Oral Exam
An online Oral Exam can be a good substitute for a written exam. Because there is more at stake for students during Oral Exams, they tend to prepare themselves better than for a written exam. Oral Exams also give the teacher the opportunity to ask follow-up questions. By doing so, each Oral exam is authentic and tailored to the individual student. This makes that an Oral Exam assesses the actual understanding of the learning objectives better. Join in?
Lots of people think giving Oral Exams takes a lot of time. But nothing could be further from the truth. We will explain 2 different ways of using an Oral Exam, that will actually safe you time. The first is the traditional Oral Exam, suitable for small amounts of students. The second is Kristina Edström's teaching trick, suitable for up to 200 students. Thinking about using an Oral Exam for your course? This page will tell you all about it!
Traditional Oral exam
Formulate in advance a number of questions that cover the learning objectives. The same types of questions you would normally ask during a written exam, are also suitable for an Oral Exam. Make sure to have different questions for different students, otherwise they can pass the questions along among each other.
Ask follow-up questions based on the answers of the student. The total oral time takes about 40-60 minutes on average.
Draw up a rubric for the questions. Fill in the rubric during the Oral Exam. Give the grade immediately afterwards.
A recording needs to be made and saved in case the student doesn't agree with the given mark.
Oral exam for big groups
Have students prepare a 7-minute presentation that will demonstrate that they have mastered the learning objectives.
Ask follow-up questions based on this presentation to check how well the student actually masters the learning objectives. The total oral time should not exceed 30 minutes.
Use a rubric for the assessment and fill it in during the Oral Exam. Give the grade immediately afterwards.
A recording needs to be made and saved in case the student doesn't agree with the given mark.
Good practice
Pitfalls
As mentioned earlier, there's more at stake for students during an Oral Exam. Many students will find an Oral Exam scary, especially when fellow students are present. There's a chance that a student will shut down. So think carefully about whether you are still assessing what you want to assess: is it about how well the student understands the materials, or how sensitive the student is to stress.
The amount of stress a student feels, depends on how safe the student feels presenting in class or to the teacher. Ensure a safe learning environment. Then the student's performance will reflect it's abilities as well as possible. The VU Mixed Classroom model tells you how to achieve this.