Testing Effect
- Olesya Senkova
- Hajime Otani
- Reid L. Skeel
- Renée L. Babcock
Abstract
Abstract. If assessment is the purpose of testing, open-book tests may defeat the purpose. However, a goal of education is to build knowledge, and based on the literature, open-book tests may not be inferior to closed-book tests in promoting long-term retention of information. Participants studied Swahili-English pairs and either re-studied or took an initial quiz, which was cued recall or recognition in an open-book or closed-book format. One week later, the final closed-book recognition test showed higher performance in the quizzed conditions than in the study-twice condition, replicating the testing effect. However, performance was similar across the quizzed conditions, indicating that testing promoted long-term retention regardless of test format (open-book versus closed-book) and test type (cued recall versus recognition). Open-book tests are not inferior to closed-book tests in building knowledge and can be particularly useful in online classes because preventing cheating is difficult when closed-book tests are administered online.
Keywords: Keywords: testing effect; open-book tests; long-term retention; learning
How to Cite:
Senkova, O., Otani, H., Skeel, R. & Babcock, R., (2018) “Testing Effect”, Journal of Effective Teaching in Higher Education 1(1), 20-36. doi: https://doi.org/10.36021/jethe.v1i1.15.g2
Rights: Olesya Senkova, Hajime Otani, Reid L. Skeel, and Renée L. Babcock
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