Open Book Open Web (OBOW) exams
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This document discusses open-book, open-web (OBOW) exams as an alternative form of assessment to traditional closed-book exams. OBOW exams are presented as a more authentic form of assessment that allows students to solve open-ended, real-world problems by drawing on their full breadth of learning. They aim to foster deep learning over cramming by giving students a role, such as advisor or consultant, within a scenario presented through multimedia. Guidelines are provided for constructing OBOW exams, including gathering multimedia materials to contextualize problems and defining parameters without being too prescriptive. OBOW exams are argued to better equip students with 21st century skills compared to traditional exams.
Open Book Open Web (OBOW) exams
- 1. nomination for Higher Education: Best Innovation in Open and Distance Learning Award digitalLEARNING World Education Awards Delhi, India, July 2011
- 2. Overview 1. Why OBOW exams? 2. What is an OBOW exam? 3. How to construct an OBOW exam 4. A Sample OBOW exam 5. Summary and conclusions 2
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- 4. Defining characteristic • A commitment to • “... Engaging and worthy problems or questions of importance, in which students must use knowledge to fashion performances effectively and .” Grant Wiggins 4
- 5. 5 • multiple-choice tests • fill-in-the-blanks • true-false • matching words • … Students are passive learners Authentic assessment is not:
- 6. "Life is an open book exam." • Learners need to be convinced of the authenticity of the task if they are to fully engage Professor Alan Blinder Princeton University 6
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- 10. Constructive alignment (Biggs 1999) Is there is between the traditional examination instrument, and term time pedagogy and defined learning outcomes? 10
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- 12. How often do people solve problems in real life by locking themselves in a room for 3 hours with no books, no web access, not talking to anyone, answering MCQs? 12
- 13. 13 Is a closed book, invigilated exam more likely to foster … or cramming/ data dumping?
- 14. “Mugging up” is for mugs • Deep learning will occur only when the learner is , , or , incoming stimuli … • Authentic, real-world, workplace-integrated assessment is 14
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- 16. In brief … • A semi-structured ‘mini-case (or ‘caselette’) • Harnesses the power of ICTs to emphasise currency and real world authenticity • A summative assessment item … … invites the student to draw on all that they have learnt (determining what is relevant). 16
- 17. Dull? Boring? Something to fear? • Final assessment • Boredom and stress not conducive to deep learning • Important to catch the imagination and appeal to the creativity of the learner • Multimedia enhancements increase student satisfaction and learning (O'Brien and Seawell 2004; Vaughan 2001) 17
- 18. Key features • Students play the role of decision-maker, auditor, consultant or advisor • They are presented with a unstructured (open-ended) problem that requires resolution (usually in the form of a set of recommendations) • No pre-exam night 'cramming' 18
- 19. The template the setting in which the problem/situation is identified and framed the project and issues to resolve the setting of parameters and suggestions about methods/concepts/models/tools to employ. 19
- 20. The ground rules • To minimise the scope for unethical behaviour … 1) Time period for the exam must be sufficiently tight 1) Make clear (as a stated objective of the subject) that is the key to success 1) 'Text-book' impersonal responses will not attract high grades. 20
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- 22. An MBA module offered by a KU college … • The programme is offered online 22
- 24. 24 Images and multimedia help to contextualise problem
- 26. 26 Links to short articles on the story
- 28. Students have 24 hours to submit … 28 Remains authentic throughout
- 29. You have to have invigilated exams or students will cheat 29
- 30. 1) Students cheat during invigilated exams 1) In the adult learner context, only a small percentage will attempt to cheat 2) These people will cheat whatever the exam instrument Seldom observed points 30
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- 32. Getting started • Keep a look out for material all the time (not exam time!) • e.g. Local newspaper, periodical websites, magazines, television news or current affairs programmes 32
- 33. What to look for • A that learners can easily relate to in lay terms • Objective: to get them to about an issue • Student to act as ‘expert witness’ – an effective mechanism for the validation of their learning in their own minds 33
- 34. Creating a scenario • Having settled on a theme, gather together various media that can bring the case to life • The inclusion of hyperlinks, photographs and/or streaming media adds a human dimension 34
- 35. Lead characters • No story is complete without lead characters • Using people with names, and pictures and voices acts as a catalyst to student engagement • Fictional characters must give the appearance of being real! 35
- 36. Setting • Role play the bridge between a learner's education and their professional practice • Placing the learner in the role of the key decision maker, the expert advisor, or the auditor • Revisit the stated learning outcomes 36
- 37. Defining the parameters • The definition of the assessment task might amount to no more than a paragraph • Ideally it should invite a wide of variety of 37
- 38. Striking a balance • Avoid 'spoon-feeding' but … • … not so unstructured a student is either struck by 'writers block' or goes off in the wrong direction. 38
- 39. Expectations • Before writing , it is helpful to develop an outline of the kind of response one expects from the learner and, importantly, … • This process may also lead to being refined 39
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- 41. OBOW exams … • A form of assessment that fosters as opposed to a display of inert knowledge • Test problem-solving skills not memory • Equips learners with 21st Century skills 41
- 42. What OBOW exams deliver… • An assessment instrument that is more relevant to goals of the curriculum, greater authenticity, where real-world problems take centre-stage • Allow ICTs to be harnessed to encourage interaction • Student engagement with the assessment task induces • Low cost solution for exam delivery in open and distance learning 42
- 43. • Studies show stimulation with audio will increase retention rate by 20%. If stimulated with audiovisual, memory retention climbs to 30%. If presented with interactive multimedia involvement, the retention rate can be as high as 60%. 43
- 44. References • Williams, Jeremy B. (2009)The efficacy of the final examination: a comparative study of closed-book, invigilated exams and open-book, open-web exams (with Amy Wong), British Journal of Educational Technology, 40 (2), 227-236). • Williams, Jeremy B. (2007) E-xams: harnessing the power of ICTs to enhance authenticity, (with Wing Lam and Alton Chua), Educational Technology and Society, 10 (3), 209-221. • Williams, Jeremy B. (2007) Using digital storytelling as an assessment instrument: Preliminary findings at an online university, (with Kanishka Bedi), Proceedings of the 11th CAA Conference, pp.433-447, Loughborough, England, 10-11 July. • Williams, Jeremy B. (2006) The place of the closed book, invigilated final examination in a knowledge economy, Educational Media International, 43(2), 107-119. 44
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