The Main Survey: Spring 2007

1. Conclusions/Future Work • Groups will be reversed for the next exam, and re-surveyed • Motivation for study: students studied more for closed notes •  But not as effectively? • Assessment: students felt like open-notes assesses better and that closed-notes artificially lowers scores •  Perception was larger than reality Consider dual purpose of exams • Background/Motivation • In our Physics Department, most exams allow students to use a one-page note sheet • Last year we found that graduating seniors lacked a basic understanding of some of the fundamentals • Is the note-sheet doing them a disservice? • Anecdotal: Most people (here and in published literature) feel that open-notes exams allow students to concentrate on “truly important” aspects rather than “wasting time” with memorization • Preliminary Interviews: Fall 2006 • Students were given four different exams: note-sheet, closed notes, open notes, take home • Students were interviewed in focus groups about how the style of exam affected their grade, study habits, motivation, anxiety, etc. • The Spring 2007 survey was developed based on the responses of the focus groups Exam Style: Open vs. Closed NotesJohn S. Colton, Department of PhysicsUniversity of Wisconsin-La Crosse The Main Survey: Spring 2007 Student Attitudes • Interesting Observations • Hours spent studying alone varied significantly, but hours spent studying with others did not. • 74% of students felt their exam score was lower than it should have been • people without notes said it was due to lack of notes •  people with notes said it was due to other reasons • 52% of students felt like anxiety lowered their score •  split equally between open & closed • Closed note group did not take notes from text. They also did not prepare a formula sheet •  How on earth are they studying?? Significant Differences: Open vs. Closed