In most Italian universities exams at the end of each course are oral, in person. (Also in schools tests are mostly oral.) Student numbers can be huge so the exam consists of a few questions at random on the topics covered and unlike the UK a student can repeat exams several times in the hope of getting a better grade. In comparison with the UK our Italian students were less good at writing but had excellent memories and the capacity to draw on them orally.
Hi Sam - really like this concept, and it’s something that’s been on my mind with some teaching work I have been doing and with my own kids at school. The AI Viva makes a lot of sense at the end of a course. I’m also wondering about what happens during. Of course you could say that is up to the AI tutor, but will that test progress of reasoning and synthesis in the same way that coursework and/or intermediate deliverables are meant to? Some people will self-manage when they know that an end-of-course Viva is coming, but many won’t. I’ve wondered about having students submit an AI chat thread as their work, with the assessment being around the quality of their reasoning in their prompts, and the value adding contribution that the student’s prompts made to the overall answer. (much as prorata.ai assesses the contribution that each source makes to an answer)
And as the inimitable Don Sadoway said so many times: “everybody in this class is smart enough to do well - so if you’re not doing well on the tests, it’s because you’re not organising your time”. (Don Sadoway is kinda my hero, as may become clearer as this substack progresses…)
Good question! I don’t know the answer exactly. But for me, for the course I have been teaching, I would like to have an ‘AI Viva’ at least weekly - as a minimum, it could test students on whether they have done the assigned reading. These days, most of them don’t - it would be good to fix that!
In most Italian universities exams at the end of each course are oral, in person. (Also in schools tests are mostly oral.) Student numbers can be huge so the exam consists of a few questions at random on the topics covered and unlike the UK a student can repeat exams several times in the hope of getting a better grade. In comparison with the UK our Italian students were less good at writing but had excellent memories and the capacity to draw on them orally.
Hi Sam - really like this concept, and it’s something that’s been on my mind with some teaching work I have been doing and with my own kids at school. The AI Viva makes a lot of sense at the end of a course. I’m also wondering about what happens during. Of course you could say that is up to the AI tutor, but will that test progress of reasoning and synthesis in the same way that coursework and/or intermediate deliverables are meant to? Some people will self-manage when they know that an end-of-course Viva is coming, but many won’t. I’ve wondered about having students submit an AI chat thread as their work, with the assessment being around the quality of their reasoning in their prompts, and the value adding contribution that the student’s prompts made to the overall answer. (much as prorata.ai assesses the contribution that each source makes to an answer)
And as the inimitable Don Sadoway said so many times: “everybody in this class is smart enough to do well - so if you’re not doing well on the tests, it’s because you’re not organising your time”. (Don Sadoway is kinda my hero, as may become clearer as this substack progresses…)
Good question! I don’t know the answer exactly. But for me, for the course I have been teaching, I would like to have an ‘AI Viva’ at least weekly - as a minimum, it could test students on whether they have done the assigned reading. These days, most of them don’t - it would be good to fix that!