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Oral assessment

Get guidance and advice on best practice when designing and implementing inclusive oral assessments.

Oral assessment refers to any form of evaluation or component of assessment (summative and formative) where students demonstrate their knowledge, understanding, or skills primarily through spoken communication. This can range from formal presentations and oral examinations to structured discussions and reflective interviews.

Advantages of oral assessments

While oral communication is unlikely to be a competence standard and therefore a requirement for many courses, oral assessments are often a good choices as part of a scaffolded approach to curriculum design, because they:

  • can assess depth of knowledge, critical reflection and skills, providing insight into students’ cognitive processes
  • can help students to develop communication and oracy skills authentic to their discipline, e.g. where students solve problems, demonstrate skills, and communicate using disciplinary language and scenarios
  • can develop students ability to communicate disciplinary knowledge to non-specialist audiences
  • provide the opportunity to ensure that each student understands the questions being asked
  • provide an alternative means of expression, as oral assessments may suit some students better than written demonstrations depending on their strengths and abilities
  • can reduce academic integrity challenges as students need to be prepared to demonstrate and apply their thinking and understanding
  • enable the use of prompts and follow-up questions to further clarify students’ thinking and understanding
  • can be marked and invigilated in the moment.

Challenges of oral assessments

When designing oral assessments, you should consider that they:

  • can take more time to administer than other types of assessment
  • can be stressful for students, especially for some students with mental health concerns, which is why it is necessary to carefully scaffold oral assessments
  • can raise issues of reliability and fairness, e.g. if students are asked different questions
  • increase potential for bias and subjective marking because students’ articulateness, shyness, gender, ethnicity, language skills, accent, etc. can influence judgments about their knowledge and skills
  • require robust marker callibration and clear marking rubrics
  • will require some reasonable adjustments.

Read this Learning Matters Case Study for an example of how to mitigate these challenges.

Best practices for designing and implementing oral assessments

Steps to follow to ensure efficient, reliable, inclusive and accessible oral assessments.

  • Step 1: take a course or module-level approach

    Make sure you:

    • decide which learning outcomes should be assessed through this method. Only use oral assessment if it suitably assesses the learning outcomes of a course or module – do not use it solely to ensure academic integrity*
    • factor in how much experience your students have had with this kind of assessment during their course and the implications for assessment workloads, student support and ultimately, the course design
    • consider how your oral assessment will complement other assessments in your course or module – oral assessments are best suited to probing depth of knowledge or the application of skills
    • plan how you will provide resit opportunities or alternative assessment options that align to course and module learning outcomes, and your faculty approach.

     

    *Please note: In exceptional cases, such as when students with reasonable adjustments complete a takeaway paper instead of an in-person exam, a follow-up discussion can be used to support the academic integrity assessments. Please contact your AQP Curriculum Manager for guidance on the circumstances in which such meetings can be held and instructions on how they should operate.

  • Step 2: design the content and structure of the assessment

    When designing the structure of the assessment and the questions, you should:

    • design appropriate questions for each learning outcome you want to assess – include potential follow-up questions and prompts based on different types of answers
    • design with inclusivity in mind from the outset, considering diverse student needs, fulfilling the University’s anticipatory duty as set out in our Accessible and Inclusive Learning Code of Practice
    • consider what sort and amount of structure is needed – think about what aspects of the assessment need to be highly structured or what aspects of the assessment can be more open
    • consider whether you could provide questions in advance, particularly at levels 4 and 5 – e.g. for and oral exam this could include giving students some invigilated preparation time immediately prior to a test
    • decide on the order of questions and any tasks students must perform – start with an easier question to ease students in

    • standardize the number of questions, difficulty of questions and the time allotted to each assessment.

  • Step 3: create marking criteria and plan your marking

    When creating marking criteria, it’s important to:

    • create a marking guide (rubric) with explicit criteria/standards, weighting and exemplars for each question – keep in mind that answers are not necessarily right or wrong in oral assessment but rather demonstrate different levels of mastery
    • the marking guide should be straightforward enough that markers can fill it in during the assessment
    • decide on your guiding principles for prompting students
    • decide if prompting students means that points will be deducted
    • decide if students will be allowed, or even encouraged, to draw diagrams to support their answers
    • ensure the wording used in the marking criteria is inclusive and not overly specific. Instead of specifying eye contact, which may be inappropriate for some disabilities, the rubric might stipulate that students need to demonstrate appropriate awareness of the audience. This would ensure that the criterion can be interpreted individually for each student
    • consider the assessment weighting and whether moderation is required (see Proceedures for marking, moderation and feedback)
    • decide whether to use multiple examiners, which can be helpful for managing time, taking notes, solving technical issues, marking reliability and moderation
    • decide whether to record the assessment and how you will go about doing so
    • prepare staff for marking to ensure efficient and consistent makring and moderation – this may include meetings to discuss the task, the marking criteria, undertake calibration exercises and training on inclusive assessment practices, and discuss matters arising before and after the assessment
    • try to build-in time after each student to finalize marks and feedback.
  • Step 4: prepare students and create practice opportunities

