An analysis of the literature on oral assessment in higher education has identified six dimensions of oral assessment: primary content type; interaction; authenticity; structure; examiners and orality. These dimensions lead to a clearer understanding of the nature of oral assessment, a clearer differentiation of the various forms within this type, a better capacity to describe and analyse these forms, and a better understanding of how the various dimensions of oral assessment may interact with other elements of teaching and learning.
The purpose of this review was to examine the practice of oral assessment in postgraduate medical education in the context of the core assessment constructs of validity, reliability and fairness. Although oral assessment has a long history in the certification process of medical specialists and is a well-established part of such proceedings for a wide range of specialties in most countries, there remains concern regarding its use. Therefore, there has been some move away from oral assessment for postgraduate medical education in some countries. This review also highlights the complexity of oral assessment as an examination format, partly through a consideration of the six dimensions of oral assessment, and raises concerns about the validity, reliability and fairness of such an assessment procedure for the award of certification of completion of the specialist training. Supporting high quality published research into examination practices and outcomes and acting on the findings of such research is needed urgently to allay concerns about the transparency and fairness of these examinations, especially when assessing international medical graduates. The article concludes by proposing 15 conditions under which oral assessment is valid, reliable and fair. PMID: 18386152 [PubMed -indexed for MEDLINE]
A phenomenographic study of students' experience of oral presentations in an open learning theology programme constituted three contrasting conceptions of oral presentations-as transmission of ideas; as a test of students' understanding of what they were studying; and as a position to be argued. Each of these conceptions represented a combination of related aspects of students' experience, namely, their awareness of the audience and their interaction with that audience, how they perceived the nature of theology, affective factors, and how they compared the oral presentation format with that of written assignments. The conception of the presentation as a position to be argued was associated with a particularly powerful student learning experience, with students describing the oral presentation as being more demanding than the written assignments, more personal, requiring deeper understanding, and leading to better learning. The study draws our attention to the various ways in which students may perceive a single form of academic task and their need to develop their understanding of assessment formats.
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