5 March 2025: Interactive Oral Assessments in first-year

Presenters: Stephanie Budgett and Leila Boyle (University of Auckland, New Zealand)

In our session, we shared our experiences in implementing an interactive oral assessment (IOA) for the first time in a first year undergraduate course in statistics. We covered the practicalities of the process and lessons learned along the way. We also shared feedback from our first cohort of students. 

One of the learning outcomes in the course – assessed in an assignment – is that students will be able to critically evaluate a statistical study and then communicate and justify their judgement on the study. While many of our students genuinely engage in the assignment, in recent years it has become apparent that some rely heavily on Generative AI tools. While such tools can be useful as a starting point, some student submissions revealed that they were not critically evaluating AI-generated outputs in light of the context of the provided study. In 2024, we decided to implement an interactive oral assessment (IOA) component. Students were given a choice of undertaking the IOA in person (on campus) or online via web conferencing. We found that this assessment type can help to preserve academic integrity as well as provide for authenticity to prepare students for their professional life beyond university. 

Further resources:

• Slide Set: TA_webinar_5_mar_2025_slides.pdf (PDF) 
• Chat Log (edited for typos) including shared links: TA_webinar_5_mar_2025_chat_log.txt
• The rubric used for the interactive oral assessment task referenced in the session (PDF).
• University profile: Stephanie Budgett
• University profile: Leila Boyle

Session Recording

• View: Session recording video on Blackboard Collaborate (slide stream, video, audio and chat).
• View: Session recording video on Youtube (slide stream and audio).