Abstract
The arrival of ChatGPT and other artificial intelligence (AI) has caused considerable concern for educators worldwide, many of whom are still recovering from the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic. Although the debate continues around the use of AI in education, one approach to ensure students are achieving their learning objectives, the oral exam or assessment, is gaining renewed interest. This article covers the background of oral exams and assessments, types, benefits, challenges, practical considerations, and recommendations. The oral exam or assessment is not only a vehicle to reduce academic integrity issues but is an authentic assessment offering educators and students a range of benefits: mirroring professional practice and increasing student communication skills, confidence, and a deeper understanding.
Keywords
In the face of generative artificial intelligence (AI) and the release of ChatGPT in November 2022, there has been widespread interest in the introduction of oral exams or assessments (e.g., Gardner & Giordano, 2023; Grassini, 2023). Recent research has found Chat GPT-4 is capable of not only passing medical school exams but also that independent of the prompt, the lowest exam performance it generated was 78.9% (Herrmann-Werner et al., 2024). There have been calls to enhance the capabilities of educators to prepare students for a rapidly changing professional environment (Nguyen et al., 2023). Oral exams and assessments had a rise to prominence during the COVID-19 pandemic, when many universities and high schools had to move online. Research insights from this time found that students found the personalized, interactive nature of oral assessments helpful in advancing both their learning and their communication skills (Sabin et al., 2021). The goal of this article is to explore the role of oral exams and assessments as an authentic evaluation method that enhances student learning, fosters key professional skills, and assists in the preservation of academic integrity and to offer practical insights and recommendations for educators.
History
Oral exams are not new. They have been in use since the fifth century, when ancient Greek philosophers such as Socrates used them to question people and encourage deeper thinking. In the 16th century, all exams at Oxford and Cambridge were oral exams, conducted in Latin and in public, known as the “viva voce” (Dobson, 2018). Although the oral exam was largely dropped from high schools and higher education due to reasons of time and efficiency, they are still used widely in many European countries (De Vita & Case, 2003). Countries such as Norway continue to use them in high schools, with students required to sit at least one oral exam in their final year, and they are also widely used in undergraduate programs in French, German, and Spanish-speaking countries (Dobson, 2018).
Definition
There are many definitions and slightly different terms used, all encapsulating the key concepts of an oral assessment rather than a written assessment. From ancient times and the Middle Ages comes the Latin term of “viva voce” meaning “by the living voice” (Dobson, 2018, p. xv). In simple terms, it can be defined as an assessment where the student response is verbal instead of in writing and that response is being examined (Joughin, 1998). A more recent definition deletes the exam reference and positions the assessment as an engaging, personalized, less structured, authentic assessment that assists in the preservation of academic integrity, defining it as an “interactive oral”: “a form of assessment asking students to perform real-world tasks to demonstrate meaningful application of necessary knowledge and skills” (Sotiriadou et al., 2020, p. 2138). This definition positions the oral assessment as more of a conversation based on a scenario in which the student is required to demonstrate and apply unit concepts. Both definitions are valid, depending on how exactly the educator decides to structure the assessment. In this article, I present a simplified version that encapsulates both forms and defines an oral assessment as an assessment in which the student’s knowledge and application are tested and assessed verbally rather than in written form.
Types of Oral Assessments
There are a range of different types of oral assessments that can be used in a high school and tertiary education setting. Joughin (1998) outlined the two different qualities that can be measured by oral assessments: The first is the student’s oral skills in communication, and the second is the command of the content as demonstrated through the oral medium. The article also defined six dimensions of oral assessments:
primary content type (knowledge and understanding, applied problem-solving, interpersonal competence, personal qualities)
interaction (presentation vs. dialogue)
authenticity (contextualized vs. decontextualized)
structure (closed vs. open)
examiners (self-, peer-, authority-based)
orality (purely oral vs, oral as a secondary).
When Would You Use Them?
Oral assessments can replace a written assessment and can form an important part of an assessment regime, offering both educators and students variety. They have traditionally been used to assess language understanding and have strong links to professional areas such as nursing, medicine, and business. Oral assessments have been used in high schools, undergraduate and postgraduate university studies, and a variety of disciplines, including business (Burke-Smalley, 2014), medicine (Memon et al., 2010; J. Pearce & Chiavaroli, 2020), engineering (Nikolic et al., 2023), marketing (G. Pearce & Lee, 2009), chemistry (Roecker, 2007), and biology (Luckie et al., 2013), to name a few.
