The Oral Assessment (OA) project - a cross-Faculty collaboration / whole of institution Nexus project - explores the design and implementation of authentic, scalable oral assessments across disciplines at UNSW. The initiative responds to the pressing challenges posed by generative AI to the validity of traditional written assessments and aims to enhance the authenticity and integrity of student evaluation. It both emanates from and builds upon my work over many years in assessing communication skills in medical students and demonstrates my command of, and leadership in, this crucial area of educational endeavour, as well as my cabability to collaborate across diverse institutional units and with a wide variety of stakeholders. 

Through collaboration with the colleagues both in the Nexus program and beyond, including senior UNSW educational leadership, the project investigates practical methods and technologies, such as the use of my OSPIA platform (see evidence section on the Simulated Patient Program), for scheduling, recording, and conducting assessment of oral tasks. Pilots are being developed in disciplines including Medicine, Engineering, and Business to test models of oral assessment that are both feasible at scale and aligned with disciplinary communication demands (“disciplinary oracy”), whereby students develop important employability skills to 'talk like' a member of their chosen future professions.

The project also examines how AI tools - amongst others - can support both the delivery and assessment of oral tasks, ensuring fairness, consistency, and feedback quality. Ultimately, the OA project contributes to an institutional rethinking of assessment design in a genAI-enabled environment, emphasising learning through dialogue, reasoning, and professional communication.