Open book exam - showcase

In Semester 2 2021, Dr Sarah Yang Spencer and Dr Valerie Cotronei-Baird wanted to improve the quality of the final exam for a postgraduate capstone accounting subject. 

This subject focuses on integrating theory into practice, where students need to apply their critical thinking skills to a broad range of news events/case studies to analyse the accounting implications. Based on the subject learning outcomes, Sarah and Valerie set out to design an end-of-semester exam using the principles of authentic assessment. These principles depart from the usual practice of end-of-semester high-stakes invigilated exams that are commonly used in business courses. The exam re-design aimed to assess students’ content knowledge, enhance academic integrity, promote student collaboration, help students to practice and acquire higher order cognitive skills and develop their professional judgement and transferrable skills (employability skills).