Interactive oral assessments – an alternative approach to assessing students’ learning

Assessments are vital to student learning (Boud & Falchikov, 2005) and yet a challenging area in higher education (Boud et al., 2010). Increasingly assessments are seen to be a key factor in preparing students for work and life rather than just tools for measuring student learning (Boud & Falchikov, 2005). With the federal government’s focus on ‘job-ready graduates’ (DESE, 2021), it is essential to strengthen the connection between assessments at university and the workplace. Authentic assessments mimic real life scenarios and offer a better way for academics to assess students’ knowledge and skills (Tumlos-Castillo et al., 2021), and enhance students’ engagement, learning and employability skills (Villaroel et al., 2018). Interactive Oral Assessment (IOA) (Sotiriadou et al., 2019) is an authentic assessment method where students can verbally demonstrate their knowledge in a simulated workplace setting, that they are likely to encounter in their professions. Further, such scenario-based conversation offers academics the opportunity to assess students’ knowledge and skills that may not be easily assessable via formal assessment approaches such as; examinations, multiple-choice questions, or essay and reports. This approach to assessment is proven to enhance students’ engagement, employability, and academic integrity (Sotiriadou et al., 2019). In this session three academics will present their journey of embedding IOAs in their subjects. They will talk about their students’ experience and outcomes, as well as share their personal experiences.