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Oral assessment

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

What are oral assessments?

Oral assessments test students’ knowledge and skills based on their verbal responses to guided questions or tasks. Oral assessments can take different formats, including:

  • presentations on a prepared topic (individual or group)
  • interviews or discussions to assess a student’s knowledge or skills (e.g., a viva)
  • simulations or the application of skills individually or with others (e.g., client or patient).

Advantages of oral assessments

Oral assessments are often a good choice because they:

  • can assess depth of knowledge and skills, providing insight into students’ cognitive processes
  • can assess qualities such as confidence, self-awareness and aspects of professionalism that may not be evidenced in other modes of assessment
  • can help students to develop communication skills authentic to their discipline, e.g., where students solve problems, demonstrate skills, and communicate using disciplinary language and scenarios
  • 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 prevent academic integrity issues because follow-up questions can be asked to clarify students’ thinking and understanding
  • can be marked in the moment.

Challenges of oral assessments

When designing oral assessments, you should consider that they:

  • can take more time to set up than other types of assessment
  • can be more 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
  • will require some reasonable adjustments.

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

Best practices for designing and implementing 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
    • identify what alternative assessment options or extra support will be available for students who may be disadvantaged by oral assessment (e.g., students with hearing or speech impairments, anxiety, non-native speakers).
  • Step 2: create questions 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
    • 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
    • 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 if prompting a student 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 not overly specific. There may be skills difficult for some students to demonstrate, such as eye contact. Instead of specifying eye contact, 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
    • decide whether to use multiple examiners, which can be helpful for managing time, taking notes, solving technical issues, and marking reliability
    • conduct a marker meeting before and after the assessment to discuss the task, the marking criteria, and matters arising.
    • 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 to students about the content to be covered, the process and structure of the oral assessment, the material they can bring to the exam, 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 assesment, remember:

    • some students will need more encouragement as they may be shy or nervous. Shyness 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.
    • you might want to make an audio or video recording of the assessment, particularly if marking alone. If a student seeks a review of their marks, a recording is essential.

Elsewhere online

See more from Assessment modes