The use of Oral Exams to Evaluate Experiential Learning Outcomes in a Lab Setting

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In the third year of Mechanical and Materials Engineering at Western University, students with limited prior exposure to electricity and electronics are required to take a course in electrical fundamentals. Although outside the traditional boundaries of their engineering discipline, increasingly, electronics has permeated traditional engineering disciplines with conversion of electrical energy to mechanical energy becoming increasingly relevant. To expose students to experiential learning, in the past, students were assigned labs to demonstrate their ability to support experiential learning outcomes. The labs were comprised of a pre-lab component that was to be completed prior to the practical portion of the lab, followed by measurements, analysis and discussion within a lab setting. All components were to be completed by students individually. With the advent of online AI tools, such as ChatGPT and an increase in the number of students in a cohort, the learning value of the labs was diminished, and it no longer was practical to conduct the experiential components of a lab as was performed in the past. New approaches were sought, and this year, landed upon a traditional method of evaluation: the oral examination. This paper outlines the process employed and the associated outcomes of this exercise.