Instructors across Penn are turning to oral exams as a lower-stress, more authentic way to assess student learning. First employed as an alternative way to engage students during COVID-19, oral exams are now seen as an effective tool for assessing genuine learning and reducing both exam stress and concerns about inappropriate use of AI.
Ruth Elliott, who teaches Essentials of Biochemistry for Pre-Health Programs, adopted oral exams after noticing that open-book pandemic exams drove students toward perfectionism and overreliance on devices. Inspired by CETLI’s Faculty-to-Faculty session on Oral Exams in 2024, she ran a low-stakes 15-minute oral assessment in which students answered broad and detailed questions about a pre-assigned scientific paper. The oral component could only help their final grade—and it did: every student’s score improved. Elliott found that oral exams restored students’ sense of genuine learning and accomplishment, which may reduce the temptation to use AI inappropriately. She also values the person-to-person engagement oral exams foster, helping students rebuild confidence in conversation and in-person interaction.
Read more about Ruth’s success with oral exams, and hear from other SAS instructors in the article “Building Deeper Learning Through Oral Exams: Conversations That Count.”