Oral assessments can be used as an alternative assessment when students fail a written test, or they can be incorporated in a planned assessment regime. Although they can be an authentic method to assess a student’s knowledge and higher order thinking skills, careful consideration should be given as to when and where they should be used. To maintain the validity, reliability, and fairness of oral assessments Memon et al. (2010) suggested the following:
Oral assessments should be used to examine oral capabilities and should not be the only means of examination.
Examining bodies should establish the validity, reliability, and fairness of oral assessments; publish data to demonstrate this; and establish ongoing mechanisms to review and improve them, including regular external reviews.
Perceptions of bias should be addressed formally and professionally in the context of best practice.
Content should be standardized as much as possible.
All examiners should receive training in oral assessment procedures, including the need to focus only on professional attributes, language issues for candidates taking oral assessments in a second language, and the nature and source of bias.
Additionally, the assessment structure must be aligned with the intended learning outcomes, and when this is done successfully, oral assessments can provide a vehicle to test more in-depth knowledge along with additional skills valuable for graduates, such as quick-thinking skills and oral communication skills (Akimov & Malin, 2020). Oral assessments are recognized as a strong strategy to maintain academic integrity, especially when questions are unknown ahead of time, removing the ability of students to use AI to generate answers and then memorize them (Nikolic et al., 2023).
Why Would You Use Them?
Oral assessments are having a renaissance of sorts, with educators looking to preserve the academic integrity of their units and courses and to ensure their students not only achieve their learning objectives but also can actually do the things we say they can. Many educators are now building AI into units, courses, and individual assessments, making it difficult to assess what the student is able to achieve without its use. Generative AI tools have been found to perform well at the lower levels of Bloom’s taxonomy but struggle at the create level and making arguments built on theoretical frameworks (Nguyen et al., 2023). These are the types of skills that can be assessed during an oral assessment. Educators are often looking for assessments that stretch students beyond their written skills, and oral assessments can achieve this aim.
The ability to clearly communicate ideas orally is a skill valued in academia and also in professional practice. Oral assessments are often used in language courses, and because they can assess communication skills, they are well suited to professional areas such as nursing, medicine, and business, where the ability to communicate verbally is important. The benefits of an oral assessment include being able to probe the students’ knowledge and understanding of key concepts from a unit or course while enriching students with skills to advance their employability and maintaining academic integrity (Sotiriadou et al., 2020).
What Are the Benefits?
Personalized
Because oral assessments offer the opportunity for interaction with the educator, this can lead to a greater sense of connection between instructors and students. Students value personalized interaction and connection, and this is fostered in an oral assessment, be that in person or online. This is particularly relevant to online education, where research has found that students reported they valued the oral assessment experience and agreed it personalized the distance-learning experience (Kamber, 2021).
Authentic
Educators and students alike value authentic assessments that have a strong connection to their future professional life. Organizations and workforce assessments continue to identify the need for graduates to develop their critical thinking and problem-solving skills, and students have responded positively to courses that assist them to develop such skills (Callaghan-Koru & Aqil, 2022). In the past, case studies and presentations have often been used to develop and assess these higher order skills; however, both of these have limitations around students “thinking on their feet.” Because oral assessments mirror a wide range of professional experiences in which students must communicate with peers, colleagues, or patients, they are both authentic and valuable to a student’s future development and career. Often, it is only when students enter their profession that they are able to reflect back on the value of oral assessments as useful preparation for the reality of professional practice (Henderson et al., 2002). Curricula must change to stay current with industry standards, including new methods and metrics for measuring success (Elrod et al., 2022). Although not a new concept, oral assessments offer students a chance to practice and build on their communication skills because they often mirror professional experiences, such as job interviews or workplace challenges. Additionally, they assist students to develop their professional identity, their communication skills, and their employability (Sotiriadou et al., 2020). In a world where so many tasks can now be completed by AI, the ability to communicate ideas and information verbally is not only an authentic assessment task, it may also be vital to gaining and keeping a job.
