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How To Create Open Book Exams

An open book exam allows students to use class notes, textbooks, and other materials while taking the exam. The goal is to encourage higher-order thinking by requiring students to apply and analyze concepts rather than just recall facts. When designing open book exams, teachers should ask questions that assess interpretation, application, and critical thinking rather than just knowledge recall. Effective questions may involve case studies, scenarios, or examples that require students to use their materials to think through problems and issues.

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79 views2 pages

How To Create Open Book Exams

An open book exam allows students to use class notes, textbooks, and other materials while taking the exam. The goal is to encourage higher-order thinking by requiring students to apply and analyze concepts rather than just recall facts. When designing open book exams, teachers should ask questions that assess interpretation, application, and critical thinking rather than just knowledge recall. Effective questions may involve case studies, scenarios, or examples that require students to use their materials to think through problems and issues.

Uploaded by

Naman Singh
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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How to Create Open Book Exams

What Is an Open Book Exam?

An "open book examination" is an assessment method designed in a way that allows students to
refer to class notes, textbooks, or other approved material while answering questions. An open
book exam can also mean that students are provided with the exam questions prior to writing the
exam.

Why Use Them?

The main premise for open book exams is that teachers can create questions that require students
to answer in more critical and analytical ways. This encourages high-order thinking skills in
students, as compared to closed book or traditional exams that tend to encourage memorization.

What Are the Pitfalls?

The main issues that arise when making use of open book exams is that teachers may not know
how to create effective exam questions that require students to apply their knowledge through
analysis and critical thinking. Students may be lulled into a false sense of security and fail to
properly prepare for an open book exam. Students may falsely assume that the exam will be easy,
and they will be able to find all the answers in the textbook or on their memory aid.

Tips When Designing Open Book Exams

Questions in open book exams need to be created to assess the interpretation and application of
knowledge, comprehension skills, and critical thinking skills rather than only knowledge recall.

Here are some tips:

• Use case studies and scenarios that require students to apply critical thinking skills
• Create clear and unambiguous questions to limit time spent interpreting the question so
students can spend their time making use of their textbook or memory aid to effectively
answer the questions
• Devise questions that require students to apply and make use of the information from
their textbook or notes rather than simply requiring them to locate and re-write this
information
• Design your questions and overall exam paper with the learning outcomes in mind i.e.
what skills and knowledge are you assessing?
How to Phrase Open Book Exam Questions

Here are some example questions and starters:

Type of Students Are Asked To… Example Questions and Starters


Question
Knowing and Recall knowledge of subject • What, where, who, when,
Remembering matter relevant to the where…?
discussion. • How many…?
• List…
• Describe…
• Define…
Understanding Demonstrate understanding by • In your own words,
constructing meaning from • Explain how…
information. • What did X mean when…?
• Give an example of…
Applying Apply knowledge and • How would you use…?
understanding to a particular • What examples can you find to…?
task or problem. • How would you solve ___ using
what you’ve learned?
• What would happen if…?
Analyzing Examine different concepts and • What are the parts or features
make distinctions between of…?
them. • What are the competing
arguments within…?
• Why is X different to Y? Compare
and contrast…
• What is the relationship between
A and B?
Evaluating Make judgements about • What is most
concepts or ideas. important/effective?
• Which method is best?
• Which is the strongest argument?
Creating Develop new ideas from what • How would you design a…?
they know and understand. • What alternatives are there to…?
• What changes would you make?
• What would happen if…?
Suppose you could ___ what
would you do?
• How would you evaluate …?
• Can you formulate a theory for…?

Adapted from “A Guide for Academics – Open Book Exams” from the University of Newcastle:
https://www.newcastle.edu.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0006/268980/Open-Book-
Exams.pdf?fbclid=IwAR2NIKERdF5Tug6XugJgLbtGpmhx7PJ3pExkmCJTrF3uVc15N7ixL91Q9JU

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