Interactive oral assessment (IOA)

This resource will walk your through the process of planning and delivering an IOA at the University of Melbourne. This page is intended to provide practical and logistical guidance, building on the University's Centre for the Study of Higher Education’s (CSHE) resource on IOAs.

This resource is based on the current Assuring Learning at Melbourne guidelines. It will be updated in accordance with changes to the guidelines.

What is an IOA?

An interactive oral assessment (IOA) is an authentic, experiential evaluation wherein students respond to structured or semi-structured questions about a topic in real-time, assessing their understanding, reasoning, concept application, and communication skills.

What makes an IOA different from other forms of oral assessment is that it requires a dialogue between the student and the assessor/s. An IOA is not a presentation, but more of a conversation with a focus on interactivity and unscripted responses as opposed to memorisation.

What could an IOA look like in practice?

Below are some example IOA formats that foster an interactive dialogue and offer students an opportunity to demonstrate their learning through unscripted responses.

You may find these examples from various disciplines useful as inspiration for your own subject assessment.

Note: This is not intended as an exhaustive list. You have the opportunity to create new and alternative formats to suit your subject matter.

Format

Description

Interviewing a client

A simulated scenario where a student interviews a client they will represent or work with.

Pitch presentation

A simulated scenario where a student must pitch their idea to a panel of potential investors/clients followed by a Q&A session.

Patient assessment

A simulated scenario where a student assesses a patient in a clinical setting.

Translation committee

A panel of foreign language experts interviews a student on how to approach translating a specific text e.g. interpretation, grammar conventions, and context.

Job interview

A simulated scenario of a job interview where the student is a candidate who needs to speak to their skills, qualifications and industry knowledge and a respond to hypotheticals on a particular project.

Case handover

A simulated scenario where a student adopts the role of a healthcare professional handing over and summarising a patient case and discussing a treatment plan while responding to questions.

Research presentation

A scenario where a student presents their research to an audience and responds to questions that require them to articulate the research developments and justify their choices.

Town hall

A simulated scenario where a student adopts the role of a scientist or expert in a community town hall where they must address a local issue (e.g. pollution) and answer questions from community members and stakeholders.

Would an IOA be suitable for my subject?

An IOA may be suitable for your subject if you want your students to demonstrate higher order skills such as critical thinking, deeper knowledge of the subject matter and reflection. IOAs are also a good secure assessment option to mitigate the risk of students relying on Generative AI for their assessment tasks.

The University's CSHE describe the value of IOAs in the following way:

When carefully integrated into the curriculum, IOAs can support deeper student learning, foster the development of key graduate capabilities, and promote academic integrity by providing clear evidence of individual learning.

When determining whether an IOA is suitable for your subject, review the points below and carefully weigh the benefits against potential issues of scalability, inclusivity and equity.

Benefits

  • Relevance and authenticity: IOAs can be tailored to authentic contexts, industry relevant situations, or real-world scenarios.
  • Deep learning: IOAs foster a thorough understanding of the subject.
  • Critical thinking: IOAs enhance analytical and evaluative skills.
  • Employability skills: IOAs allow students to develop real-time communication and problem-solving abilities.
  • Academic integrity: IOAs promote honesty by requiring immediate demonstration of knowledge.
  • Assurance of learning: IOAs offer robust measures of comprehension and articulation.

Considerations

  • Scalability: IOAs can be scalable for large cohorts meaning they have the potential to be effectively implemented with proper planning, training, and support. However, challenges such as scheduling, time management, and resource allocation need to be addressed.
  • Inclusivity and equity: IOAs may challenge students who need more time to process information, potentially causing stress. An alternative assessment format may be necessary for these students.

How do I design an effective IOA?

Once you have determined that an IOA is suitable for your subject, you can begin designing the task making sure to carefully align the assessment with your subject's intended learning outcomes (ILOs).

  • When planning an IOA, the format should reflect both the subject context and the intended learning outcomes. A clear decision on structure at the outset provides consistency for students and markers and helps avoid complications later in the assessment process.

