The current practice of assessing students through the open-book mode as against the traditional closed-book mode has been a topic of extensive research by academia. There is a growing consensus among academicians at large that open-book examinations are generally more suitable than closed- book examinations for testing the application of knowledge to innovative situations, as well as for examining higher order thinking abilities. Open-book examinations are believed to be able to reduce anxiety and rote memorising of facts. However, many argue that not all courses are suitable for open-book examination, as we should not overemphasise the benefits of open-book mode at the cost of knowledge content and depth of understanding. The purpose of this study is to develop a framework for the selection of courses suitable for open-book examination. A case study of a particular course offered by one of the leading university in India is taken up to evaluate the proposed framework using the multi-criteria decision-making approach. © 2010 Inderscience Enterprises Ltd.