The impact of 24-h take-home exam on language learning and teaching on the China campus of a British university

Abstract

Take-home exam (THE) use has been reported in various disciplines, but research on THE use in language modules in higher education appears to be scarce. The current study employed surveys and interviews to examine how the shift to written THE, in place of the traditional in-class exam (ICE) during the pandemic, impacted language learning and teaching on the China campus of a British university. Additionally, correlation analyses were conducted with ranking data of students from the same cohort under THE and ICE to explore patterns in student performance under these exam conditions. In surveys and interviews, teachers reported that their teaching foci did not change under THE, while many students reported that their learning practices were different under THE and ICE. Students also exhibited a tendency to spend more time practicing skills that they expected to be assessed in the exam. Overall, both teachers and students expressed preference for ICE, with many raising concerns about fairness issues in THE. Furthermore, correlation analyses showed that, overall, for a given group of students, written ICE rankings exhibited strong correlations with each other but written THE rankings did not, suggesting relative instability of THE results. However, when written THE and oral ICE results from the same module are combined, the resultant rankings strongly correlated with pure ICE rankings. This indicates that combining ICE and THE components for assessment could help mitigate some perceived shortcomings, including the instability issue, of THE used alone.