Work Ready
Oral assessments can capitalize on student use of higher order skills such as the ability to apply and analyze information, concepts, or ideas; evaluate their value; and consider how this might be applied in a professional setting. They can provide a deeper understanding of the student’s overall grasp on the subject matter and can allow for creativity in answers, such as the creation of a solution to a real-world problem, reaching the highest levels in Bloom’s taxonomy. Researchers have found oral assessments can assess conceptual understanding, problem-solving, and communications skills (Sayre, 2014). These are all skills highly valued in professional work settings and by most employers. Because oral assessments can be more of a dialogue, they test comprehension rather than memorization (Gaudet, 2015). In comparison to written exams with a static response, oral assessments allow for probing of responses, providing the opportunity for a more complete picture of student understanding (Dobson, 2018).
Depth of Knowledge and Skills
The nature of the oral assessment means the student must be prepared to think on their feet, remember and apply knowledge from their studies, and often demonstrate how concepts link to each other or might be applied to a real-life problem or professional setting. Students have reported that although they found the oral assessment and the associated preparation more demanding than what was required for a written assessment, they found it to be more personal, requiring a deeper understanding and leading to deeper learning (Joughin, 2007). This may be especially useful for students who are struggling, leading to a change in study habits and a greater understanding of the material. The presence or addition of an oral assessment to a course could have the potential to change the way students engage with the material and their study habits. Students have reported studying more for oral assessments, and many believe that oral assessments provide a better reflection of their knowledge because they needed to demonstrate their understanding of the material (Roecker, 2007). Students may spend more time preparing or prepare in different ways, leading to greater retention of knowledge. Gardner and Giordano (2023) found students changed their study habits when preparing for oral assessments, such as studying in groups and speaking aloud and focusing on understanding the concepts and calculations instead of memorizing them. Through the use of oral assessments, students can start to focus less on memorization and more on understanding the concepts, increasing their depth of knowledge and skills.
A further pedagogic advantage is that as students speak, there can be a greater focus on the process of learning rather than the output, meaning the student can be assessed on their choice of technique and their critical thinking and deduction process. This provides the educator with insights into why the student has chosen a particular approach, which is not always visible with other assessment methods. Oral assessments allow the student flexibility in how they explain their thinking, assisting them to build their identities as thinkers and speakers (Theobold, 2021). Additionally, often in the process of explaining their reasoning and deduction, students can reflect on their choices and have the chance to self-correct if they need to. The act of having to explain a concept aloud is a valuable learning experience in itself. There is also a further pedagogical advantage for educators. The oral assessment also allows teaching staff to uncover gaps in student knowledge or common misconceptions and allow for the adjustment and improvement of unit materials, style of delivery, and other assessments (Roecker, 2007).
Enjoyment and Satisfaction
Educators are often hesitant to introduce oral assessments due to their belief that they will induce anxiety in their student population. Huxham et al. (2012) found that oral assessments can induce more anxiety in students than written ones; however, despite this, many students still stated they preferred them to a written assessment. Iannone and Simpson (2015) found that for some students, despite these concerns, they viewed oral assessments as beneficial and authentic, encouraging a focus on understanding and being reactive to their needs. More research is needed in this area to clarify if the anxiety is due to the nature of oral assessments or simply because many students have limited or no experience of them. It may be that greater exposure to oral assessments may lead to reduced anxiety. In one recent study, many students reported becoming more engaged in the process of learning, and some even considered the experience “fun” (Bresler et al., 2023, p. 845). This is reinforced by Lin (2023), who found in the context of oral presentation assessments that not only do students perceive them to be beneficial to their learning but also recognize the benefit to development of their presentation skills. Nursing students reported that they liked oral assessments and preferred them to written ones (Turjamaa et al., 2018), and those who underwent an oral assessment as part of their final-year assessment reported feeling satisfied with the assessment (Salamonson et al., 2016).
Higher Grades
During an oral assessment, the educator has flexibility to simplify questions or prompt students who are struggling and on the flip side, stretch high-achieving students to demonstrate the full range of their understanding. This can result in higher grades than would have been achieved with a written assessment. Rushton and Eggett (2003) found oral assessments to be as effective or more effective than written exams in evaluating student understanding and application of concepts. Reinforcing this, Luckie et al. (2013) found not only did the majority of students value oral assessments, but they also showed greater gains in knowledge and longitudinal performance. Many studies have compared written assessments to oral ones and found students performed better on oral measures than written measures (e.g., Burke-Smalley 2014; Roecker, 2007).
