What is Open Book Examination (OBE)?
OBE stands for Open Book Exam and it enables students to refer to their notes or textbooks during examinations to answer questions. OBEs require different question sets that are not just theoretical or require a memorised answer, unlike regular examinations. OBE must ask questions that require a student to assess their learning and critical thinking ability and delve deeper into the subject. OBEs also test students’ comprehension and analytical skills.
What are the Merits of Open Book Exam?
Encourage critical thinking and analysis: Open book exams require students to go beyond rote memorization and focus on understanding and applying concepts. Students need to be able to critically evaluate information from their resources and use it to answer questions in a new way.
Reduce stress and anxiety: Open book exams can help to reduce stress and anxiety for students who are worried about forgetting information during traditional exams.
Better reflect real-world skills: In the real world, people have access to information when they need it. Open book exams can help to prepare students for this by assessing their ability to find, evaluate, and use information effectively.
What are the Demerits of Open Book Exam?
Potential for cheating: If not carefully designed, open book exams can create opportunities for cheating. Students may share information with each other or bring in unauthorized materials.
Increased difficulty in setting questions: It can be more difficult to set good open book exam questions that assess critical thinking and analysis rather than rote memorization.
May not level the playing field: Students from wealthier backgrounds may have access to better resources than students from poorer backgrounds, which could give them an unfair advantage in open book exams.
What are the Challenges for Paper Setters and Examiners in an OBE?
Designing good questions: As mentioned above, it can be more difficult to design good open book exam questions that assess critical thinking and analysis rather than rote memorization. Paper setters will need to carefully consider the types of questions they ask and the resources that students will have access to.
Preventing cheating: Paper setters and examiners will need to be vigilant in preventing cheating during open book exams. This may involve using different question formats, and monitoring students carefully (supervision).
Paper Assessment: This will be a serious challenge for examiners. When almost all students have copied the exact paragraphs from the same text book, how will the examiner differentiate between answers of different students? Will this not lead to a clubbing of marks where a very large number of students get the exact same mark? Are teachers trained to set questions appropriate for an OBE? Are examiners trained to assess papers of an OBE?
Why Are Parents Unhappy with the OBE Plan?
Parents have expressed unhappiness with the Open Book Examinations (OBE) for classes 9 to 12. They considered this experiment unnecessary. Their concerns are:
Concern about reduced learning: Some parents are concerned that open book exams will lead to students doing less studying and memorizing less information.
Potential for unfairness: As mentioned above, some parents are concerned that open book exams may not level the playing field for all students.
Unnecessary change: Some parents believe that open book exams are an unnecessary change that will create more problems than they solve.
How To take Notes in a lecture: Most schools and colleges do not teach the art of note taking in a lecture. Any OBE will permit lecture notes to be used in the exam. Have students been taught how to take notes during lectures, how to maintain and update those notes? No. How many books will be allowed inside the exam hall? Which books will be allowed? What if students bring cheat notes inside textbooks and how will the exam supervisor go around checking this in a class of 30-40 students?
Training: Students have not been trained to appear for an OBE. OBE is not just carrying a textbook or other material into the exam hall and answering the question paper. Students mut be trained in the type of questions that will be asked, the extent to which they must answer every question. OBE can also result in a student wasting time searching for the answer in the book. Students are likely to copy the answers directly from textbooks without thinking about what the question demands.
Important!
OBE is not a new concept to be introduced in India. It has been tried in other Board exams but was later discontinued because the feedback was not positive. It was found that it had limitations in fostering the required critical thinking ability that the answers required. The board, however, plans to redeem itself this time by initiating a trial run, employing high-quality textbooks, and subsequent suggestions.
The quote you’re thinking of might be:
“The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.”
This plan is per the latest National Education Policy (2020) guidelines that want exams to be more student-friendly and cause no fear in the minds of the students.
When competitive exams like the IIT JEE, NEET, CUET, etc all require analytical problem solving skills and do not allow students to carry any books or notes in the exam hall, how will this plan of an OBE help students? Please share your views on this matter,
What is your opinion about open book exams? Is this exam pattern suitable for school level? Is it suitable for degree college students? Share your views in the comments box below.
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