    Some things to consider include:

    • Will the IOA be a simulated scenario? For example, will the IOA take the form of a pitch, an interview, a case handover, etc.?
    • Will it be individual or a group format? Large cohort subjects may require group formats. Will students be expected to interact with each other if the IOA is in a group format?
    • Will it be conducted by one assessor or multiple? IOAs can either have a panel of assessors or only one assessor.
    • Will the IOA be artefact-based? Are students required to speak to a report or design they have completed, or is the IOA a stand-alone task?
    • For more information, review the CSHE's guidance

  • Thinking ahead about delivery ensures that the assessment runs smoothly for both staff and students. Establishing the mode, timing, and recording approach early allows for efficient organisation and minimises potential disruptions.

    Some things to consider include:

    • Will your IOA be conducted in-person or online?
    • How will you record the assessment? For example, if your IOA is in-person, how will the assessment be recorded? Please see How do I implement an effective IOA? for more information.
    • How long will the IOA be? IOAs typically range from 10–15 minutes per student, with an additional 5 to 10 minutes for in situ marking.

  • The rubric is central to aligning assessment with learning outcomes and supporting grading for tutors. It also provides students with a clear framework for how their work will be evaluated and where they can focus their efforts.

    Here are some considerations for rubric design:

    • Design a rubric with criteria that assesses the subject learning outcomes.
    • Avoid focusing on presentation skills (e.g. communication, eye contact, delivery) unless they are relevant to the prescribed subject learning outcomes or graduate attributes.
    • Decide on the weighting of the assignment and the weighting for each individual assessment criteria within the rubric.
    • Use constructive language as much as possible and future-focused development advice for ‘unsatisfactory’ areas that require improvement.
    • See example rubric (DOCX 39.6 KB).

  • The assignment page is often the first point of reference for students, so clarity and accessibility are crucial. A well-prepared assignment page reduces confusion by making expectations and requirements explicit for all students.

    Here are some considerations for creating an assignment page:

    • Compose a clear, student-facing task brief for students for the LMS Assignment page.
    • Communicate scope, expectations, and assessment criteria including the assessment rubric.
    • See example downloadable IOA assignment brief .

  • ‘Scaffolding’ assessment refers to the process of breaking tasks down into smaller steps. It may also involve creating more detailed assessment instructions or rubrics, or providing exemplars and opportunities for practice.

    Embedding support around the IOA is a good example of scaffolding and helps students develop the skills and confidence needed to succeed. Scaffolding also ensures that the assessment is a meaningful learning experience, not just a one-off task.

    Some ways to achieve a scaffolded approach for an IOA could be to:

    • Provide example IOA sessions for students to familiarise themselves with.
    • Integrate activities during the semester where the students can develop the skills required for the IOA e.g. reflective tasks, interviewing each other about their process, practise oral presentation skills.
    • Break down assessment instructions into steps using bullet points and sub-headings; and ensure the marking rubric communicates expectations and expresses criteria clearly.
    • Conduct a practice IOA session for students to become accustomed to the format.
    • Provide feedback to students on their practice session.

How do I implement an effective IOA?

Successful IOA implementation relies on effective room bookings, efficient scheduling, collaborative planning, and built-in buffer time to reduce assessor fatigue between sessions.

You will need to carefully plan out the scheduling and recording requirements, the logistics of how the sessions will be conduced as well as how the assessing and feedback will be conducted.

  • Consider how your students will book their IOA sessions. For scheduling solutions, we recommend the following technologies:

    • LMS Calendar: The LMS Calendar supports appointment scheduling. Once created, students will be able to reserve and reschedule appointments individually or as a group. If you use this, we recommend that you:
      • Include the subject code at the beginning of the appointment name to avoid confusion for students.
      • Ensure that you do not select the 'Allow Students to see who has signed up for time slots that are still available’ checkbox as it makes appointments and comments public to other students, which can be a potential privacy risk.
    • University of Melbourne space: Venue Management is responsible for booking centrally managed teaching spaces on campus. These include lecture theatres, tutorial rooms and collaborative learning spaces that are primarily used for teaching, learning and research activities. After you have found an appropriate space through the room search website you can make a booking via TimeEdit .
    • Office365 Calendar and Microsoft Bookings (Book to meet with me): This option is best if you are the only Subject Coordinator or work with only one other coordinator in a small team. Office365 tools will be specific to individual calendars and will therefore be harder to share and synchronise with a whole teaching team.
    • Excel spreadsheets: Create an Excel spreadsheet where students can self-select and allocate themselves to available slots.