    To prepare students for oral assessments you could:

    • provide clear information from the start of the module to students about the content to be covered, the process and structure of the oral assessment, the material they can bring with them to the assessment and the marking criteria
    • share a recorded video demonstrating a typical oral assessment – model relevant questions and answers, and how they would be marked according to the rubric
    • provide opportunities for practice by using in-class strategies that require all students to speak frequently, including short presentations
    • give students a chance to practise answering and giving/receiving feedback on oral assessment questions.
  • Step 5: conduct the assessment

    When conducting the assessment, remember:

    • some students will need more encouragement as they may be shy or nervous – shyness or other behaviours should not affect your perception of what the student knows
    • to take notes during the assessment – these will support your memory at the end of the assessment when marking occurs and can be used to provide feedback
    • ideally, to complete the marking proforma or rubric and write your feedback immedaitely after each oral assessment
    • you might want to make an audio or video recording of the assessment, particularly if marking alone.  
  • Step 6: capture and act on things you will do differently next time

    No assessment is perfect. Good assessment design requires ongoing review and iteration.

    After completing your assessment process:

    • make notes on or plan out changes you want to make to your assessment task design and guidance the next time you use it
    • if possible, ask students for their feedback on the assessment and your proposed changes.

What to avoid when designing oral assessments

Please avoid the following in oral assessments.

  • Use oral assessment solely to ensure academic integrity

    When considering an oral assessment, remember:

    • they should NOT be designed solely as a means to ensure the academic integrity ofother submissions
    • the outcomes of an oral assessment CANNOT impact or limit the mark awarded to other assesssments.

     

    Instead:

    • oral assessments should be used to enable meaningful conversations that enable students to test and develop their thinking (if prior to a final summative submission) or explain further and expand upon their ideas (if after a summative submission) and receive actionable feedback
    • where there are concerns about the academic integrity of summative submissions, convenors should follow the Academic Misconduct Policy and associated proceedures.

     

    *Please note: In exceptional cases, such as when students with reasonable adjustments complete a takeaway paper instead of an in-person exam, a follow-up discussion can be used to support the academic integrity assessments. Please contact your AQP Curriculum Manager for guidance on the circumstances in which such meetings can be held and instructions on how they should operate.

  • Include required oral assessments within portfolio assignments

    Doing so:

    • makes it difficult for colleagues, including Disability Support, to identify and support reasonable adjustments
    • puts unfair onus on students with disabilites to self-advocate and request a variation of assessment.

     

    Instead:

    • make your portfolio assigment inclusive by design by giving students a choice over how they meet the assessment requirements, which may include an oral component (or reflection on an oral activity).

Types of oral activities and assessments

All forms or oral assessment are encouraged, as long as they align with intended leanring outcomes. The list below is provided as inspiration and is not exhaustive.

  • Oral examinations

    A one-on-one or panel-based verbal examination where students respond to questions about their work, often related to dissertations or research projects. Oral examinations evaluate students’ depth of knowledge, critical thinking and ability to articulate ideas under pressure. They encourage real-time problem-solving, adaptability and effective communication skills.

    By requiring students to defend their work and respond to questions, oral examinations develop analytical skills and deepen their understanding.

    Read how how Dr Louise Newnham (Life Sciences) introduced oral examinations into their curriculum.

    Watch a video on the rationale, structure and logistics of an oral exam, used in a final year optometry course, to assess professional readiness and develop essential communication skills.

  • Interactive oral assessments

    Unlike traditional oral exams, an interactive oral assessments (IOAs) encourages free-flowing discussions guided by assessors’ prompts, allowing students to showcase their knowledge in a less formal, dialogic setting. An interactive oral assessment focuses on professional or real-world scenarios to evaluate students’ understanding, skills and critical thinking abilities in a dynamic and interactive manner.

    Data shows that students value the real-life (authentic), industry-aligned scenarios simulated within IOAs (Droulers et al 2006). They also report that IOAs helped improve their analytical, problem-solving and communication skills, as well as their confidence in defending their judgment and decisions (ibid).

    Review Griffith University&squo;s guidance on interactive oral assessment which contains a wealth of resources and examples of implementing IOAs at scale and across disciplines provided by universities in Australia, Singapore and Ireland. The site also contains a number of examplar marking rubrics.

    See also Dublin City University guidance on interactive oral assessments which provides a range of reources, including a dowloadable IOA guide.

    Watch this short film in which Dr. Pranit Anand explains how he developed and scaffolded an interactive oral assessment into a new postgraduate course to develop students’ employability skills and improve assurance of learning.

