Individual Oral Assessment at Scale: Designing and Implementing Individual Oral Examinations in a Core Undergraduate Law Module Dr Val Aston and Dr Tom Hannant, Swansea University This paper presents a case study of the design and implementation of a new individual oral assessment in a large (300+ student) undergraduate Public Law module in January 2024. Research has consistently highlighted the need for a variety of assessment methods in higher education (Race 2019). Oral assessment, which offers validity and authenticity, can usefully contribute to the assessment mix (Joughin 1998, Armstrong 2006). It provides an opportunity for students to directly communicate their learning, and for examiners to probe a student’s depth of understanding with gentle follow-up questioning. Oral examination also aligns assessment with the need to develop students’ ability to articulate their learning to others, thus delivering assessment ‘for learning’, not just ‘of learning’ (Biggs 1996). Yet implementing individual oral assessment for large cohorts of undergraduate law students presents considerable challenges. First, the logistical challenges of timetabling, assessing, moderating, and providing useful feedback on 300+ individual oral assessments. Second, the challenge of designing assessments which are robust, in the sense of guaranteeing both validity and reliability. These requirements of robustness occasionally conflict with one another (e.g. in balancing validity-enhancing flexibility in questioning with the need to ensure consistency between students) and with the demands of logistical feasibility (e.g. in designing assessments which are both feasibly short and which permit students to demonstrate an appropriate depth and breadth of learning). A third challenge arises from the need to provide effective support and formative opportunities to a large cohort of potentially anxious and uncertain students (Bloxham & Boyd 2007). This paper reflects on the experience of designing and implementing individual oral assessment at scale. It will reflect on the above-mentioned challenges and consider the extent to which these were successfully addressed and balanced in practice. Advocating Student Confidence: A Case Study to Demonstrate how Feedback Methods can be Used to Create an Accessible and Supportive Learning Environment Becca Crump and Jonathan Marsh, Cardiff University One of the perennial challenges in legal education is facilitating accessibility to the professions. Our presentation will discuss some of the issues surrounding creating a supportive but effective learning environment for the teaching of advocacy and other legal skills, linking to the themes of accessibility, student wellbeing and the training of future lawyers. Students often fear oral skills assessments, especially advocacy. This links to the idea of ‘Folk Pedagogies’ (Bruner, 1996), that by teaching advocacy in the traditional, instructional and intimidating way, we will produce lawyers who think and behave like those who came before them, making the profession feel impenetrable to students from disenfranchised backgrounds and so the cycle continues. While using authentic learning activities and assessment creates the perception of ‘active learning’ rigidity in advocacy teaching can mean that it is very tutor lead, and students do not facilitate their own learning (Rotgans and Schmidt, 2011). This leads to feedback becoming the lecturer’s monologue with little student engagement. In 2020 we enhanced the feedback practice on our advocacy module by making changes to the culture of the teaching and creating a less rigid approach which allowed students to meet the learning objectives in a more supportive environment. We revised the culture of our teaching and feedback style to enhance scaffolding of the learning activities and support students to explore and develop their own expertise The aim was to support well-being, increase student confidence and self-belief and allow students the space to develop their feedback literacy and expertise. We wanted to avoid producing ‘cookie cutter’ advocates and instead develop lawyers of the future who can innovate and think independently (Hodson, 1998). This approach improved student engagement with feedback and the process became dialogic enhancing both peer feedback and self-refection. We can reflect and identify learning points which have led to an improvement in student experience and in summative attainment outcomes.
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