What is Open Book Exam in CBSE (OTBA)

What is Open Book Exam in CBSE (OTBA), The Central Board of Secondary Education recommends that multiple modes of assessment need to be provided to cater to the varied abilities of individual strengths of learners. It is, therefore, decided to introduce an element of Open Text- based Assessment for classes IX and XI in March, 2014 Examination. These are meant to incorporate analytical and theoretical skills, thus moving away from memorization.

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What is Open Book Exam in CBSE

Open Text based Assessment (OTBA) for Class IX in March, 2014

• It will be applicable to all the main subjects.
• This will be a part of Summative Assessment II to be held in March, 2014.
• These Schools will be supplied with textual material in few months before the commencement of Summative Assessment II.
• A textual material may be in the form of an article, a case study, a diagram, a concept/ mind map, a picture or a cartoon, problem/situation based on the concepts taught to be students during second term.
• It will be to the extent of 15-20 percent in all the main subjects and may also include the Value Based Questions
• The textual material will be related to chosen concepts taken from the syllabi
• The Open Text based Assessment (OTBA) will have questions of higher order thinking skills and some of which may be subjective, creative and open ended.
• The textual material supplied earlier will be printed again as part of the question paper and thus will be available while answering the questions.

What is Open Book Exam in CBSE

Open Text based Assessment (OTBA) for Class XI in March, 2014

• It will be applicable to Economics, Biology and Geography only
• This will be a part of Annual Examination to be held in March, 2014.? These schools will supplied with textual material in the form of an article, a case study, a diagram, a concept/mind map, a picture or a cartoon, problem/situation based on the concepts taught to the students during the session.
• It will be to the extent of 15-20 percent in the subjects of Economics, Geography and Biology and may also include the Value Based Questions.
• The textual material will be related to chosen concepts taken from the syllabi.
• The Open Text based Assessment (OTBA) will have questions of higher order thinking skills and some of which may be subjective, creative and open ended.
• The textual material supplied earlier will be printed again as part of the question paper and thus will be available while answering the questions.

What is Open Book Exam in CBSE

Role of Teachers

• Teachers are expected to provide a bridge between the theory and practice. The Text/Case studies are designed to promote active participation of students requiring them to engage in active learning process through discussion, analysis, self-reflection and critical thinking.
• The teachers are expected to assign the text material received from the CBSE to the students in groups so that they can read, and understand it through discussions, view it from different perspectives, brainstorm main ideas in class or even do further research outside the class. The main objective of introducing this element is to provide opportunities to students to apply theoretical concepts to a real life scenario by encouraging active and group learning in the Class.
• The teachers should guide students and provide feedback at regular intervals about their performance during the completion of assigned activities. Since real-life cases or situations are complex and open to different opinions, teachers must be prepared for innovative and open answers from students.

What is Open Book Exam in CBSE

Assessment of Text Material/Case-Studies
Depending on the text material/case study supplied to students, the answers will be assessed on a set of assessment rubrics showing the extent of which students were able to do the following:
(i) Understand and apply the concepts to the situational problems.
(ii) Suggest and bring out appropriate solutions/s to the problem/situation.
(iii) Come up with innovative opinions/suggestions.
(iv) Deep analysis based on a wide range of perspectives

What are schools expected to do?
The text/case-studies/supplied to schools should be thoroughly read, discussed and analysed by the teachers. If possible, the teachers of Sahodaya Complex can get together for a brainstorming session working on the following:

• Objectives of the Text material/Case-study
• Concepts involved
• Application of concepts to situation
• Description and further explanation of the case/problem
• Higher Order thinking skills involved
• Analysis with different perspectives
• Assessment techniques? The case studies with leading questions should then be assigned to students in groups who would discuss at their level.
• The teachers should guide them with further leading questions.