How do we ensure students are retaining what they are learning in class? Asking students to explain concepts to others is one way to encourage deeper learning and better retention of course material. Read more about how Stephanie Padilla, Assistant Professor of Biology, uses oral exams to evaluate student learning while building their communication skills at the same time. 

Why did you start doing oral exams with your students instead of written exams? 

I teach an upper-level human physiology course in the biology department with about 40 students enrolled. One thing that I've always wanted from an upper-level neurobiology or physiology course is to deliver information to students in a way that encourages them to tell others about how the body works. I tried using various exam formats to evoke student-led explanations of physiological principles. Multiple-choice exams were not suitable to evaluate student explanations. Writing prompts worked well but are time consuming to grade. Fill-in-the-blank diagrams worked well for some concepts. With the remote exam format during COVID, I decided to try something new. I held oral exams and finally got to hear and see my students explain physiology! 

In exit polls, many students comment that they understand the material better after preparing the oral exams. The majority of my students are pre-health and are going to need to communicate information about health to their colleagues and their peers. I believe that oral exams not only reinforce the concepts, but also build communication skills.  

How do you implement oral exams in your course? 

Students create an original diagram and use it to explain a physiological principle as a ‘live’ tutorial over zoom. For me, diagrams are key because the language of a diagram or graph is universal. Tutorial prompts are given along with a grading rubric a week before the oral exams. Students sign up for a time to present their prepared tutorial. Due to time limitations, the students only present one of the three prepared prompts, assigned at random when they enter the virtual exam room. During the exam, students walk me (or an undergraduate teaching assistant that has taken the course before) through their diagram. All exams are recorded, and I review all Zoom recordings to assign the final grade.  

Based on student feedback from a mid-semester survey that I designed with input from the CTL, I recently implemented a change to help students better prepare for time consuming oral exam preparation.  Now, for every lecture that I give, students can submit a recorded five-minute “lecture recap” so they are practicing creating diagrams and explaining them for each lecture. My teaching assistants and I give feedback on most of the videos they submit. Each video is worth one point towards their exam. About 80% of students last semester chose to submit video recaps. 

What has been the impact of this assessment method on students? 

The average exam score has gone up approximately five points compared to the previous standard exam format (mixed multiple choice and short answer exams). In my experience, the first exam is predictive of a student’s performance in the class (e.g., C on the first exam will result in a B- to C average in the class overall). Using the oral exams, I’ve seen students that start out with a C on the first exam wind up with a B+ or an A- in the class. As an instructor, this is a very satisfying outcome. 

Because a slim minority of students come to office hours, it has also been great to get to know my students on a one-on-one basis. 

Grading is done during the exam. I do record the sessions in case I need to check on anything afterwards, but generally it takes me the time of the exam (~7min) per student to assign a grade. While the exams take time, I am motivated by positive feedback from the students and improvements in performance.  

What are your next steps in building on this assessment method? 

Right now, it's all very individualized. I work with individual students on things that they need to develop. I’d like to build time into my lectures to talk to the class about communication skills and help establish a tool base that they can use to prepare their exams.  

Also, I just started implementing questions that aren't given in advance, and I’d like to expand on this idea.  It takes them a while to prepare their diagrams, but I’d like to challenge them to answer a question that they haven’t prepared in advance.