Using Oral Exams to Assess Individual Contributions on Team Projects

Most if not all mechanical engineering programs recognize the value in teamwork. To satisfy ABET requirements, a senior design course is required, and teams are almost always involved. Often, teams are involved in other prior courses as well. One difficult aspect, however, with teams, is ensuring that all members contribute satisfactorily/equally. It can be all too common that one or more members of a team do the majority of the work and other team members do less work. At the University of X, the co-authors taught a junior level design course during the winter and spring quarters of the 2022-23 academic year. To address this possible issue of ensuring that all teammates contribute, we introduced an individual oral exam held in the last 2 weeks of the course. The class had 61 students, and each oral exam was scheduled for 15 minutes. Both instructors participated in all exams. Although conducting these individual oral exams required just over 15 hours, we believe it was a sound investment of our time. After the exams, it was very clear who contributed and who did not.