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Peer oral exams: A learner-centered authentic assessment approach scalable to large classes

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Conference

2023 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Location

Baltimore , Maryland

Publication Date

June 25, 2023

Start Date

June 25, 2023

End Date

June 28, 2023

Conference Session

First-Year Programs Division (FYP) - Technical Session 3: Evaluation & Assessment

Tagged Division

First-Year Programs Division (FYP)

Page Count

33

DOI

10.18260/1-2--43878

Permanent URL

https://peer.asee.org/43878

Download Count

433

Paper Authors

biography

Marko V. Lubarda University of California, San Diego Orcid 16x16 orcid.org/0000-0002-3755-271X

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Marko V. Lubarda is an Assistant Teaching Professor in the Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering at the University of California, San Diego. He teaches mechanics, materials science, design, computational analysis, and engineering mathematics courses, and has co-authored the undergraduate textbook Intermediate Solid Mechanics (Cambridge University Press, 2020). He is dedicated to engineering pedagogy and enriching students' learning experiences through teaching innovations, curriculum design, and support of undergraduate student research.

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Alex M. Phan University of California, San Diego Orcid 16x16 orcid.org/0000-0003-2489-2886

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Dr. Alex Phan is the inaugural Executive Director for Student Success in the Jacobs School of Engineering at UC San Diego. Prior to his appointment, he has served as an engineering instructor teaching across multiple divisions, including the Jacobs School of Engineering (Dept. of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Dept. of Mechanical and Aerospace Eng., Dean's Office Unit) and UC San Diego Division of Extended Studies. His teaching interests and expertise are in experiential learning, holistic education models, active learning environments, and metacognition. In his current role, he leads the IDEA Student Center, a prolific student-centered resource hub at the Jacobs School that serves as a model for student success units across the country.

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Maziar Ghazinejad University of California, San Diego

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Maziar Ghazinejad is an Associate teaching professor in Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering Department at UC San Diego. He received his Ph.D. in mechanical engineering from UC Riverside in 2012 and holds M.S. degrees in mechanical and electrical engineer

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Nathan Delson eGrove Education

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Nathan Delson, Ph.D. is a Senior Teaching Professor at the University of California at San Diego. He received a PhD in Mechanical Engineering from MIT and his interests include robotics, biomedical devices, product design, engineering education, and maker spaces. In 1999 he co-founded Coactive Drive Corporation (currently General Vibration), a company that provides force feedback solutions. In 2016 Nate co-founded eGrove Education an educational software company focused on teaching sketching and spatial visualization skills.

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Saharnaz Baghdadchi University of California, San Diego

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Saharnaz Baghdadchi is an Associate Teaching Professor at UC San Diego. She is interested in scholarly teaching and employs active learning techniques to empower students to attain an expert level of critical thinking. Her expertise facilitates students' journey towards connecting facts with practical knowledge to tackle intricate engineering challenges. She excels in crafting innovative assessments and explores their impact on enhancing students' learning outcomes and fostering an inclusive educational environment.

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Curt Schurgers University of California, San Diego

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Curt Schurgers is a Teaching Professor in the UCSD Electrical and Computer Engineering Department. His research and teaching are focused on course redesign, active learning, and project-based learning. He also co-directs a hands-on undergraduate research program called Engineers for Exploration, in which students apply their engineering knowledge to problems in exploration and conservation.

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Minju Kim University of California, San Diego Orcid 16x16 orcid.org/0000-0001-5878-7350

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Minju Kim is a postdoctoral scholar at the Engaged Teaching Hub at the UCSD Teaching+Learning Commons. Minju received her Ph.D in Experimental Psychology at UC San Diego. With Engaged Teaching Hub, Minju has designed TA training materials for oral exams and have conducted quantitative analysis on the value of oral exams as early diagnostic tool (Kim et al., ASEE 2022). Minju is interested in designing assessments that can capture and motivate students' deep conceptual learning, such as oral exams and the usage of visual representations (e.g., diagrams and manual gestures).

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Josephine Relaford-Doyle University of California, San Diego

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Dr. Josephine Relaford-Doyle is an Education Specialist in the Teaching + Learning Commons at UC San Diego, where she works in faculty development and instructional support. She holds a PhD in Cognitive Science and has researched STEM learning at both the K12 and post-secondary levels.

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Carolyn L. Sandoval University of California, San Diego

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Dr. Sandoval is the Associate Director of the Teaching + Learning Commons at the University of California, San Diego. She earned a PhD in Adult Education-Human Resource Development. Her research interests include adult learning and development, faculty de

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Huihui Qi University of California, San Diego

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Dr.Huihui Qi is an Associate Teaching Professor in the department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, at the University of California San Diego.

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Abstract

Peer oral exams, a cross between oral exams and peer assessment, were designed and implemented in a high-enrollment undergraduate computer programming course for engineers. The intention was to leverage the educational and implementational advantages of both evidence-based approaches simultaneously. Oral exams, for instance, have been argued to promote conceptual understanding, self-reflection, communication competency, and professional identity formation in students – but their deployment in large classes is resource-demanding and nontrivial, stifling their broader adoption. Peer assessment, on the other hand, is highly scalable and affords students many potential educational benefits of its own, including the benefits of peer-enhanced learning, more developed evaluative skills, a greater sense of belonging, improved self-efficacy beliefs, and higher levels of intrinsic academic motivation. The merging of the two evidence-based assessment approaches promises a scalable assessment modality hybridizing the pedagogical dimensions of the former two assessment practices. Our study of students’ surveyed perceptions about peer oral exams offers perspectives on the qualities and potential role of peer oral exams in educational practice and suggests directions for future educational research.

Lubarda, M. V., & Phan, A. M., & Ghazinejad, M., & Delson, N., & Baghdadchi, S., & Schurgers, C., & Kim, M., & Relaford-Doyle, J., & Sandoval, C. L., & Qi, H. (2023, June), Peer oral exams: A learner-centered authentic assessment approach scalable to large classes Paper presented at 2023 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition, Baltimore , Maryland. 10.18260/1-2--43878

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