, in allowing students to work together in
pairs or groups to prepare their "cheat sheets."  They're teaching
each other as they do it.  Any exercise in which students CHOOSE to
work together will yield a fine harvest of learning.  Encourage it.

A nice thing about open-book or open-notes exams is that they minimize
any tendency an instructor has to ask questions that simply require
regurgitation of facts/details.  And it means that you can put in
problem-type questions (including some quantitative ones) and give
them things to chew on--where they are not limited in their
opportunity to check the book or notes for detail needed to support
an analysis.

Let us know how your open-book exam works for you!

(bill)

William K. Purves               The Mona Group LLC
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