I, too, always give open-book, open-note tests for my Legal Environment
of Business classes. As the class is huge - as many as a thousand
students - the tests are necessarily multiple-choice and, to a lesser
extent, true-false. But I have many hypothetical, critical-analysis style
questions.
As others have reported, I, too, give a lot of written assignments, so
that students have more avenues for learning, more opportunities for
feedback (with the help of a couple TAs), and a chance to get a decent grade
even if they are not good test-takers. For the tests, I also encourage
students to write quibbles - arguments - about any questions for which they
think the phrasing was ambiguous, the answer could be more than one choice,
or whatever. These quibbles can be completed during the test, or long
afterwards, but they know that the burden of persuasion goes up considerably
once they have had time to brood over the test, confer with classmates, TAs
and me, and refine their objections.
What others have written sounds a lot like my classes: No matter how
much I warn the students - and I do warn a lot! (including with vivid,
gut-wrenching examples) - the first test for some students is a real
eye-opener. They learn that some "familiarity" with the material is grossly
insufficient, even with all of the notes, texts, indexing, and tabbing of
pages that any mortal could care to have. Most students soon learn that
knowledge of the material, and an ability to apply it to new situations, is
much more important than having a nicely organized, pretty package of study
tools to bring to the test.
In the end, the spread of grades is about what others report - from
excellent work by "A" students who probably could do quite well in law
school, to students who work hard to get their B's or C's, to a few students
who still don't understand why open-note does not help much those who have
closed-minds (that is, to studying and conducting critical analysis).
Robert, awaiting the Winds of Wilma
----- Original Message -----
From: "Ingulli, Elaine" <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Saturday, October 22, 2005 8:02 AM
Subject: Re: Open Book Exams in Intro Undergrad LEB course
>I ALWAYS uses open book exams in our (one and only) Legal & Ethical
>Environment of Business course. I think I am teaching critical
>thinking/reading/analysis, and I use law-school like hypotheticals to test
>my students. The biggest problem I find is that some students seem to think
>that open book means they don't have to study--despite my over-emphasizing
>to them that if they don't treat it like a closed book exam for which they
>must study they will NOT have enough time to finish. I have found that
>even with open book, open notes, etc., I always get a nicely curved range
>of responses from students who understand what we have been doing, and can
>look at a new scenario and figure out what law they should look at and
>apply, to those who don't even recognize the chapter that applies. I
>usually ask them to do an ethical analysis of at least one hypo, and again
>having some rudiementary "ethical theory" in front of them doesn't
>necessarily produce uniform results.
> Elaine
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Academy of Legal Studies in Business (ALSB) Talk on behalf of Dan
> Levin
> Sent: Sat 10/22/2005 12:43 AM
> To: [log in to unmask]
> Cc:
> Subject: Open Book Exams in Intro Undergrad LEB course
>
>
>
> Greetings ALSBers,
>
> i am interested in knowing whether any of you give open book tests in
> the introductory undergraduate Legal Environment course. I am
> thinking about moving to an open book approach and would like to get
> some idea of what profs who have done this have experienced. Also, I
> suspect open book tests in that course are rare, and wonder if that
> suspicion is true.
>
> Thanks,
> Dan Levin
> --
> Daniel A. Levin, JD, MBA
> Associate Professor of Business Law
> Minnesota State University, Mankato
> Dept. of Accounting & Business Law
> Morris Hall 150
> Mankato, MN 56001
> 507.389.1827
> [log in to unmask]
> [log in to unmask]
>
>
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