AP News reporter Jocelyn Gecker recently highlighted how university instructors are turning toward oral assessments in the era of AI. University of Pennsylvania Associate Professor Emily Hammer said that her method of using both oral and paper exams is focused more on strengthening students’ skills than on preventing cheating. “[S]tudents are actually losing skills, losing cognitive capacity and creativity,” said Hammer. Cornell University Professor Chris Schaffer told Gecker that this loss of skills is why he opts to use Socratic-style questioning on students’ submitted problem sets, forgoing the grading of the problem sets entirely. Students reacting to Schaffer’s method said that they prefer the oral exam, with one student explaining that the check-in, “holds you accountable.”
