AI Resistant Oral Assessment Tasks

Explore an array of oral assessment tasks that can help you better understand your students’ abilities without the aid of AI.

By Gwenna Moss Centre for Teaching and Learning

Educators are increasingly recognizing the need for AI resistant assessment tasks, especially in an online course setting. While no assignment is AI proof, having students engage in oral tasks in real time decreases the likelihood that AI will generate a significant part of their response. Here are some ideas to get you started in this area:

1. Debate/Panel Discussion: A number of these can be scheduled on varying course topics throughout the semester so that each student participates in one. Students are required to respond to the points made by fellow participants and answer questions so their participation cannot be entirely scripted.

2. Professional Situation Simulation: Students work in small groups in breakout rooms. They are given a scenario (e.g., forest fires in Northern Saskatchewan) and are assigned roles, goals, and potentially a budget or resource list. Goals are related to course outcomes. Working together, they must create a plan to address the situation using the resources available to them. They periodically report their plans and budgets to the instructor. Each new simulation “day”, teams receive updates on the situation's progression and must adjust their plans accordingly. This exercise emphasizes negotiation, collaboration, and real-time problem-solving.

3. Branching Case Scenarios: Using H5P, students navigate through interactive case scenarios that branch based on their decisions. This method allows students to explore different outcomes and understand the complexities of their field. AI tools can help efficiently map these interactions. Students can then discuss these interactions directly with instructors or in recorded reflections.

4. Synchronous Online Discussion Board: At the beginning of the semester, students are divided into small groups for discussion boards. Each group schedules Zoom meetings and sends their schedule to the instructor. The instructor then schedules emails or assignments in Canvas to be released at the group's meeting times. Students meet and record their short Zoom meeting. Students are scored on their contributions using a rubric, with a combination of instructor, peer, and self-assessment.

5. One-on-One Role Plays: Students participate in role plays where they act as professionals applying some aspects of their field’s communication tasks. This can be done as an oral exam, allowing students to demonstrate their understanding and ability to communicate effectively.

6. Interactive AI Chatbots: Students interact with programmed chatbots playing various roles. After the interaction, students reflect on their experience in a recorded format, discussing the chatbot's responses and their own decision-making process. Chatbots should generally play a generic role such as patient or member of the public, rather than that of a specific person. When selecting a role for the chatbot be sure to double check that having a machine play that role and possibly say erroneous things will not be problematic.

7. Synchronous Oral Exams: Students are placed in individual breakout rooms on Zoom for the exam, with the recording on. Exam questions are unlocked in Canvas, and students orally share their responses while illustrating their answers on the Zoom whiteboard. They answer 2-5 questions in 7 minutes, demonstrating their knowledge and ability to think on their feet.

8. Interested Party Analysis Report: Students analyze the perspectives of different parties effected by an issue and present their findings in an oral report. This exercise enhances students' understanding of diverse perspectives.

9. Virtual Town Hall Meeting: Students organize and participate in a virtual town hall meeting, presenting proposals and engaging in discussions with peers. This assignment fosters public speaking skills and the ability to engage with an audience on relevant issues. These can be whole class presentations or conducted and recorded in breakout rooms.

10. Online Simulation Challenge: Students are given questions or challenges related to an online simulation. They must record a screen and audio capture video of themselves answering these questions while adjusting variables in the simulation. This can be set up as a quiz in Canvas, requiring students to submit their video within a set period.

Example online simulation games:

 

Title image credit: RNDE on Pexels

This article was created with the assistance of AI tools, as described in the GMCTL AI Disclosure Statement.

This resource is shared by the Gwenna Moss Centre for Teaching and Learning (GMCTL), University of Saskatchewan, under a CC BY-NC-SA license.