DP Open Book Exam pilots

What is an Open Book Exam (OBE)?

An OBE is a situation where students use permitted resources to complete an assessment, such as:

• Data or formula booklet
• School textbook or dictionary
• Book (e.g. a literary or philosophical work)
• Approved summaries
• Student notes
• Websites

What are the benefits of OBEs?

When students sit an OBE, they can focus more on demonstrating problem-solving and critical thinking skills. They are less likely to make unnecessary mistakes in, for example, names, definitions and supporting quotes. OBE questions can be more analytical in nature and focus more on applying knowledge.

Pilot subjects and OBEs

In collaboration with about 270 IB schools worldwide, the IB Education Office set up a multi-year research study to examine the impact of three different types of OBE for the following DP subjects and components:

English A Literature, Spanish A Literature and Chinese A Literature	Paper 2: allowing three highlighted copies of literary works during the exam
Economics	Paper 1: allowing student-created summaries of real-world examples during the exam
Psychology	Paper 1: allowing teacher-created summaries of psychological studies during the exam

Within this suite of pilots, IB is looking at the impact of offering different types of OBEs on the whole school community. To evaluate the impact of offering OBE for one exam component in each of the pilot subjects, the study created two groups of schools:

• a pilot group
• a control group

The cooperation of both groups is essential to the research study. The final selection of all participating schools was completed in June 2023, and formalized by the schools signing a Memorandum of Collaboration for the duration of the study.

Who will sit the exams in OBE format

Only those students registered by a pilot school for a specific subject and exam will sit that exam in OBE format. All other students will sit the exam as indicated in the current guide.

When a school is registered as a pilot school:

• all teachers teaching the pilot course will prepare their students for the OBE format exam
• all students enrolled for the pilot subject and pilot OBE exam will sit the exam in the OBE format
• open book exams are offered from November 2023 through to May 2025, with a final retake opportunity in November 2025.

In the control group schools and in all schools not participating in the study:

• teachers will prepare their students for the exams as indicated in the current subject guide namely in the Closed Book Exam (CBE) format
• all students enrolled for the exams as indicated in the current guide will sit the exam in the CBE format.

OBEs and grade awarding

During the study, all students will sit the same exam paper, with candidates in pilot schools completing the exam using specifically allowed resources. After the exam is sat, schools will submit the student work of exams sat in the open book format as normal. Pilot schools should take care not to attach/include a copy of the permitted resource used in the exam to the student’s work. The resource is not marked.

IB examiners will mark the work of students sitting the pilot OBE exams to the same standard as all other student work. The component that is sat as an OBE will be reviewed separately for grade awarding by IB examiners and assessment staff. In this way, the IB ensures that the different exam formats will not disadvantage candidates, teachers or schools in any way.

Results for candidates taking part in the OBE pilot study will be issued in the same way and at the same time as for all other candidates.

What does it mean to be a pilot or control group school?

As stated above, the study comprises two groups of schools: a group of pilot schools and control group schools. Data from both groups of schools is crucial to the quality of the research outcomes and the formulation of guidance regarding OBE in the future. Students, teachers and coordinators of both pilot schools and control group schools are requested to complete a series of surveys and may be invited to contribute to a limited number of other data collection activities throughout the duration of the pilot study.

Pilot schools will be offering at least one OBE in the sessions from November 2023 through to May 2025 with a final retake opportunity in November 2025, depending on the pilot subject(s) they offer. Formally registered pilot schools and teachers will receive support materials specific to their OBE type. Coordinators, teachers and students taking part in the study are required to complete a series of surveys at different times over the course of the pilot study.

By answering these surveys, pilot schools, their teachers and students enable the research team to understand the impact of offering one OBE per pilot subject on:

• student learning
• the classroom and exam experience of both students and teachers
• what it means for the school as a community.

Control group schools will offer the current course and exams in the format as determined in the current subject guide. By participating in this study, control group school coordinators, teachers and students will be filling in a similar series of surveys through which they provide essential data on how the subjects are taught when all the exams are offered as defined in the course.

In addition to the surveys, coordinators, teachers and students can volunteer to be invited to participate in a limited number of more interactive data collection, such as focus groups.

Comparing the feedback and responses from pilot and control group schools will enable us to identify what happens – and how IB could support schools, teachers and students – should IB schools offer new OBEs in the future.

Areas of interest 

While the specific focus of the comparison will differ somewhat depending on the type of OBE that is piloted in a school, the shared areas of interest across all pilots will be:

• student experiences of learning and exam preparation for the subject and the exam in the pilot in both formats, and how these affect their feelings of engagement and well-being.
• teacher experiences of the teaching and exam preparation for the subject (for example benefits and drawbacks, opportunities and obstacles they encounter).
• school experienced impact on school policies, practices and resources.

Timeline

Teacher support material

All schools selected for and registered as a pilot school have received a guidance document outlining the details of the OBE condition for their subject. This includes details on what the permitted resource students will have access to will look like, including illustrations and templates where relevant. While teachers will not receive extensive training on how to prepare students for OBE at this time, additional resources were made available with further clarification and recommendations on what skills they may consider training their students in.

The following things apply to all pilot subjects:

• students should keep in mind that they will not be given more time in the OBE exam to compensate for the time it may take for them to navigate their respective resources.
• usual plagiarism rules and standards apply to the resources.
• definitions and explanations of theories, concepts and ideas taught in the course, that students should know, will not be allowed in any of the resources for this pilot.
• all the specified resources will be open to changes to support the needs of students who require inclusive access arrangements to be made.

Read more about OBEs in our research study “What is good practice for Open Book Assessment?”.

Subject-specific information

Each OBE pilot allows for a different type of resource as described briefly below. More detailed information on the resource allowed is provided to pilot schools that take part in the OBE pilots study by signing the Memorandum of Collaboration. It is extremely important that students taking the exam in OBE format are made aware of what is allowed and what is not. Any unauthorized material found in a text or other resource used during the exam will be treated as academic malpractice.