The Differences that Exist between Face-to-Face Students and Those of the Open Book Exams System - Research Paper Example

Mini-Proposal Jinette Campbell Keiser Dr. Larry Pace RSM700G3-10630 Quantitative Research I 07-20-14 One concern that is continuing with the manner in which examinations are administered is the relationship and difference in performance between students who sit an exam in the open book and those ones sitting the same exams as closed book or traditional at the same time. The use of online assessment is one of the methods or example of open book examinations. Many studies try to establish the impact that this type of examination has on the students as compared to those who sit the same exam on face-to-face or closed book system. This study will try to establish the differences that exist between face-to-face students and those of the open book exams system. The differences and relationships are lined on the student achievement and general performance at the end of the day. The actual scores of exams and test of both open book exams, tests and closed book exams and tests showed that the difference that lies between the two in terms of performance is so slight. Students performed better in closed book exams only after studying more and doing much of memorizing. These results give a suggestion that despite the fact that students have their own opinions and preferences. The types of exams are not highly related on how they perform in their various tests and exams. Basing on the results, the following suggestions can be helpful to learners or teachers and instructors to consider the use of discussions and open book exams and tests in making an assessment of learners. They need to set objectives and some rationales that provided guidance clear for students in taking part in the tests in order to weight the performance of the same. Introduction Currently there is a trend going on causing major debate among professors. This trend has to do with testing students. The major cause of concern it having quizzes, tests, and exams non-proctored or proctored, for this study, we will call this open book and closed book. The concern that professors have and are challenged with is the ability to adequately assess student learning (Hollister, & Berenson, 2009) especially since most colleges and universities are removing the closed book exams and having all open book exams. The question is; is there a difference between students in a face-to-face class taking an open book quiz and a closed book exam with the same time limit and number of questions? According to Huck (2008), the statistical procedures used should indicate the analyzed data. For the purpose of this study, measures for the difference between open book quiz and a closed book exam are compared by using bivariate correlation to compare the two variables. The bivariate correlation will allow for the comparison between the two variables in an effort to determine if there is a relationship between the quiz and exam scores. Literature Review A number of researchers have carried out studies revolving around the manner in which teachers and trainers administer objective tests and the effect that the tests have on the achievement of learners in both college and university tests and courses (Friedman & Goldberg, 2011). A variety of results for the studies conducted is in any literature that concerns with the effect of open book testing on the performance of students in colleges and universities. Most of the research that is related to this is on the traditional or otherwise face-to-face setting of the classroom. Various studies, though not many, realized that students tend to perform better in open book exams and test as compared to the traditional face-to-face or closed book tests and exams (Heneman, Judge & Kammeyer-Mueller, 2012).). For instance, the effect that open book exams or tests had on English Literature course university tests showed that most students garnered higher points and test scores as compared to their peers who sat the same examination in the same period but in the face-to-face manner. Wellman and Marcinkiewicz (2004) studied 120 students of pharmacy at a university and found out that those that had online examinations that were proctored scored better, by far, as compared to those who had had assessments that were not proctored. These results may have led to the section in the assumption that, in general, most students do not adequately prepare for open book examinations as compared to closed book or traditional examinations. Students failed to invest much of their time to study when preparing for open book examinations as compared to those who anticipated for closed book examinations. This shows that closed book examinations are always taken more serious with students than pen book examinations. Research Questions The research study tried to answer the following research questions i. What is the difference between students in a face-to-face class taking an open book test and a closed book exam? ii. How different is the performance of students taking open book exams from those taking the same exams but closed book? Methods The study will consist of Freshmen College level students. The professor will be the same person through the study. The professor is graciously allowing the use of several of her