A5. Is an IOA right for you?

5. Is an IOA right for you?

Below are some questions you can consider to assess whether an Interactive Oral Assessment (IOA) is appropriate for your unit, subject or course.

Alignment of Learning Objectives

Do the learning objectives for your course include verbal communication, critical thinking, reflection, real-time problem-solving skills or other capabilities that align well with an interactive oral assessment and are suitable for real-time engagement? For example, does your course require students to do things like:

demonstrate the ability to clearly articulate ideas, arguments, and explanations in authentic settings?
apply theoretical concepts to practical, real-world situations?
critically evaluate arguments, theories, or methodologies and present well-supported recommendations or conclusions?
develop and defend an argument in a clear and persuasive manner?
reflect on their learning process and self-assess strengths and areas for improvement?

IOAs provide opportunities to assess how students process and articulate information in a set time frame, engage in discussion, and demonstrate their reasoning and understanding. By aligning IOAs with specific learning objectives, you can gain deeper insights into students’ knowledge and skills in a way that may be difficult to capture in more traditional written assessments.

Choosing the most appropriate format

As part of the consideration about alignment with learning outcomes, you will need to consider what format will best meet your needs. For example, IOAs can be run individually or in groups. Individual IOAs tend to evaluate students’ depth of knowledge and skills, while group IOAs might assess the addition of group-specific outcomes such as collaboration, negotiation and peer interaction.

Alignment with the broader assessment structure

As suggested in the design template (see below), it should be clear how an IOA fits in with the broader assessment structure in the unit. It is important to note that the introduction of an IOA may require adjustments to other assessment task to improve alignment.
This template is closely based on one originally developed by Dani Logan-Fleming and Popi Sotiriadou.

Download template

Capacity to adequately prepare students to engage in IOAs

It is important to make expectations very clear to students early in the semester around the content and delivery of the IOA. Further, it is important to consider your capacity to embed student skills and preparedness throughout your unit to build students’ confidence in engaging with the IOA assessment, reduce anxiety, and provide opportunities for them to practice related skills. You might consider the following:

Are students equipped with the necessary speaking, listening and interactive skills to fairly demonstrate their knowledge and problem-solving skills in an IOA?
Are these skills already embedded in learning activities throughout the unit (e.g. through weekly group discussions, debates, presentations etc), or will they have to be specifically built in?
In addition to incorporating well-aligned tasks, how will you embed a specific task that provides an opportunity for students to observe a ‘mock IOA’ and engage with the rubric in the process?

Capacity to provide timely and constructive feedback

It is important to consider your capacity to provide timely and constructive feedback during or after the IOA.

Supporting inclusivity and accessibility

Are you in a position to provide an alternative assessment for students who are unable to participate in an IOA?

Ensuring you have the resources to implement the IOA

Do you have the resources (time, technology, space) to conduct individual or small group IOAs effectively?
Are you prepared to manage the workload if conducting IOAs for a large number of students.
Do you have enough markers to make assessing IOAs when conducting in large classes?
If you have a large cohort and working with a team of markers, do you have the capacity and resources to help the co-markers conduct IOAs in a consistent way which will deliver valid and reliable results?

Designing for fairness and consistency

Conducting an IOA requires the development of a clear rubric to ensure validity and reliability of the assessment experience. Also, you should ensure your IOA promotes inclusivity. While the rubric is likely to focus on depth and application of knowledge, there may be variations in the performance of students due to factors such as language proficiency and fluency, nerves and presentation style. Marking IOAs requires you to account for and manage these variations in performance and clearly communicate to students what is both included and not included in the rubric to alleviate their concerns.

Next section