About this episode

The episode discusses the future of assessment in education, focusing on oral exams and the impact of AI on traditional testing methods.

In this episode, Sharona and Boz explore what assessment might look like in a world increasingly shaped by AI. Starting with a recent article from faculty at Middlebury College challenging institutions to recenter learning rather than ranking students, the conversation moves into a provocative discussion of oral exams, authentic assessment, and the growing limitations of traditional testing. The hosts unpack a history professor’s experiment with 71 oral final exams in 12 days, reflecting on the power of conversation-based assessment to deepen feedback, strengthen trust, and reveal genuine student understanding in ways that written exams often cannot. Along the way, they connect these ideas to their own classroom experiences, the challenges AI poses for validating student work, and the need for assessments that emphasize creativity, revision, human interaction, and meaningful thinking over rote production. Ultimately, the episode argues that the future of grading reform may depend not only on changing how we grade, but on fundamentally reimagining how we assess learning itself. Links Please note - any books linked here are likely Amazon Associates links. Clicking on them and…

People in this episode

Hosts: Sharona Krinsky, Robert Bosley

Topics covered

• oral exams
• feedback loops
• assessment reform
• AI in education
• authentic assessment
• grading practices

Keywords

• assessment
• oral exams
• AI
• grading reform
• education
• feedback
• authentic assessment

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: Middlebury College, The Center for Grading Reform

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