Assessment of Practical Knowledge Through Open Book Examination in the Undergraduate Course at the University: Students’

Abstract

In the professional degree, understanding the concepts is important, along with their applications in the real world. Students should have hands-on experience during their study at the university to solve real-world problems effectively in their professional careers. The practical examination to test students’ lab skills is one of the assessment methods. In the engineering programme, instructors conduct the practical examination in different courses in either open-book or closed-book mode at Ahmedabad university. To find out the students’ perspective on the effectiveness of an open-book practical examination, the study was carried out to answer the following hypotheses: Should there be a practical exam? Is it easy to score in the open-book practical exam? Does practical knowledge help to solve real-life problems? And is an open-book practical exam as effective as a closed-book exam? For the study, a questionnaire was circulated through Google Forms to the undergraduate students. Both quantitative and qualitative responses were recorded through questionnaires and interviews. Students enrolled in the different courses of engineering responded to the questionnaire and answered the questions in person. The analysis of the student survey was done using the chi-square method. From the p value, it was concluded that the null hypotheses were rejected, which proved that open-book practical exams are better. As per the students’ perspective, open-book practical exams are as difficult as closed-book exams. It is not easy to score in the open-book practical exam without understanding the concepts, even though the syntaxes and resources are available.