Interactive Oral Assessment in practice

Interactive Oral Assessments (IOAs) are defined as secure assessments in the new Sydney assessment framework. With the rise of generative AI, concerns about academic integrity have grown. One way to address this is by using more in-person assessments, like exams, oral exams, and IOAs, which help confirm that students are doing their own work (Ward et al., 2024). IOAs are especially important in the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences, where writing has traditionally been the main form of assessment. IOA also give students a chance to build their oral communication skills, which are valuable in many careers FASS students will enter (Krautloher, 2024).

Are IOAs the same as viva voces?

No. While both IOAs and oral exams (including viva voces) involve real-time, in-person conversations between students and markers, they serve different purposes. The key difference is that IOAs simulate real-world professional situations related to the discipline, with both student and marker entering an imaginative scenario and performing a role. IOAs are designed to assess skills like critical thinking, communication, problem-solving, adaptability, and applying knowledge in practical, contextual ways.

IOAs in Action: Examples from French Studies and Writing Studies

In 2024, Ben Miller (English and Writing Studies) and Clara Sitbon (French and Francophone Studies) both introduced IOAs in their teaching. Clara used them in senior French units with about 30 students, while Ben used them in a large first-year unit with 690 students.

Their scenarios demonstrate the versatility of IOAs across different disciplines and cohort sizes:

Clara’s approach: Students take on the role of parliamentarians trying to persuade the French or EU government to support a language revival project, or language activists devising a language model to promote inclusivity within the French language.
Ben’s approach: Students played the role of writers pitching their work (an essay they completed in the unit) to an editor for an online publication (the role performed by the marker).

Designing IOAs

IOAs require thoughtful planning. They are part of a scaffolded assessment structure and align with the unit’s learning outcomes. Clara placed her IOA between a group research task and the final project, creating a bridge that helped students reflect on their research process and communication skills before completing their final work:

“The IOA served as a crucial opportunity for students to elaborate on their individual concepts… More than just a check-in, it allowed students to articulate what they had learned, their learning process, and how they applied this knowledge to their research project—all while furthering their language skills in French!” – Clara Sitbon

Ben scheduled his IOA after the final written task, encouraging students to think about professional applications beyond the classroom. For Ben, this is represents a key difference between an oral exam, where students are asked to explain or defend what they have produced, and an IOA, which extends the final product in ways that mirror professional practice:

“An IOA asks students to continue learning while you’re assessing them. They have to keep applying the concepts to new information or in a new way.” — Ben Miller

Both Ben and Clara describe IOAs as assessment for learning, not assessment of learning (Yan & Yang, 2021). While IOAs are considered secure in the new assessment framework, the IOA itself is a learning experience, not a summation of learning.

Supporting English as an Additional Language (EAL) Students

A black and white square glyph of a rubric

A common question is whether oral assessments disadvantage students who speak English as an additional language (EAL). Howve, Krautloher (2024), however, argues that IOAs can improve learning and increase student success because of the supportive changes made to the assessment environment, including opportunities for practice.

The key is designing rubrics that assess only the intended learning outcomes. For example, Ben did not include presentation skills but did include adapting communication for different situations in his criteria. Ben also used the SOLO taxonomy to simplify the rubric, making it easier for tutors to assess students quickly. Clara did assess fluency, clarity and pronunciation as these were key outcomes for an IOA in French language proficiency. In both cases, having clear goals and communicating these expectations represents best practice for supporting EAL students.

Helping Students Prepare

To support student preparation, Ben and Clara created Cogniti agents – generative AI chatbots that function as study partners trained on course content.

“The agent acted like the editor of an online magazine and would ask them questions about their essay topic, and at any time they could pause the conversation with the agent and ask for feedback, and it would give them some feedback based on the rubric.” — Ben Miller

These tools proved highly reusable: Ben’s Cogniti agents will be reused in semester 2 2025 with no tweaking needed, while Clara’s Cogniti agent will be repurposed for another unit. Running on a secure and private platform, these Cogniti agents can be embedded into Canvas and offer students additional opportunity to practice in preparation for IOAs.

Training Tutors for Large Cohorts

In large classes, tutors require training to run and assess IOAs effectively. Ben met with his teaching team before the assessment period:

“it’s important that the tutors experience being both a student and marker. We ran through mock interactive orals using a marking rubric.”

To make each IOA unique, Ben and his team created flexible approaches to personalise ways to adapt the task.

“We developed a range of prompts to individualise the task. Markers then had a list of ‘new information’ they could prompt students to respond to, selecting at random to personalise the experience. I also developed sample prompts in 2 categories:

Interrupters: so that when a student’s off track, you can politely stop them and refocus them onto something that will help them address the rubric
Extenders: so that when a student’s on the right track, you can ask them to elaborate and potentially learn from the interaction.”

Top Tips for Running IOAs

IOAs have the capacity to give students the best chance at both addressing the rubric and learning from the experience. Drawing from Clara and Ben’s experiences, here are key strategies to ensure both students and markers have a positive, productive experience:

Scaffold assessments carefully: Make sure IOAs fit into the overall assessment plan rather than feeling like an add-on.
Prioritise practice opportunities in tutorials: Students need familiarity with the format before the assessment.
Blocks spelling the word “practice” across a blank notepad.
Demonstrate an IOA: Clara and Ben both acted out an IOA with a student during class.
Plan your time management strategy from the outset: Ben ran IOAs over 2 weeks for all 690 students, and said the hard part for tutors was finishing on time because conversations were so interesting. Clara first tried to do all IOA in one week by herself and now spreads them over several weeks to avoid fatigue.
Use scheduling tools: Tools like Microsoft Bookings or the Canvas calendar can help manage large groups. Ask your school’s Education Designer for support if needed.
Use AI strategically as a development starting point to generate rubrics, conversation prompts, or any other material for further development.
Connect with the community: Please join a workshop to learn more about Interactive Oral Assessments or join the conversation at the Interactive Oral Exchange (special interest group).

Find out more

Explore Interactive Oral Assessments further by:

Joining an Interactive Oral Assessments workshop
Connecting with the Interactive Oral Exchange special interest group: https://bit.ly/IOA-exchange

Additional resources

Cogniti workshops and other professional development
Five myths about interactive oral assessments and how to get started by Eszter Kalman, Benjamin Miller and Danny Liu
Interactive Oral Assessment; an authentic and integral alternative to examination by Danielle Logan-Fleming, Popi Sotiriadou, Amanda Daly and Ross Guest.

Interactive Oral Assessment in practice

Are IOAs the same as viva voces?