The use and benefits of a take home exam in accounting education

The purpose of this study was to explore the desire, use, benefits and costs of 'take home exams' in assessment as an alternative to an assignment or invigilated exam. There were two motivations driving this need to understand the use of a 'take home exam'. Firstly, our students live in a digital world and need to have the skills to use all technologies this world offers in their application of knowledge. Yet invigilated exams require all digital devices to be left at the door. Assignments tend to be conducted over a larger time period with support from fellow students and teaching faculty available. However, a 'take home exam' gives the student an opportunity to apply their knowledge to a given problem or question on their own, in a short period of time and using all available resources. The skills developed during this process may be different to those required to undertake assignments or invigilated exams. The increased emphasis on job ready skills would naturally favour students applying their knowledge in a real time environment during assessment. The second motivation was more pragmatic and relates to the cost of scheduling, organising and recruiting exam centres and exam invigilators. The rise in distance and on-line education could mean that the use of 'take home exams' could become more wide spread. This type of assessment would not be appropriate for all courses, however, if just a small number of courses were suitable for such assessment there are potential cost savings for institutions and this could help long term sustainability