Oral Versus Written Assessments: A Reflective Study on Promoting Equality in Evaluations in Higher Education

The present study, through a reflective review, analysed oral tests as an assessment tool used for first-year students in the Management Sciences Faculty at Durban University of Technology. The purpose of this reflective review was to examine the practice of oral assessment in the context of translanguaging and to identify its impact. In this article, I describe my experiences facilitating oral exams in the module, and the lessons learnt along the way. The paper presents an overview of the oral assessment methods that were used. Student performance in, and attitudes towards, oral and written assessments were analysed. The key insights of this reflection were the challenges associated with administering oral assessments in an examination format. The study found that structured oral examinations were a fair assessment tool and encouraged inclusion and equity of students from disadvantaged backgrounds. It also highlighted that oral assessments were time consuming, invoked high stress levels in students, and needed infrastructural and human resource support. In conclusion, the paper highlighted that structured oral examinations can be a better assessment tool, and with some modifications in blueprinting, it is an acceptable translanguaging tool that can be used by various faculties. The article concludes by proposing recommendations under which oral assessments can be valid, reliable, and fair.