    Note: Remember to leave an adequate buffer time between student appointments – both for any moderation and assessing requirements as well as to mitigate assessor fatigue.

  • Recording online

    You will also need to consider how your sessions are being recorded. For tools that allow synchronous delivery and recording, we recommend the following:

    • Zoom: Recordings from Zoom will be stored in the cloud.
    • Microsoft Teams: Recordings from Microsoft Teams will be stored in OneDrive. This option is best used with Microsoft Bookings as a Teams meeting link will automatically be created once a booking has been made.

    Recording in-person

    If you are conducting your IOAs as a summative, in-person assessment, you will still need to consider how the session will be recorded. In this situation, we recommend using a laptop device to either record the session via Zoom, or use the submission function on your LMS Assignment page.

    To enable this, on the LMS Assignment page, you must select "Media Recordings" as a submission type when creating the assignment. Students then use the integrated tool to record audio or video directly within Canvas. For a breakdown of how recording will work on the day, review the how do I submit a media file as an assignment submission? guide.

  • In IOAs, assessors act as facilitators of structured yet open conversations, using redirecting, expanding, and synthesis prompts to deepen thinking and differentiate performance.

    Effective implementation requires assessor training. Consider the following questions:

    • Will the IOA require multiple assessors or just one?
    • Should the students' tutor be an assessor, or will blind assessing be preferable?
    • What questions will the assessors need to ask? Are the questions planned or improvised?
    • Are the assessors required to have knowledge of the student's previous work?
    • Have the assessors been given time to familiarise themselves with the rubric?
    • Could the assessors attend a practice session or rehearsal to prepare?
    • If there are multiple assessors, is sample moderation required to gauge alignment and fairness?

  • Feedback and grading strategies should be carefully planned. IOA feedback can include immediate verbal, peer review feedback and delayed written comments.

    Immediate feedback

    Consider conducting a practice IOA session to get students use to the format, in which case you can give specific, timely, and actionable feedback on their performance (as opposed to content). For the summative assessment, depending on the size of your cohort and whether moderation is required, you may also want to provide immediate feedback at the end of each final summative IOA session.

    Peer review

    Another option to consider is peer review, which may be particularly useful if you are planning to conduct a practice run. In this scenario, students can provide feedback on each other's performance. For this method to be successful, students will need to be given a clear rubric or list of criteria on which to provide feedback. As always, the guiding principles should be specific, timely and actionable feedback, which should avoid personal critiques and focus on being constructive.

    Delayed feedback

    During the assessment, assessors should be prepared to record written notes against a rubric for assessment and feedback purposes. An effective rubric is key for supporting assessors to record relevant feedback during these live and spontaneous conversations.

    Depending on capacity and how you plan to use assessors time, the moderation and grading could happen immediately after the session. Once the student has completed their IOA and before the next student arrives, there will need to be time for the assessor/s to discuss if necessary, but record their grading and feedback clearly.

    As summative assessments, the IOA will need to be recorded. Another option for marking, is to enable 'Media Recording' as an assignment submission type on your Canvas LMS Assignment page, so you can record a live audio/video submission of the student's IOA. This will assessors to then use the LMS SpeedGrader to re-play the recording, enter a grade, add comments, and use the rubric. This will obviously require extra assessor time from staff to both conduct the IOA and then re-visit it for grading.

How do I prepare my students for an IOA?

It is likely that your students may not be as familiar with the IOA format as they are with other forms of assessment. For this reason, it is important to prepare them and provide them with as many resources as possible.

To help set them up for success:

  • Be clear and upfront about the expectations of the IOA.
  • Share prompts, learning outcomes, and the rubric in advance, including providing a thorough assignment brief in the LMS with a detailed rubric.
  • Inform students about allowable materials (for example, notes, artefacts, stress-relief items).
  • Use scaffolding activities to reduce stress and build evaluative judgment (consider a practice session).
  • Explain how and when feedback will be provided.
  • Direct students to the Academic Skills resource on IOA (for students) as well as the Academic Skills website for broader support.

Where do I get help and support?

Contact the Teaching and Learning Innovation team if you would like to discuss or gain support redesigning your subject or assessments for Assuring Learning at Melbourne, or how to deliver IOAs or other assessment formats using educational technologies.

Academic Skills can be contacted for enquiries related to preparing and helping students navigate IOAs.