Academic Integrity
Although there are a number of key advantages to the introduction of oral assessments, another key benefit can be the reduction in the potential for cheating, plagiarism, or unauthorized use of AI due to the real-time nature of the oral assessment. Starr-Egger (2023) suggested they are more robust than written exams because students are usually known to the educator and can be identified. Oral assessments have been recommended as a pedagogical-based approach to test understanding of material in order to reduce academic dishonesty and trustworthy assessment issues (Surahman & Wang, 2022). Particularly in online environments, replacing text-based or multiple-choice tests with oral-based assessment is recommended as a way to minimize plagiarism and academic dishonesty (Akimov & Malin, 2020). Specifically, an interactive oral assessment has the added bonus of preparing students for their professional life (Ward et al., 2024). Students’ depth of understanding and ability to apply unit concepts and frameworks can be probed with follow-up questions, allowing a more nuanced picture of their knowledge and abilities.
Potential Challenges
Instructors may be concerned around the challenges of scheduling and implementing an oral assessment and technical aspects. There is research focusing on the negative responses of some instructors who conducted oral assessments online during the COVID-19 pandemic, mostly around technical aspects and cheating; however, many of the issues were due to the short time frame in which the changes had to be made, the lack of preparation time for educators, and the resulting outcome of students feeling unprepared (e.g., Papanastasiou & Solomonidou, 2023). However, other research conducted during the same period found that these types of issues can be overcome with careful planning (Saraghi et al., 2021) and that overall online oral assessments were comparable to in-person ones and were well received by educators and students (Barry et al., 2022). Some educators may be hesitant to implement oral assessments due to perceived time demands; however, previous research demonstrated moving oral assessments for 742 students from on campus to an online format reduced the required support staff hours from almost 8 days to 3 days by eliminating the need for candidate check-in, workspace allocation, and invigilation (Starr-Egger, 2023). Similarly, Bresler et al. (2023) found that replacing the standardized National Board of Medical Examiners exam with student-written case submissions followed by an oral assessment in the evaluation of fourth-year medical students reduced the workload of faculty, who were previously tasked with case study preparation, while simultaneously enhancing student engagement and academic rigor.
Although some students may feel anxious prior to an oral assessment, on reflection, they reported that they felt the process was user-friendly (G. Pearce & Lee, 2009). In one study where oral assessments had been introduced in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, students were overwhelmingly positive and recommended their continued use despite any perceived challenges (Gardner & Giordano, 2023). Some educators may also be concerned that students will become anxious when faced with an oral assessment; however, the anxiety some students experience may be linked to the fact that they are unfamiliar with the format. Roecker (2007) found that student anxiety reduced in subsequent oral assessments because students had a clearer idea of what to expect. Additionally, although some students do report oral assessments to be a stressful experience, they also felt it allowed them to provide a potentially more nuanced response with prompting from the educator (Hazen, 2020).
Due to the nature of an oral assessment, there may be a potential for bias around gender, ethnicity, language skills, speed of answering, and subjective grading because the marking process cannot be anonymous. However, there is scant evidence to support increased bias any more than in other types of assessment. Importantly, research by Huxham et al. (2012) found no evidence of particular student groups being disadvantaged in oral assessments compared to written ones, concluding oral assessments to be more inclusive than written exams because they can accommodate students with different learning needs, such as those with dyslexia. Careful preparation is recommended to avoid any bias (Akimov & Malin, 2020). In terms of grading, a clear process and grading rubric can reduce subjective factors, and risk can be further mitigated by ensuring assessment is not reliant on one instrument and conceptualizing “assessment as a process that measures learning to inform actions: not only to improve student outcome attainment, but also student understanding of academic integrity” (Hilliger et al., 2022, p. 1518). Practical considerations and recommendations are outlined in the following to help address any potential challenges.
Practical Considerations
Design
Consideration must be given to the design and application of an oral assessment to ensure academic integrity. Careful preparation is recommended, including careful attention to fairness, validity, and reliability (Akimov & Malin, 2020). For example, clear guidelines around the type of feedback (if any) given to the student during the assessment should be made clear to educators because negative feedback and using words such as “no” or “wrong” can impact student performance and threaten assessment validity (Vonen, 2024).