    Read this paper on ‘portfolios of learning evidence and interview assessments in a mathematical statistics course’. Note that, at UoS we cannot combine portfolio and oral assessments. However, the assessment approach described can be adapted.

  • Vivas

    Doctoral students undertake an oral examination as the final assessment stage for a PhD.

    During the viva, the candidate defends their PhD thesis in front of a panel of experts, typically including both internal and external examiners. This process assesses the originality, rigor and contribution of the research, as well as the candidate’s understanding of their field and ability to articulate and defend their work.

    Avoid using ‘viva’ as a generic term for oral assessments.

  • Presentations

    Students deliver a structured talk, individually or in groups, on a specific topic or research project, often supported by visual aids like slides. They often include Q&A with peers and/or markers.

    Oral presentations promote active learning by requiring students to research, synthesise and present ideas clearly and confidently. Presentations encourage creativity, audience engagement and adaptability. They prepare students for professional scenarios like interviews and pitches. They can also enhance peer learning by exposing students to diverse perspectives and ideas.

    Learn how Dr Verona Ní Drisceoil changed their assessment to an oral presentation to help embed authenticity into their curriculum.

    See the Educational Enhancement guidance on planning individual and group presentation assessments.

  • Debates

    Students are assigned positions on a topic and engage in a structured argument, often in teams, to defend their position or critique the opposing view.

    Debates foster critical thinking, argumentation and communication skills by challenging students to analyse, evaluate and defend positions. They promote active learning, encouraging research, evidence-based reasoning and the ability to respond dynamically to opposing views. Debates also develop teamwork, collaboration and empathy by requiring students to consider multiple perspectives. They also enhance confidence, public speaking and audience engagement.

    Learn more about using debates in your curriculum from Sarah Otner, Associate Professor in Information Management.

  • Panel discussions

    A panel discussion is where a group of individuals (students, experts or a mix) discuss a specific topic or issue in front of an audience.

    Each panelist presents their perspective or expertise, engages in a moderated discussion and responds to questions from the moderator or audience. A panel discussion fosters deep learning by encouraging research critical thinking and the synthesis of diverse perspectives.

    It develops communication, teamwork and interpersonal skills. While a panel discussion is similar to a debate, it’s aimed less at defending a specific position and focuses more on sharing insights on a topic.

    Find out more about student perceptions of panel discussions.

  • Role play

    Students assume roles in a scenario (e.g., business negotiations, mock trials or clinical consultations) to demonstrate practical application of knowledge and skills.

    Role-play activities and assessments provide experiential learning by simulating real-world scenarios, enabling students to apply theoretical knowledge in practical contexts. They foster critical thinking, problem-solving and adaptability, while developing communication, collaboration and interpersonal skills. Role-play encourages empathy and perspective-taking, helping students understand diverse viewpoints. It builds confidence in professional environments and allows for creativity in addressing complex challenges.

  • Interviews

    A one-on-one or panel interview format where students respond to targeted questions, often simulating real-world scenarios like job interviews.

    Interviews test adaptability, problem-solving and professional communication skills. By allowing personalised interaction, interviews offer a tailored assessment of individual understanding and readiness. This method promotes confidence, professionalism and the ability to engage in meaningful academic or professional dialogue, making it a valuable and dynamic assessment tool.

  • Peer teaching

    Students teach and learn from each other under the guidance of an instructor.

    Students take on the role of educators, preparing and delivering lessons, leading discussions, or facilitating activities to help their peers understand a particular topic or concept. Peer teaching can be an empowering method of assessment as it encourages students to become the experts in their subject.

  • Creative performance

    A creative performance as a form of assessment involves students expressing knowledge, skills, or concepts through artistic or imaginative means, such as drama, music, dance, storytelling, or multimedia presentations. It allows students to showcase creativity, innovation, and personal interpretation while engaging deeply with course content.

    Creative performance encourages active learning, critical thinking and collaboration. It supports diverse learning styles, fosters confidence and enhances communication and presentation skills.

  • Podcasting

    A podcast is a digital audio or video recording that is made available online for streaming or downloading. Podcasts are typically structured around specific themes or topics and may feature a single presenter, interviews, panel discussions, or narrative storytelling. Using a podcast as a form of assessment can provide a creative and engaging way for students to demonstrate their learning, and help students showcase their learning to an audience beyond the University.

    Learn more about engaging students through podcasting.

You can combine oral actvities and assessments.

Watch Dr. Peter Neal explain how his hybrid oral assessment approach prepares students for further learning and fosters communication skills and teamwork.

References and further reading

Find more information from:

Acknowledgment

We would like to express our thanks to Professor Simon Walker (NTF PFHEA), Senior Academic Advisor at Centre for Higher Education Practice (CHEP), University of Southampton), for his support and to acknowledge our use of the University of Southampton Guide to Oral Assessment (2026) to review and improve this page.

 

Page last updated: March 2026 

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