Closed-book
As a written examination procedure, it is carried out with the help of the examination system of the HU, the examination Moodle. It can be designed as a free-text task (assignment module), as a mixed procedure (assignment and test module) as well as an itembased answer-choice procedure and can be conducted at a distance or in presence. The most important feature of a closed-book examination is the supervision, which takes place either on-site (face-to-face examination) or via video conference (remote supervision examination with the right to choose).
Closed-book with the assignment module
In principle, (closed-book) examinations can be easily created and carried out using the "Assignment" activity in Moodle.
Anyone who fulfils the necessary, separately set requirements (e.g. "Yes" in the health declaration) receives the examination task (e.g. an essay or a complex arithmetic problem) unlocked and can download it if necessary.
The task is then completed either analogue on paper, digitally as a text document or even online in the task editor in the specified time and only with the approved aids, if applicable.
At the end of the examination time, the result is photographed in the case of the "paper solution" and the file is uploaded. Otherwise, only the text file is uploaded.
After the examination, the assessment can be done online in the task module, which even makes it possible to inform students individually about the examination performance achieved via a message function.
Closed-Book with the Test Module
The closed-book method can also be used with the Moodle test module. In this case, the exam is designed as an answer-choice procedure (multiple choice, MC), whereby tasks that go beyond the actual MC procedure, such as assignment, rearrangement and text input, are also to be understood here.
After the questions before the exam (health, independence, cheating) have been answered in the affirmative, the "test" is automatically activated and can be worked on online during the specified time. Moodle saves the intermediate results at least every 30 seconds and basically at every page change, so that the risk of "data loss" is relatively low.
The "test", i.e. the exam, ends automatically at the previously set time. However, examinees can also submit their work themselves by clicking the "Submit" button.
Closed-book procedure: identity and cheating
Since closed-book examinations are supervisory examinations, for reasons of equal opportunity for all examinees, both the identity of the examinee must be clearly established and the opportunity for attempted cheating must be reduced as much as possible. This can only be guaranteed to a limited extent in the traditional way (identity check at the beginning of the examination, supervision in the examination room). Therefore, it is essential to minimise the probability of cheating attempts through didactic options (task pool for different, equivalent examinations; higher degree of complexity of the tasks).