3 ms·

instead let's teach them that if they cheat, nothing adverse happens.

kwhitefoot 5y ago
Replace exams with vivas and see how far the cheats can get. At least make a viva voce a large proportion of the final score.
- titanomachy 5y ago
  Probably the best way to evaluate people, I guess it just doesn’t scale that well…
  - kwhitefoot 5y ago
    It seems that the alternatives also don't scale, that's sure why this discussion is happening. Vivas work,they are just expensive. The alternatives are cheaper but don't work. Of course it could be that different people have different goals in mind. Some just want the diploma, others want to master the subject. So it depends on what the diploma is supposed to mean. If it just means: turned up then a viva is of course unnecessary and wasteful.
- TravisHusky 5y ago
  I have never had an oral exam, but I have always thought it would be great for smaller classes. Basically I would love to have an exam where I sit down with a professor for 30 minutes to an hour and talk about the content and answer questions they ask. I feel like it would be a bit more in-depth while also eliminating the possibility of misunderstanding a mistakenly ambiguous question. I am not sure how realistic that is for a class above about 15 students, and also how things like disabilities would be handled, but I'd love to try it.
  - swiley 5y ago
    > Basically I would love to have an exam where I sit down with a professor for 30 minutes to an hour and talk about the content and answer questions they ask. That would have been fun! The only time I did something like this was when I tested out of one of the intro to programming classes. I was one of the last students to talk to the professor that ran it before he left.
  - zajio1am 5y ago
    Most of exams i took during my university studies were oral exams. I definitely prefer them to written exams. They were used even for big classes with 100+ students, professors just declare multiple test dates (each with say 20 timeslots) and students booked to them.

Replace exams with vivas and see how far the cheats can get. At least make a viva voce a large proportion of the final score.

titanomachy 5y ago
Probably the best way to evaluate people, I guess it just doesn’t scale that well…
- kwhitefoot 5y ago
  It seems that the alternatives also don't scale, that's sure why this discussion is happening. Vivas work,they are just expensive. The alternatives are cheaper but don't work. Of course it could be that different people have different goals in mind. Some just want the diploma, others want to master the subject. So it depends on what the diploma is supposed to mean. If it just means: turned up then a viva is of course unnecessary and wasteful.
TravisHusky 5y ago
I have never had an oral exam, but I have always thought it would be great for smaller classes. Basically I would love to have an exam where I sit down with a professor for 30 minutes to an hour and talk about the content and answer questions they ask. I feel like it would be a bit more in-depth while also eliminating the possibility of misunderstanding a mistakenly ambiguous question. I am not sure how realistic that is for a class above about 15 students, and also how things like disabilities would be handled, but I'd love to try it.
- swiley 5y ago
  > Basically I would love to have an exam where I sit down with a professor for 30 minutes to an hour and talk about the content and answer questions they ask. That would have been fun! The only time I did something like this was when I tested out of one of the intro to programming classes. I was one of the last students to talk to the professor that ran it before he left.
- zajio1am 5y ago
  Most of exams i took during my university studies were oral exams. I definitely prefer them to written exams. They were used even for big classes with 100+ students, professors just declare multiple test dates (each with say 20 timeslots) and students booked to them.