Take-home exam

Attention! Generative AI is likely to make this task format much less effective.

A take-home exam is a test you give your students or have them take online remotely, usually at home. The difference with a traditional exam is that students have more time to take the exam and often have access to their notes or books. This has several advantages over an on-site exam:

• research shows that this form ensures longer retention of learning;
• it reduces stress and performance anxiety;
• it is often more in line with professional practice;
• it usually gives students the opportunity to choose the timing of the exam themselves within a certain period of time.

You can use the take-home exam as follows:

• Give students clear guidelines and a deadline by which the exam must be submitted.
• Make sure you have clear criteria for grading the exam so students know what is expected of them.
• Consider using plagiarism prevention software to ensure student compliance.

Take-home exams can bring along some challenges. Students are more likely to go through only the material needed to answer the questions. It is also possible for students to ask for help from others, so it is important to set rules for this. For example, that collaboration is allowed, but that the personal aspect should be visible in the answers. You can also give each student different questions or assignments, but this does create more work during revision. In addition, you should provide challenging questions that require a higher cognitive thinking level from the students, so that Googling the answers is not enough.

Tip: Allow students – within certain limits – to choose their own way of answering. For example, written, video, a presentation, a powerpoint or another format.

Please note: with the availability of online programmes such as ChatGPT you need to ensure that assignments require more than just retrieving information through such a service to edit and submit. See this tip on handling ChatGPT and keep an eye on university or faculty guidelines.

Want to know more?

• A take-home exam as a specific assignment format – Vrije Universiteit
• Take-home exam – Vrije Universiteit

Tools: Canvas Assignments.

VU Taxonomy?

Programme specific skills in applying knowledge and understanding
Written communication

What total group size?

More than one hundred
Between fifty and one hundred
Up to fifty
Up to twenty five

What activity group size?

Individual
Small group (2-4 pers)