Use of oral examinations to assess student learning in the social sciences

Abstract

ABSTRACT Currently, oral examinations are infrequently used for student assessment outside of language classes. Many instructors consider the administering of oral exams time-consuming and their grading subjective, in addition to concerns over raising student stress levels. On the other hand, oral exams provide many potential benefits, including the opportunity to assess deeper levels of student understanding, to provide instant feedback to students, and to develop students’ oral communication skills. This study explores the potential advantages and drawbacks of the oral format using a questionnaire survey among students who completed an oral exam in a mid-level undergraduate geography course. I conclude that for small class sizes orals can offer benefits that outweigh the potential disadvantages, if carefully designed and administered. For students who considered oral skills to be their strength, orals allowed them to excel. For a larger group of students, orals were a stressful experience, but allowed the student to provide potentially a more nuanced answer with prompting from the examiner. A minority of students considered that the oral format had compromised their ability to perform; however, it is arguably this group of students who might benefit most from practicing verbal skills via the oral exam format.