Interactive Oral Assessments in practice

First published by The University of Melbourne

Dr Kellie Frost from the Faculty of Arts is supporting the development and expansion of Interactive Oral Assessments (IOAs) at the University to create authentic learning experiences for graduate-level ESL students.

In 2025 the Faculty of Arts ‘Presenting Academic Discourse’ subject, now called ‘Academic English for Graduate Studies, which develops international students advanced English language skills so they can successfully study at graduate level, was part of a pilot initiative across the Faculty of Arts to develop IOAs within the curriculum.

Beth Driscoll was instrumental in establishing this pilot across the faculty, leading the roll-out of the pilot and supporting each subject.

IOAs involve unscripted, real-time, two-way conversations between students and assessors, centered on key topics that are aligned with subject or program learning outcomes. This assessment type offers a dynamic and authentic approach to learning and assessment that can be applied across a range of disciplines.

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.

Positive impacts on student learning 

Upon finding out that they would be completing an IOA as part of the subject, students started enthusiastically participating in class discussions to prepare for the assessment. Collaboration in building language skills also improved among students, with coordinators observing a clear increase in students’ willingness to communicate in English with their peers.

“The Interactive Oral Assessment felt like a natural academic conversation with less pressure. It let me express my writing ideas easily, and the Q&A format helped me identify confusing parts in my essay, so I could adjust my writing structure and improve the logic of my future writing,” said Master of Global Media Communications student Yiming Fan.

Naturally, many students showed signs of nerves at the commencement of the first IOAs. However, they gradually relaxed when working in pairs and overall, all students performed well.

Kellie said the improvement from students went far beyond their academic results.

“It was really noticeable in that it helped draw students out of their shell, which is something we are always trying to do at the start of semester, they immediately started engaging in the first week because it was linked to the assessment, so they had kind of an urgency to push themselves to practice.”

Assuring learning and balancing GenAI use 

IOA’s are a secure type of assessment, and are being increasingly used across the University to assure learning as the academic landscape evolves with the widespread access to GenAI.

In this subject the IOA could ensure that students had the required language skills, and that learning wasn't being offloaded to GenAI. However, when preparing for the assessment students could use GenAI to enhance their language learning.

GenAI can be a valuable tool in language learning, helping students to develop their own learning materials and learning plan, as well as gathering resources quickly and being a great tool for exposure.

There is also potential for teachers to use AI tools to enhance the learning experience for students through nuanced and tailored language support. Within the subject, students are encouraged to interact with Generative AI in ways that support their English learning.

Balancing staff workload and consistency for students 

While IOA’s sometimes require a slightly larger investment in time from teaching staff, this is often offset by less written assessments which require significant time for marking.

Subject Coordinators need to be strategic with how they structure curriculum when integrating IOA says Kellie.

“You don’t just add in a new assessment and off you go, you have to prepare students for it and you have to situate it in relation to the learning objectives within the subject, which requires a bit of thought, but it is worthwhile. All of the tutors that taught in the subject said that it was the most meaningful assessment they had encountered at the University – they really believed students got great things out of it and felt like they got to know much more about what their students could do.”

The team worked collaboratively with each other to make sure that marking was fair and consistent for students, having moderation meetings and joining the Faculty of Arts ‘Future of Assessment working group’ to share valuable resources and tips.

Kellie learnt plenty from the pilot, lessons that will be valuable for future implementation. Key takeaways from the pilot for Kellie were appreciating the enormous resources and effort international students bring to their studies, and that students need less but possibly better directed feedback from teachers to promote their success.

When reflecting on the pilot experience, Kellie shared how it brought a lot of joy into her teaching, and to the teachers and students in the subject.

“I think one of the main reasons it was fun was because it invigorated the tutors, they felt like this was really meaningful and they had lots of ideas and creative space to explore them. I also felt like our students enjoyed the opportunity to really work with us because they were invited into this creative space from the start of the subject.”