Oral Examinations in Environmental Engineering Design Courses

Oral examinations allow for the assessment of oral communication, technical competency, and professionalism. They are known to promote high learning levels and increase student-faculty interactions. However, oral examinations may be difficult to scale and can suffer from subjectivity biases. An oral examination was implemented in a required drinking water and wastewater treatment plant design course. Student performance and survey responses were collected for 15 years. Responses to an open-ended question supported the idea that students performed at integrative learning levels during the oral exam. Over 78% of students reported that the oral exam would somewhat or definitely help them achieve their professional goals. Students indicated a slight preference to oral exams regarding the evaluation of their knowledge. The correlation of student performance across testing modalities is similar to the correlation of student performance across course material tested, although oral exams produced less student-to-student variability. Regarding equity, students reported that both written and oral exams were administered and graded fairly. There was no evidence of academic integrity issues due to the two- to three-day exam period. Over 85% of students reported that oral examinations were more suited to design courses rather than analysis courses. From the results of this study, it appears that oral examinations have a valuable role in engineering education, especially in design courses.