Oral Assessment in the AI Era—Equity, Validity, and Scale

Fenton’s article, “Reconsidering the Use of Oral Exams and Assessments: An Old Way to Move Into a New Future,” argues that oral assessment can restore authenticity and support academic integrity in the generative artificial intelligence era. Drawing on this synthesis, this letter offers three refinements to enable adoption at scale: operationalize equity by separating language production from disciplinary reasoning and providing targeted accommodations; bolster validity and reliability by constraining examiner behavior through standardization, recording, and interrater checks; and enhance feasibility via a scalable “viva-lite” oral verification appended to selected tasks.