From chalk to talk: introducing oral assessment to first-year mathematical analysis

Mathematics assessment in higher education in both Ireland and the UK has long revolved around the ‘traditional’ examination, which is closed-book, timed, written and proctored. However, in many countries in continental Europe, oral examinations in mathematics are commonplace. In this paper, we detail how we introduced oral assessment to a first-year analysis module in an Irish university. This module had a high failure rate prior to this intervention, and even students who passed the module showed little understanding of the material when it was needed the following year. We designed the module in a scaffolded manner that allowed students to become familiar with this new format of assessment prior to their high-stakes oral examination, while also aiming to increase understanding in relation to the module content. We provide details of how we approached this as a blueprint for those who might want to introduce similar in their own modules, and give recommendations based on our experience.