Prompting
In addition, clear guidelines should be given around prompting during the oral assessment in order to maintain validity. Pearce and Chiavaroli (2020) presented a taxonomy of prompting as a continuum of types, such as presenting the task, repeating information, clarifying questions, probing questions, and leading questions. It is important assessors should be clear on the degree of prompting required or allowed, and students should be briefed so they are clear on what to expect (Pearce & Chiavaroli, 2020). Pearce and Chiavroli (2020) recommend establishing guiding principles for practice around this, including the following:
Neutrality: When educators prompt, they should aim to do so in a way that neither discourages nor reassures the student.
Consistency: Educators should aim to be consistent in their approach to probing with all students.
Transparency: Clear and justifiable rationale must be established for which forms of prompting are required, and written guidelines around this are helpful in being transparent and useful in assessor training. Students should be clear if they can expect prompting and what form it will take and if they should be responsible to keep to the time allocated or if the educator will prompt to move through the questions.
Reflexivity: Encourage ongoing reflection in prompting practice by assessors, including ongoing monitoring and evaluation.
Practical Recommendations
When planning to introduce an oral assessment as part of the curriculum, there are several practical steps that can be taken to ensure a smooth implementation.
1. Have clear guidelines for both academic staff and students. To work well, students need to feel safe. They should be given information about the schedule and assessment criteria beforehand and have some experience of the format (Turjamaa et al., 2018).2. Consider a training or shadowing program with experienced instructors leading novices.
3. Ensure the student presents their identification card at the start of the assessment and ensure it matches with the student who is present.
4. Less is more. Although an oral assessment can be between 20 minutes and 60 minutes, it should take no more than 20 minutes to get a clear picture of a student’s understanding (Sayre, 2014). Harder, more interesting problems can be selected, but plan for half as many problems (Sayre, 2014).
5. Create a clear rubric based on different levels of mastery for the skill being assessed and a bank of questions linked to each learning objective so each student can be presented with a different set of questions.
6. Create clarity for both instructors and students on prompting: how much will be allowed and what form this will take. A clear guide should be established to ensure neutrality, consistency, transparency, and reflexivity (Pearce & Chiavaroli, 2020).
7. With larger cohorts, have a calibration process to reduce differences.
8. Provide as much student-facing support as you can to reduce anxiety in students, particularly for high school or undergraduate students. For online or distance learning students, it is important to increase confidence through building assessment competencies and familiarizing them with the assessment format (Aristeidou et al., 2024). These can include a recorded mock assessment to view, opportunities to practice where no marks are allocated, a “Frequently Asked Questions” page, and opportunities to ask any further questions in person or through a discussion board.
9. Use an online booking system aligned with your learning platform that provides transparency for both parties and sends reminders to students.
10. Use shared online spreadsheets for scheduling to reduce administrative effort (Starr-Egger, 2023).
11. To address feasibility issues, consider the time-saving benefit of conducting the oral assessments online using Teams or Zoom rather than on campus. Starr-Egger (2023) found changing from on campus to online during the COVID-19 pandemic significantly reduced support staff hours because the usual candidate check-in, workspace allocation, and invigilation was not required. This has additional benefits, such as the storage of video recordings for later review if needed, such as in the case of fail grades, and also reduces the travel time and expenditure for both students and educators (Starr-Egger, 2023).
12. Ensure the instructions to the student are clear, such as being in the waiting room at least 10 minutes prior to their allocated time (and not to be concerned if they need to wait) to allow for smooth transitions between assessments.
13. Plan if the assessment will be open book or closed book. Open-book assessments may reduce anxiety for the student and have the additional benefit of allowing the student to focus more on their ability to problem-solve and apply information rather than memorize it (Sayre, 2014).
Conclusion
Although there are many reasons oral assessments should maintain a place in our education system, such as authenticity and work readiness, another key benefit is that the oral assessment is a learning experience in itself. Students can extend their learning and foster critical thinking during the process of preparing for and completing an oral assessment. Educators who use them have emphasized their role as a superior means to assess students’ critical thinking abilities, communication skills, and ethical reasoning abilities in comparison to essays or written tests (Badger, 2010). Further research is needed on oral assessments in the current environment, including how both students and educators feel about oral assessments and more practical guidance on how to implement them. However, in the meantime, educators should reconsider the use of oral assessments and look to introduce them as an authentic assessment with a range of benefits to both educators and students. The maintenance of academic integrity issues in the face of AI through an oral assessment can be viewed as an added bonus.
