The night before my doctoral viva voce, I did not sleep well. With my thesis long submitted, only the oral exam stood between me and a PhD. Yet every time I closed my eyes, I imagined the examiners exposing me as either a fool or a fraud. With an oral exam – when it is just you and two professors – there is no room for bluffing, Googling, or, nowadays, relying upon artificial intelligence.
It is for precisely this reason that, across America, a small but growing number of educators are turning back to traditional examination methods. At the University of Wyoming, for example, religious studies students now get a 30-minute grilling from their professor on what they have learnt.
There is concern that students are relying on AI platforms, such as ChatGPT, rather than reading books, studying, and formulating original ideas. When assessment involves essays or coursework completed at home, or online multiple-choice tests and quizzes, there is little way of telling whether what is submitted is the students’ own work. Only pen-and-paper or oral exams ensure integrity and fairness.
Students in Britain have also been turning to AI to complete their assessments. Research from the Higher Education Policy Institute, published earlier this year, found that an astonishing 88 per cent of students use AI when undertaking assessments, most relying on it to explain concepts, summarise articles and suggest ideas.
This problem is not confined to universities. Back in October, Oxford University Press (OUP) looked at the use of AI in UK schools. They found that 80 per cent of pupils aged between 13 and 18 admitted to using AI regularly for their school work while just 2 per cent claimed to have never used such platforms.
In response, rather than turning to traditional methods to ensure students actually learn for themselves, British schools and universities are going in the opposite direction and leaning into the use of technology. England’s qualifications watchdog, Ofqual, recently launched a public consultation on the pros and cons of conducting some GCSE and A-level exams on laptops by 2030.
The four main exam boards have been invited to submit new screen-based exam specifications. Bridget Phillipson, the Education Secretary, appears to back this move. “We know interest in on-screen exams is growing, and aligning assessment with an increasingly digital world could bring valuable benefits,’ she has said.
Interestingly, one reason for moving to screen-based assessment is “handwriting fatigue”. Perhaps understandably, students who rely on keyboards throughout their daily lives find it challenging to write with pen and paper for extended periods.
Yet despite AI’s ubiquity, students are all too aware that they are missing out on learning for themselves. The OUP research found that 62 per cent of students thought using AI harmed their skills and development, with one in four agreeing that AI “makes it too easy for me to find the answers without doing the work myself” and a further 12 per cent claiming AI “limits my creative thinking”.
Rather than looking to technological solutions to assess students’ work, we should revisit ancient methods. Oral exams have been used by scholars for centuries because they are a true test of a student’s knowledge.
They do not require good handwriting and take no more of a teacher’s time than setting, invigilating and marking exams. Eyeball to eyeball, cheating is impossible.
Take it from me, Dr Williams: few things focus your mind, and really force you to know your stuff, more than the prospect of face-to-face questions.