The Take-Home Exam!

Hi everyone!

There are always surprises when it comes to exams at LUISS. What might be familiar for Americans or Australians is not necessarily know by Europeans. A few weeks ago Andrea, our Australian Business Organization teacher informed us that we have to complete a take-home exam instead of a written examination. When I heard this, my first thought was: “What is a take-home exam?” Of course at first sight the enthusiasm in class was great, because everybody thought we can simply take the exam at home. But that is only partly the case. What is it then? Well, I guess every professor has its own way of letting the students do the take-home exam. For Business Organization we have received a case study from Andrea. Our case study is a challenging 19 pages academic article which deals with Ericsson, one of the world’s biggest telecommunications equipment providers. The article gives a guideline, how managers successfully implement IT-enabled change. The findings are based on a three year study, which has been carried out by researchers inside Ericsson. Andrea has uploaded the case on Wednesday. From Wednesday on, we have one week to complete an essay about what Ericsson did right, what they did wrong and what they could change in the future when implementing an IT-enabled change. I am allowed and it is requested that we apply the theory from our book and the lectures to the case. However, we are not allowed to do any research about Ericsson or communicate with other students about it. Apparently, professors in the US and Australia have had good experiences with take-home exams, because I just heard from a friend who is currently on exchange at Berkeley University in California that they have to do this as well! So far I went through the theory and the article. The challenging part is going to start tomorrow: writing the essay!