What OBEs are not | What are OBEs | Why have OBEs | How to maximise performance in OBEs

What are OBEs

• OBEs may take different forms.
  • At present, OBEs at NUS essentially consists of the traditional sit-in/limited time examination, with varying degrees of access to resources and references.
  • As in the above form, but with prior notice (seen) questions.
  • Take-home: question(s) handed out; answers to be attempted without assistance from others and to be returned within a specified period of time. This is viable only with strict adherence to an honour system (e.g. the Honor Code practised at Stanford University).

  Permitted access to resource materials may vary in:

  • degree-from restricted (e.g. formula sheets and tables or prescribed number of texts) to totally unrestricted (any quantity of any material),
  • kind-any or a combination of notes, textbooks and electronic materials.

• OBEs are intellectually demanding.
  Education, and particularly higher education, should equip you with more sophisticated intellectual abilities and skills. The acquisition of knowledge is only meaningful when you are able to demonstrate your ability to understand, apply, analyse, synthesise and evaluate your knowledge base. (See Benjamin Bloom's Taxonomy of Educational Objectives.)

• What you will be tested for.
  Retention and recall of factual information will no longer carry a high premium. Abilities that you will be tested for will include:
  • application of knowledge,
  • evidence of a 'trained mind' (e.g. conceptual grasp, critical thinking and analytical ability),
  • capacity for autonomous learning (e.g. maturity and independence of thought, potential for knowledge creation and application),
  • skills needed for functioning in employment and real-life situations (e.g. OBEs often employ case studies and scenarios).

• Some implications for learning.
  
  • Paradigm shift. Learning is not merely assimilating given information. More important is learning how to learn, i.e. moving from passive rote learning and replication to higher order cognitive skills (understanding, synthesising, evaluating, problem solving and knowledge creation).
  • Learner roles/responsibilities. Responsibility is not vested solely in the teacher-authority figure. You have to participate in, and make sense of, your own learning. As a learner, you need to decode, investigate, apply/adapt, collaborate and generate new knowledge.
  • Preparation. OBEs require that you learn for understanding rather than recall, make good notes and organise materials for speedy retrieval.

What OBEs are not | What are OBEs | Why have OBEs | How to maximise performance in OBEs