Time Odyssey

So … I’m reading CNN today and come across this whole issue of students posting old exams online. Some teachers like it – some don’t. Some professor has even gone to the extent of trying to claim copyright over his exam questions (uh – ya – riiight). While everyone seems to be focused on student accountability in gaining some unfair advantage over other students, I feel one of the key aspects to this unique opportunity has been overlooked.

Education across different schools, and sometimes within the same school, is uneven at best. At higher levels of education each professor is responsible for his/her own exams and to ensure that those exams suitably measure the level of retention and the ability of students to apply the rudiments of the subject matter. No one should be fooled into thinking that successfully passing an exam is the end point in the learning curve. It is the starting point from which a student graduates from being a neophyte to apprentice to eventually someone that might actually know what the heck it is they are talking about.

By posting exams online, the opportunity exists to evaluate whether a program has established a sufficient level of knowledge acquisition by the students taking that program. For example, there is a vast difference between asking the question:

Q: State the 12 axioms of the real number system

and

Q: Which of the following is not an axiom of the real number system

1. a + ( b + c ) = ( a + b ) + c
2. a + 0 = 0 + a = a
3. a * b = b * a
4. ( | a + b | )² = ( a + b )² =  a² + 2ab + b²

Most first year calculus students should be able to tell you that the answer is (d). However in order to properly construct proofs, a student needs to know each of the 12 axioms by heart.

The construction of the exam is not just about what knowledge is being transferred from professor to student but also about the quality of that knowledge and whether the rigor of such training is sufficiently robust. Publishing exams allows students to examine the rigor inherent in the program to determine if a particular program is going to position them well to succeed or not later when it comes time to compete with everyone else for well paying careers.

If professors have the opportunity to see what other professors are testing their students on, then the bar will tend to be raised higher overall because no one wants to be seen as the professor who’s students got through 4 years of aerospace engineering based on multiple choice questions. Not to mention what an academic review board might have to say if they consistent see the quality of examinations being sub-standard compared to what everyone else is using.

You have to keep in mind that examinations are as much a reflection of what the professor is capable of teaching their students as it is a reflection of the capabilities of the students themselves. Poor exams mean poor knowledge transfer – means poor student understanding – means a less capable workforce – means disadvantaged businesses and fewer economic opportunities. – K