Some Student Perspectives on Take Home Exams
By Shannon Gibson, Associate Professor (Teaching), Department of Political Science and International Relations – April 10, 2020
Since we’ve switched to online teaching, I’ve made it a habit to ask my students how they’re doing each class — sort of a mental well-being check in before class starts. One thing that dramatically popped up on my radar this week was the amount of students who were concerned or stressed because suddenly many of their final exams were changing in length and format.
So I decided to ask them to email me about it. To tell me what their thoughts and feelings were regarding take-home exams. And the feedback was eye-opening. While take-home exams may provide additional flexibility, they may also be causing even more stress for our students. So before you ditch the Bluebook, I’d like to share with you some insights I’ve received directly from my undergraduate students:
More Time, Effort and Stress
“My professor told us a take-home is nice in this difficult time, because we have more time to complete it. But this is my issue — just because we’re not on campus and our classes are online, it doesn’t mean we have more time to focus on schoolwork.”
When discussing changes to take-home exams, many students have said that professors cite “flexibility” and “fear of cheating” as reasons for moving away from a time online exam. The problem many students say though is that these take home exams come with higher expectations and far higher time commitments. And they argue, in reality, they are even busier than before.
Many say they deal with family distractions, difficulties finding quiet time to conduct research, household chores, having to homeschool their younger siblings while their parents work, battling for computer time, and cramped living spaces. As one student emailed me, “please don’t give us a take home, I want to sit down for the two hours I was told of originally in the syllabus, and I I know I can negotiate that quiet time from my sisters and just get it taken care of.” This also speaks little to the fact on how these changes and extra time and effort requirements impact students with learning disabilities or mental health challenges.
Scheduling Conflicts & Technical Issues
“I can see how a take-home is better for some people, but one of my profs switched our final to an open book exam that we have 24 hours to complete. The problem is, I have another final that day! So now I feel I’ll be at a disadvantage to everyone else who gets more time than I do.”
It can be easy for us to forget that we’re not the only professors in town. In these times, it may be helpful to remember that students have multiple classes with all types of requirements. In one case a student told me that three of her sit down exams have been switched to 5-page papers. In the course of two weeks, she went from taking meticulous notes in preparation for a Bluebook exam to now trying to figure out how to crank out 15 pages on 3 different topics by the end of April. Another student lamented that he has challenges with internet accessibility because he is abroad with low bandwidth and unstable power. So he’s concerned with how he can possibly conduct reliable research to write an additional paper.
Lack of a Summative Exercise
“This might sound crazy to some, but I actually like having a final exam. It reminds me of what I learned all semester long and I always walk away more appreciative of the whole class experience. With a take home, there’s no process of assessing what we really understood and took away from the class.”
For some students they hate that there is a change to their syllabus. They are told very early on, I’m not sure by whom, but I hear it all the time, “the syllabus is like a contract with us, right?” And boy do they dislike it when we change it, get off schedule or move things around. In a time of extreme uncertainty, perhaps fewer changes for them is better.
Also, students, like us, tend to like their sentences with a period at the end. For many of them, that final exam, while it may be somewhat stressful and annoying to study for, gives them a sense of jubilization upon completion. Think about it…at the end of Spring when students are turning in their exams after those two hours, they’re usually smiling, have some pep in their step and say “thank you for the semester” as they walk out of the classroom. For a lot of them, especially those who will be missing their senior graduation, these cumulative assessments are the closet they’re getting to a real “ending.”
One Professor’s Suggestion
I’m certainly not telling anyone to change their final exams (again). We all have the academic freedom to do as we wish and to make assignment decisions that fit our teaching preferences, lifestyles and the challenges we are facing as well. But my advice is twofold:
- Don’t stress too much about cheating. It happens. We can’t hardly stop it even when it’s in front of our faces. If it reassures you, I’ve given two Blackboard midterms and two quizzes since the “safer at home” order and the grade distribution for all 4 is no different than in previous semesters. Students who had C’s before, still got C’s. Students who do well, similarly excelled.
- If you have given a take home assignment of considerable length, consider also offering the option for a traditional sit down exam (using Zoom or Respondus Lockdown Browser / Monitor if you’re really worried about cheating). You might be surprised how many students would prefer and will thank you for this.