completed History I courses to be used in this study. The study will use five of the professors’ courses that have been taught during the Spring 2014 semester. Each course has a range of 15 to 30 students. The open book quizzes and closed book exams will consist of the same 50 true/false and multiple-choice questions given to each student. The SPSS program will be used because it is able to calculate and test a bivariate correlation and produce a scatter diagram in order to help in the explanation of the relationship between the two variables: independent variable and dependent variable (Pace, 2012). The provided test will allow students to experience an environment of blackboard test. Students in both the open and closed book groups will be required to complete the test before sitting their final examinations. Training materials from the web and their strategies will be developed basing on the content of the papers to be sat. The teacher then will give the learners sitting the open book examinations instructions that are relevant to the test before them then ensure that they sit together but away from those learners sitting closed book test. Learners in the open book group will be required to review their tutorial then complete the given test in the same period as the other learners sitting the same examinations but in the closed book manner or group. The quiz will be on the blackboard where all the learners from both groups will be able to see and refer to it before embarking on answering the questions. Student will not be allowed to interact or discuss, especially from the two different groups (Huck, 2008). Data analysis Most teachers attest to the fact that open book exams are easy to administer as compare to closed book exams, and they give the learner a chance or an opportunity to enhance their skills rather than memorize for the purpose of passing as it is in the closed book examinations. Online examinations are best when done in open book that closed book but for the case of the comparison between face-to-face and open book exams, it is important that teachers consider administering open book tests for the midterm examinations before setting the final closed book exams (Reeves & Hedberg, 2009). This will ensure that students get an opportunity to revise adequately and research more given the fact that it offers a chance for one to carry out research adequately. The professor administered 5 different history tests to 2 groups of learners, one group being the open group and the other group sat the closed group examinations. He was targeting the performance of the students in both examinations in order to try and see to it that he establishes the differences in the two examinations (Hollister & Berenson, 2009). Sample data Test Open book sample data Closed book sample 1st History test 10, 5 boys and 5 girls 10, 5 boys and 5 girls 2nd History test 10, 5 boys and 5 girls 10, 5 boys and 5 girls 3rd History test 10, 5 boys and 5 girls 10, 5 boys and 5 girls 4th History test 10, 5 boys and 5 girls 10, 5 boys and 5 girls 5th History test 10, 5 boys and 5 girls 10, 5 boys and 5 girls Participants The participants in this study will consist of Freshmen College level students taking the History I class during the Spring 2014 semester. These students consist of both sexes: female students and male students. The professor teaching the course will participate in giving the quizzes, exams, and grading them for five of the History I Spring 2014 semester courses. The students were 20 in number that is 10 female students and 10 male students. The professor will group them in two groups of 10, 10 then give out a test. Procedures The face-to-face professor at a local college assisted in this study data collection. Permission was not received from the college students due to the courses having already ended. In an effort to protect the identity of these students, the study will list the students as Student 1, Student 2, and so on. The courses will be labeled as Spring 2014 Course 1, Spring 2014 Course 2, and so on. The professor will provided the sex of the college students and the grade results for Lesson 8 Quiz and Exam 1 for all five courses. The professor will be present with the freshman college students during the testing process. The professor will administered the Lesson 8 open book quiz on a Mondays starting at 9:00 am. The quiz will last for an hour with 50 true/false and multiple choice questions. The professor will collect the quizzes from the students, graded each of them, and record the results. Several weeks later, the professor will administer Exam 1 to the college students. Again, the exam will be held on Mondays at 9:00 am. The closed book exam will lasted for an hour with 50 true/false and multiple choice questions. The professor will collect the exams from the students, graded each of them, and record the results. The nominal scale of measurement variable is the student quiz scores as the independent variable leaving the exam as the dependent variable. This will allow the study to determine if there is a difference between the open book quiz and closed book exam. Results Using Pace (2013) flowchart, in order to compare the relationship between the two test scores this study will use Correlation and Regression to determine the anticipated results. Correlation and