ABSTRACT

The researchers examined the effect of open book examination (OBE) on academic achievement of university postgraduate students with consideration to gender in South East State Universities. Two research questions and two hypotheses guided the study. The study is a quasi-experimental research design with a population of 7341 post graduate students and the sample comprised of 61 SS2 post graduate students from two intact universities. The sample was drawn through purposive and cluster sampling techniques. The instrument used for data collection was: Academic Achievement Proforma in Educational Research and Statistics (ACPERS). The instrument was face validated by five specialists in the area of Educational Measurement and content Evaluation. Furthermore, the items in the instrument were subjected to validity using test blue print. The reliability of the instrument was established using Kuder-Richardson (K-R21)statistics with internal consistency index of 0.81. Mean and standard deviation were used to answer Two the research questions while the hypotheses were tested using One Way and significance. Way Analysis of Covariance (ANCOVA) statistics at 0.05 level of From the data analyzed, it was found that students assessed with CBE had a higher mean score than those assessed with OBE, implying that OBE is an effective and valid mode of assessment as the students performed lower compared to the closed book group, hence indicating that the test items could have been higher order and technical questions. Thus, there was significant difference between the mean achievement scores of students assessed with CBE and those assessed with OBE. Gender is a significant factor in open book examination. The study recommended among others that: university management should organize and sponsor trainings like workshops, exhibitions, seminars, and conferences on how the lecturers can use open book format for examination.