Open Book Exam Courses

[sirjake]

None of the (five) courses I took through Excelsior had proctored exams. I think your proposition is pointless with regards to Excelsior, unless they are willing to change how they administer their own exams.

Really? Wow. I am surprised. That's the strongest rejoinder I've heard. But in my opinion, it just potentially devalues Excelsior. As someone looking for a second degree from one of the big three, I'll definitely look into and verify that before I take the plunge. I would encourage others to do so as well.

I have no problem with courses that are all open book exams. In this day and age, the ability to know how and where to locate information is a major skill. Often this is as important as actually learning the material.

But this obviously should not completely replace actually knowing certain materials. If it were, companies and colleges could easily test for this ability and not worry about tests. The predominance of courses that require proctored exams from respected colleges argues against this.

In regards to Straighterline and Aleks, both have non-proctored exams:
I took Accounting 1 through Straighterline , to replace an accounting course from over 20 years ago. I had 20 other credits in accounting (many at the upper level) as well as years of work experience, and I still only scored a B in their course. Just because their exams are open book does not mean they are easy.

I'm not saying that these exams are *easy*. I'm saying that they are potentially easy to fake. I agree, the accounting courses weren't easy--if you actually did the work. But the answers for at least a very large number of questions were right there for the taking. It should not be that way. Slackers and cheaters should not have it that easy (to fake or cheat).

With Aleks, I took Intro Stat's to replace a lower level stats course, and let me tell you , this was a rigorous course. There were times I just wanted to give up as it seemed like I was never going to reach a 70% assessment.

I didn't address Aleks because I don't know enough about it to speak. I thought that they had some sort of adaptive thing that made it more difficult for one to cheat. Regardless, it doesn't change the thrust of what I'm saying. If they are exams that can be easily cheated on or faked, I don't like them and don't think that you should get college credit for them going forward.

Times are changing, mostly due to the ease of availability of information. Gone are the days of having to go to the library, find information in card catalogs, etc... Most schools are now requiring Information Lit courses because the way we obtain information has changed. So it is not surprising to me that the way we test would change also.

Sure, times do change, but actual knowledge of the subject is still required. Otherwise, why bother with the course at all? All we would all need is a course in information literacy or Googling. See my comment about about the predominance of courses that require proctored exams.

If ACE ,the partner colleges, or the college accepting the courses for transfer, have no objection to the open book aspect, then it is not cheating.

Well, no, it's not necessarily cheating, but neither is it automatically legitimate. I'm not accusing anyone who ever took a course through these sources of cheating. I'm saying that there is not a good faith effort to prevent cheating and make sure that the students actually know anything of the subject.

In regards to cheating, you will never be able to stop cheating, even with requiring proctored exams. Some people will cheat regardless of where, when or how you test them on the material.

See my note above about locks. Note the references to "good faith" in my first post.

If anyone has a concern with a degree from one of the Big 3 being worthless in the future, then it would probably be best they not get a degree from one of them.

I've already got the degree. Honestly, this is making me rethink getting my second through TESC. I don't want a worthless degree. If I wanted that, I would have just paid for a degree mill "degree."