Regression is appropriate to be used for this study. In order to determine the correlation between the two variables the regression analysis will be able to show the relationship between the independent variable and the dependent variable. The anticipated results of the test scores will not show much of a variance resulting those closed book exams can be removed from the college level course and replaced with open book quizzes or exams. The learners will not show a great difference in performance though a slight difference will be noted (Guy & Wishart, 2010). Discussion If there is not much of a difference then why have closed book exams. Professors will need to come up with creative ways to measure the students’ ability to comprehend what is being taught in the classroom. Using open book quizzes and exams can also be beneficial to the course work, by taking the closed book exam and converting to an open book exam with a shorter time limit in taking the exam, resulting in the same basic output. The assumptions that some professors may have with the removal of closed book exams is that the student will not take the exams seriously resulting in a lower exam grade. This type of thinking can result in another study to see if there is a correlation to lower exam grades from the removal of closed book exams. Assessment of performance in History I Assessment methods Frequency Test 3 Examinations 1 Coursework 1 The professor carried out the assessment as recorder in the table above. He established that students performed better in open book exams, tests, and coursework as compared to when they are assessed using the closed book method of analysis. The frequency of tests surpassed the rest of the methods given the fact that to him, tests would be easy to classify and monitor as compare to examinations because of the time and the length of the papers or the number of questions that needed solutions. The tests, examinations were timed typically. The duration for the examination was 70 minutes while that of tests was 25 minutes. More so, the course works were administered across a selected sample of learners and instructions given in the specific groups. The timing was meant to reduce the chances of the learners copying from each other or discussing. The course work on the other hand was to allow the learners engage in an online assessment that enabled the professor to compare the performance in face-to-face assessment and online assessment before making a final comparison between closed book and open book exams. The instructor used 3 open book test and three closed book tests then 1 open book and one closed book examination to answer the research questions below. They are two questions in general. i. What is the difference between students in a face-to-face class taking an open book test and a closed book exam? ii. How different is the performance of students taking open book exams from those taking the same exams but closed book? The actual scores of exams and test of both open book exams, tests and closed book exams and tests showed that the difference that lies between the two in terms of performance is so slight. Students performed better in closed book exams only after studying more and doing much of memorizing. These results give a suggestion that despite the fact that students have their own opinions and preferences. The types of exams are not highly related on how they perform in their various tests and exams. Based on the study results, the following suggestions can be helpful to teachers and instructors to consider the use of discussions and open book exams and tests in making an assessment of learners. They need to set objectives and some rationales that provided guidance clear for students in taking part in the tests in order to weight the performance of the same (Gharib, Phillips & Mathew, 2012). References Hollister, K. K., & Berenson, M. L. (2009). Proctored versus unproctored online exams: studying the impact of exam environment on student performance. Decision Sciences Journal Of Innovative Education, 7(1), 271-294. doi:10.1111/j.1540-4609.2008.00220.x Huck, S. W. (2008). Reading statistics and research (5th ed.). Boston, MA: Allyn and Bacon. Pace, L. A. (2012). Point and click! A guide to SPSS for Windows (5th ed.). Anderson, SC: TwoPaces.com. Pace, L. A. (2013). Choosing a statistical test. [Flow chart]. Retrieved from http://keisergradschools.org “Huck, S. W. (2008). Reading statistics and research (5th ed.). Boston, MA: Allyn and Bacon.” and “Pace, L. A. (2012). Point and click! A guide to SPSS for Windows (5th ed.). Anderson, SC: TwoPaces.com.” Gold, S. S. (January 01, 2010). A Case Study Analysis of the Use of Online vs. Proctored Final Exams in Online Classes. Gharib, A., Phillips, W., & Mathew, N. (2012). Cheat Sheet or Open-Book? A Comparison of the Effects of Exam Types on Performance, Retention, and Anxiety. 2, 8, 469-478.) Heneman, H. G., Judge, T., & Kammeyer-Mueller, J. D. (2012). Staffing organizations. Middleton, WI: Mendota House. Guy, R., & Wishart, C. (January 01, 2010). 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How to win as a final-year student: Essays, exams, and employment. Buckingham: Open University Press. Reeves, T. C., & Hedberg, J. G. (January 01, 2009). Evaluation Strategies for Open and Distributed Learning Environments. Read More