Path: utzoo!utgpu!watmath!clyde!att!osu-cis!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!rutgers!joyce!gds
From: gds@spam.istc.sri.com (Greg Skinner)
Newsgroups: comp.edu
Subject: Re: Open Book Testing (Was Re: How to beat the high cost of text books!)
Message-ID: <15338@joyce.istc.sri.com>
Date: 8 Dec 88 16:12:23 GMT
References: <1124@osupyr.mast.ohio-state.edu> <1809@sun.soe.clarkson.edu> <1053@l.cc.purdue.edu> <12393@bellcore.bellcore.com>
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Reply-To: gds@spam.istc.sri.com (Greg Skinner)
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In article <12393@bellcore.bellcore.com> duncan@ctt.bellcore.com (Scott Duncan) writes:
>But the idea has stuck with me.  Why not tell people at the start of
>the class/year what knowledge is actually going to be expected of
>them?

An interesting twist to this concept:

I took a class called Social Psychology in my senior year.  The class
is reputedly "gut", in that it is believed easy to get an A in it if
all you do is show up.  Anyway, at the first class meeting, the
professor passed a sheet around that you could sign which would
guarantee you an A if you did not attend any more classes.  However,
you forfeited your guaranteed A (you had to take the final and earn it
instead) if you returned to class.

>Now, I have not used that information since those days some 25 years
>ago, but I remember that class!  I felt good about the class -- never
>missed it I think.

I don't think I missed it either.  It was very interesting.  There
were lots of group projects and stimulating class discussions.

>I favored open book for this very reason:  it forced people to learn
>HOW to use reference materials properly.

I think our final was a take-home.  We were allowed to use whatever
reference materials we wished.  The only stipulation was that we were
forbidden to discuss our finals with another student in the class.  As
it turned out, you did not need to use reference materials too much to
answer the essays.

--gregbo