No Such Thing As Closed Book

The one and only assessment for the (12-week) Marketing course is a multi-thousand word assignment.

Some students were half-complaining; their (sub?)(semi?)-conscious desired a closed-book exam to go with it.

I told them I didn't understand why they should prefer an examination, since in the 'real-world' there were no such thing as closed-book assessments. Everything is 'open book' because, why, it's no longer about recalling information by synthesizing, manipulating and creating new ideas/proposals from that which is easily accessible.

That got me thinking: The above is what I said to a Marketing class in a Business course to students self-tasked to make loads of money when they graduate. But what do we say to a church congregation, that community of God's people tasked with taking God's redeeming way and message into the world?

What kinds of assessments should a Christian learner be given?