Beyond the AI Proctor: Rethinking Oral Assessment at Scale

‍A two-part workshop series exploring how oral assessment can validate student learning, scale beyond the traditional oral exam, and create more meaningful assessment in the age of AI.

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Oral exams are having a moment. As AI makes polished written work easier to produce, educators are turning to oral assessment as a way to hear students explain their thinking, defend their decisions, and demonstrate what they actually understand.

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But oral assessment has always faced the same challenge: it works, but it doesn't easily scale.

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Join Kritik for this two-part series as we explore what scalable oral assessment can look like beyond traditional faculty-led exams and AI proctoring. From peer-led verbal defense to new approaches for designing meaningful oral assessment, we'll examine how instructors can make student thinking more visible without creating an impossible grading workload.

Session 1: Scaling Oral Assessment Through Peer Learning

September 17 at 2:00 PM EDT

One professor can't sit down with 300 students, which is exactly why institutions are exploring AI proctors and voice agents to make oral assessment scalable. But does scaling oral assessment have to mean replacing the instructor with AI?

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In Session 1, we'll explore a third path: peer-led verbal defense, where students justify, defend, and critique reasoning with one another. We'll look at how peer learning can bring the benefits of oral assessment to larger courses while making the assessment itself part of the learning process.

In this session, we'll cover:

• Why oral and process-based assessment is gaining attention in the age of AI
• The scalability challenge behind traditional oral exams
• The trade-offs of AI-led and AI-proctored approaches
• How peer-led verbal defense can work within an existing assignment
• A practical approach instructors can apply to their own courses

Session 2: Rethinking Oral Assessment in the Age of AI

September 29 at 2:00 PM EDT

Making oral assessment scalable is only part of the challenge. How do we make sure it actually reveals what students understand?

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In Session 2, we'll broaden the conversation to explore what meaningful oral assessment can look like as new approaches emerge across higher education. We'll examine how oral assessment can go beyond verifying whether students know the right answer and instead ask them to explain, question, defend, evaluate, and reflect on their thinking.

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We'll also explore where peers, instructors, and AI can each play a role—and how oral assessment can become an active learning experience rather than simply another checkpoint.

In this session, we'll cover:

• What makes an oral assessment meaningful and authentic
• How to assess reasoning and judgment, not just recall
• Where AI can support oral assessment—and where human interaction matters
• How peer questioning and discussion can deepen learning
• Practical ways to bring meaningful oral assessment into larger courses

Who Should Attend

Instructors, instructional designers, teaching and learning teams, and academic leaders looking for scalable, meaningful ways to validate student learning in the age of AI.

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Join one session or attend both to explore the future of oral assessment at scale.