Oral Exams Based on Students' Digital Portfolios

By Anne-Brit Fenner

As part of a three-year project in foreign language teacher education (INVITIS) at the Department of Education, University of Bergen, Norway, we saw a need to change the exam structure. The project was part of a national one, using ICTs in teacher education (PLUTO), financed by the Norwegian Ministry of Education. The course is a one-year postgraduate course for students finished their university degrees. Students follow lectures in pedagogy as well as in didactics of two school subjects, in this case one or two languages. They are all placed in schools for approximately 13 weeks, divided into two periods, one in each semester. At the end of the course they are assessed on school practice, a written project related to one subject and an oral exam related to the other. In which subject they write their project paper and which subject they are assessed orally is an individual choice.

During this particular project students had been using ICTs extensively during their course at the university and also in classrooms with language learners. Virtual discussion forums had been established and students were asked to publish, comment, reflect on, and discuss various texts in these forums. Some were theoretical articles, some student produced texts and some learners' texts which had to be analysed. They had also been asked to write diaries from their school practice. (For a more detailed description of the INVITIS project see The use of ICT in teacher education). Some of the tasks were compulsory with teacher and student feedback, some were optional. Each student also had his/her own individual virtual portfolio where they could add the material they wanted. Throughout the course they were encouraged to collect materials for their portfolios.

Traditionally the oral exam concentrates on a number of articles and books on foreign language methodology, language philosophy, theories of language learning, etc., which constitute the required reading. The student has to show that s/he is familiar with the reading material and can relate theory to practical teaching. The exam is individual with one internal and one external examiner. For a number of years the lecturers had felt that some students, who were nervous in exam situations, were not able to show their full potential, and the dialogue we tried to have with each student often turned into a long session of questions and answers, which was unsatisfactory for examiners as well as students.

In order to start off on a more equal footing at the beginning of the oral exam and remove the anxiety of the situation where the student nervously waits for the examiner to start with a question, we decided to base the examination on the student's virtual portfolio. It was left up to each student which material to include in his/her portfolio. The material produced during the year related to given tasks could be edited and new texts based on areas of interest from the reading list or from the student's teaching practice could be added. They were given suggestions and examples, but in the end it was the students' own choice what they wanted to concentrate on and include. In this way certain principles of learner autonomy were secured. The portfolio had to be finished 96 hours before the oral exam itself, in order to give the examiners time to read all the material and prepare topics for discussion during the exam. After the deadline no material could be changed or edited and the students' access to their digital portfolios was closed.

During the oral exam itself, each individual's portfolio was opened and projected for the participants to view. The student was given half the period of examination to present and talk about his/her chosen topics, in some cases with little interruption, in other cases as a basis for a dialogue between student and examiners, depending on the chosen material. In the latter part of the examination period, the examiners took the lead, deciding which topics should be discussed. The total time allotted to each student was half an hour.

Student feedback and evaluation of this type of oral exam showed an overwhelmingly positive attitude. The students felt that they were given a very good chance to show what they had learnt during the course. They could base the exam on areas in which they had particular interests or on topics with which they had struggled, but where they felt they had eventually gained an understanding. Through preparing and editing their portfolios, they were given an opportunity to reflect on gained knowledge and understanding, and to interrelate theory and practice. Unlike a traditional oral exam where topics to be discussed come as a surprise to the students, they now felt in control of the first part of the examining period. It was no longer a situation characterised by questions and answers, but had developed into a prepared dialogue, giving the student far more control of the situation. The latter part of the exam gave examiners ample opportunity to focus on areas the students had left out. By this time most of the students felt relaxed because they had been able to concentrate on their own specialities, which they naturally knew well. In addition they found support in the portfolio material, which, in some cases, was partly in the form of notes.

As students were given a free choice of what they wanted to include in their digital portfolios, these showed great variation in the amount of material as well as in content. Some files contained up to 50 pages of notes and texts, while others contained only a few pages. The students were not assessed on the quality of the portfolio content, nor on written presentation. What they were assessed on was the dialogue that took place in the oral exam itself.

From the examiners point of view the oral exams worked very well. The students' knowledge and understanding became apparent during the dialogue taking place. We could, to a certain extent, see how the students' learning had progressed during the year, and some students chose to focus on their learning processes. It was also possible to assess the students' reflection on the knowledge they had gained and the awareness they had developed. Partly due to a far more relaxed atmosphere than in a traditional oral exam, mutually problematic areas related to teaching and learning could be the topic of communication.

One of the main benefits of an oral exam based on digital student portfolios, in addition to removing the tense atmosphere for the students and thus giving them an opportunity to show what they have really learnt, is that the exam itself becomes part of a learning process where new questions arise for a dialogue that will continue after the students have finished their teacher education course - an ongoing dialogue which is the basis of all good teaching and learning.

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