ISCAP Proceedings: Abstract Presentation
Assessment of Student Learning Outcomes - Pilot with Oral Exams
Katarzyna Toskin
Southern Connecticut State University
Abstract
Oral examinations serve as powerful assessment tools, offering a greater insight into student’s knowledge and understanding than traditional written tests (Theobold, 2021). Although not as popular as written exams, universities increasingly utilize oral examinations as both alternative and complementary assessment methods. This format offers several pedagogical advantages such as dynamic interaction between faculty and student, enabling quick follow-up questions that probe understanding at a deeper level (Stephenson et al., 2025; Theobold, 2021). Furthermore, they can help faculty detect partial knowledge that is often not evident in written responses. Oral assessments also enhance student engagement and academic integrity. Students often put more effort in preparation knowing they must articulate and defend their knowledge. Additionally, this assessment format discourages cheating especially in the era of AI, which challenges academic integrity.
However, despite many strengths, oral examinations also pose a few practical challenges. First they are highly resource-intensive, and require substantial time and effort from the instructor to coordinate and administer the exam on an individual student basis. This makes their scalability challenging especially in large-enrollment courses (Bayley et al., 2024). Additionally, students’ anxiety or issues related to language proficiency (such as for students whose English is a second language) can adversely affect performance (Kang et al., 2022). For some students, especially those who are more comfortable with writing than speaking, oral exams may induce higher levels of stress and jeopardize the demonstration of optimal knowledge.
Therefore, successful implementation of oral exams requires thoughtful planning and structure. As oral exams become more prevalent, IS faculty should become familiar with their pedagogical advantages, practical limitations, as well as best practices for successful implementation. Insights from utilizing a pilot oral exam as a complementary assessment to a final project in a BIS Capstone course will also be shared to promote discussion and exchange of ideas.
References:
Bayley, T., Maclean, K. D. S., & Weidner, T. (2024). Back to the Future: Implementing Large-Scale Oral Exams. Management Teaching Review, 0(0). https://doi.org/10.1177/23792981241267744
Kang, D., Goico, S., Ghanbari, S., Bennallack, K., Pontes, T., O’Brien, D., & Hargis, J. (2022). Providing an oral examination as an authentic assessment in a large section, undergraduate diversity class. International Journal for the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning, 13(2).
Stephenson, Z., Johnson-Glauch, N., & Cruchley, S. (2025). Interventions and facilitators of oral assessment performance in higher education: a systematic review. Assessment & Evaluation in Higher Education, 1–14. https://doi.org/10.1080/02602938.2025.2504621
Theobold, A. S. (2021). Oral exams: A more meaningful assessment of students’ understanding. Journal of Statistics and Data Science Education, 29(2), 156-159.