This project aims to inspect possible links between examination types, student wellbeing, and academic performance. Specifically in-class closed-book and take-home open-book examinations will be inspected. Future recommendations regarding education will hopefully benefit from the insights gained in this project.  

Background

In the previous two academic years (2019-2020 and 2020-2021) we have conducted a study within 1 bachelor and 1 master course in the sociology department to gain insights into the link between examination type (in-class closed-book examination and take-home open-book examination), student wellbeing and academic performance, especially long-term knowledge retention, which had resulted in an intermittent report and a publication in the Journal of Assessment & Evaluation in Higher Education. In this subsequent project, we aim to expand on both the scientific quality and practical applications within educational goals and assessments.

Project description

Due to Covid regulations, this project has been partly postponed and will hopefully be able to take place these two years without any resitrictions. In the next round of surveys, we will measure the role of study techniques, and learning methods (e.g. surface vs deep learning) in fostering academic performance and knowledge retention. Research addressing the relationship between exam type and student outcomes suggests that differences in learning processes are key to understand variation in knowledge retention following in-class closed book or take-home open book examinations. 

Results

The output of the previous funding round was a publication in The Journal of Assessment & Evaluation in Higher Education (article), as well as an intermediary report sent to the vice-deans at the end of the academic year 2019-2020. The additional two data collection moments are crucial for us to produce an in-depth teacher examination guide for program and course coordinators who might be considering the value of take-home open-book versus in-class closed book examinations. Our initial findings will be shared with educational experts and students in a colloquium to gain additional perspective and provide feedback on our recommendations to teachers. The teacher examination guide will include four sub sections:

1. A summary of our findings.
2. An overview of (dis)advantages to different examination types.
3. Recommendations for particular learning goals.
4. Relevant feedback from different educational actors.