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The Cheat-Proof Assessment

By Paul Dagnall

When possible, it’s best to join forces with AI to prepare students for a competitive professional environment where using AI could provide profound advantages. The problem is that many courses have learning objectives which necessarily must establish a foundational understanding of an academic discipline. In these cases AI can do C level work (Bowen & Watson, 2024) and this creates a “cheating problem”. 

According to an August 2024 study, 86% of college students are using AI in their studies (Campus Technology, 2024). That’s up from 22% in March of 2023 (BestColleges survey, 2023). Chances are usage has grown even further since, and it’s truly unknown how much of that usage crosses the line to cheating.

So what do you do?

You could do more in-class testing with Respondus
You could use paper.
Or you could try a different assessment type with the following benefits:

  1. Makes cheating impossible
  2. Requires less grading time than summative papers and essay tests
  3. Personally connects you with your students
  4. Prepares students for professional conversations

It’s the Interview Exam, or what’s traditionally been called the Oral Exam. 

Wait, wait, wait! Before you check out, thinking this won’t work for your situation, re-read those benefits again. Each will be explained below, along with the most common hang-ups and best practices with this approach. And keep in mind that languages faculty have been using it since well… el comienzo. 

Why You Should Use Interview Exams

Interview Exams make cheating impossible

About 72% of university instructors are worried about students cheating with ChatGPT (Business Insider, 2023). Unless they use a wire and earpiece like an undercover agent, there is absolutely no way to cheat on an Interview Exam. Period.

Interview Exams require less grading time than summative papers and essay tests

Possibly the boldest of the claims. Yes, you have to block off ten minutes per student, eight minutes for the interview and two for a cushion, and you might have a lot of students. But can you really read and provide feedback on a five page paper in less than ten minutes? 

Cameron Blair from UD’s Global Languages and Cultures department, explains that with an Interview Exam, “the grading is instantaneous”. You provide some verbal feedback and make notes as the student speaks, as well as checking off criteria on a rubric. You add some final remarks and that’s it. The grading is done.

Alternatively, for essay tests there’s the proctoring time added to the grading time, where again, Interview Exams do these simultaneously.

Interview Exams personally connect you with your students

Interview Exams should be conversations that reveal what your students have learned and reveal to the student what they did well and where they need to improve. But, more than that, they provide an intentional moment of personal connection -- a student should walk away from this conversation knowing you care about them and their learning.

Interview Exams prepare students for professional conversations

Obviously, these prepare students for job interviews. Additionally, they’ll help our future professionals prepare for other types of meetings where preparation and knowing key information will be vital.

Interview Exam Best Practices

Do you fear students will have too much anxiety about this assessment method? It’s a fair question, but we think students’ anxiety can largely be mitigated with the practices below.

Although we’ve been lauding this approach, Interview Exams will go poorly if they are not done properly. Here’s how to ensure that doesn’t happen:

  1. Communicate: Make sure students know when Interview Exams are and exactly what’s expected of them. Consider recording an example with a student volunteer and posting the video in Canvas.
  2. Invite: They might find an interview exam stressful, but students have actually been doing these for centuries. Invite them to come to your office hours for practice sessions to help them get comfortable with the format.
  3. Write Good Questions: Your questions should be tough but fair. Use them to measure the most important learning objectives in your course. Ask follow-up questions, but don’t try to trick them. An instructional designer in the Center for Online Learning can help with this.
  4. Vary the Questions: The students who go first may tip off their classmates; having some different questions mitigates this problem. If possible, personalize the questions by connecting them to the students’ prior work or interests.
  5. Use a Rubric: Have a list of criteria and standard scoring ready to go. This will help you be efficient, consistent, and unbiased in your grading.

Implementing Interview Exams in a Way that Scales

How Much Time Will an Interview Exam Really Take?

Let’s say you have 30 students. Here’s a possible schedule comparison with a summative written assignment (in this example, a 5 page paper, which takes about 15 minutes to grade).

Time Comparison

Five Page Paper
Due Wednesday

Interview Exam
Wednesday - Friday

75 min. - Wed. AM
Grade 5 students

50 min. - Wed. AM
5 student exams (Replace a class period with group work)

150 min - Wed. PM
Grade 10 students

100 min - Wed. PM.
10 student exams (scheduled office hours)

150 min - Thurs.
Grade 10 students

100 min - Thurs.
10 students exams (scheduled office hours)

75 min - Fri.
Grade 5 students

50 min - Fri.
5 student exam (scheduled office hours)

Total: 450 min

Total: 300 min

Balancing the Interview Exam with Other Assessment Types

If you’re using Interview Exams, couple them with other, auto-graded assessments (e.g., multiple choice). Doing so provides an opportunity for higher levels of learning (Fitzgerald, 2016). One approach is to combine hard multiple choice tests with Interview Exams that are comparatively easier. Inform your students that if they score high on the multiple choice test and low on the Interview Exam, you may ask them to retake the multiple choice test in a proctored environment.

Here’s an example of how a course assessment approach could be adapted to include an Interview Exam:

Adapted Assessments

2022 Assessments

2025 Assessments

4 Papers

2 Papers - Higher expectations

1 Video Presentation

1 Vocation Reflection

4 Auto-graded Quizzes

4 Auto-graded Quizzes

1 Project

1 Project - Higher expectations (experiential)

2 Exams

1 Auto-graded Exam + 1 Interview Exam

11 Total

11 Total

Can Interview Exams work for online classes?

Synchronous, hybrid, and flex classes should have no trouble using Zoom for Interview Exams. Asynchronous courses are trickier as there is not supposed to be “scheduled meetings”; however, if the class was small enough, it would be acceptable to provide many different time windows for a student to choose. This would be similar to a proctored exam requirement that is also acceptable for online asynchronous classes. 

Do Interview Exams work for everybody?

One specific approach will not work for everybody, but it’s up to you to design your Interview Exams in a way that fits your course. Very large rosters (60+) can be logistically problematic if there is no suitable TA to share the load with. In general, we think every class could find a way to benefit from this approach. Our Instructional Design team is happy to think through this with you - please don’t hesitate to schedule a consultation with the UD Center for Online Learning

 


Sources

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