Students' Perspective of Open Book versus Closed Book Examinations in Higher Education Institutions during COVID-19 Pandemic in Indonesia

Abstract

The COVID-19 Pandemic has proven to be one of the enormous disruptions in educational institutions globally, including Indonesia. Keeping aside the fiscal working of these institutions, no institution wanted to compromise on the quality of education given to the students, especially in online learning practices. Holding traditional examinations procedures under such circumstances was impossible; thus, it shifted assessment practices from the closed-book exam (CBE) into the open-book exam (OBE) in these Higher Learning Institutions. This study used a quantitative approach to investigate the impact of OBE on students online learning performance and satisfaction. Utilising a descriptive research design, a total of 152 undergraduates from two public universities in the West Nusa Tenggara Province were randomly selected using a stratified sampling technique. The findings showed that students perceived their academic performance has increased since the OBE implementation and had high satisfaction with OBE as an assessment tool. The inferential analysis showed a positive and significant relationship between perceived academic performance and satisfaction towards OBE. The t-test also indicated a significant difference between students' satisfaction obtained by male and female students. However, no significant difference was found in students" preference between OBE and CBE. The implication of the findings suggests that the landscape of assessment in HEI has changed drastically over the last two years. The implementation of OBE has an increased potential to measure students' higher-level thinking skills as it relates more closely to real-world work environments. Secondly, it is likely to throw up new challenges for both instructors and students in their teaching and learning practices.