Session 3 and 4 - Strand 5

The rapid growth of generative AI has pushed universities to rethink the foundations of assessment. As tools become more fluent, more persuasive, and more capable of producing polished written work, institutions are finding themselves returning to a key question: how can we assess what students really know, understand, and in a way that students reliance on AI.

Across the HE sector, this has triggered conversations about synchronous forms of assessment and the role of real-time tasks allow educators to engage directly with students’ thinking as it unfolds, offering a level of authenticity and immediacy that sits outside the reach of AI tools. In this space, oral presentation formats have returned to the forefront of discussion. When designed effective, they offer flexibility, variation, discipline-specific relevance, and the opportunity to test understanding in ways that feel more dynamic than traditional written work.

However, while presentations have always had a place in assessment, they are often used in narrow or predictable ways. Standard formats can feel formulaic for students and limiting for staff, and they fail to make the most of the wider landscape of oral assessment methods now available. If oral presentations are to play a meaningful role in an AI-aware assessment strategy, we must think beyond the familiar ten-minute PowerPoint slide deck.

This workshop tackles that challenge head-on. Drawing on work at the University of Portsmouth - where new AI guidance encourages colleagues to rethink how, when, and why oral assessments are used – participants are invited to explore a wide range of creative and adaptable presentation types. These span individual and group formats, structured and conversational modes, and disciplinespecific variations that open the door to more authentic and credible assessment types.

Participants will work with our Creative Oral Assessment Kit, an expanded card-based resource that presents a wide range of oral assessment formats. Working from short scenarios, they will select suitable formats and develop a full assessment concept using a structured planning sheet. This prompts consideration of level, learning outcomes, criteria, student guidance, feedback, and practical delivery. In this way, the kit acts as a starting point for designing oral assessments that are purposeful, workable, and aligned with an AI-aware teaching context.

By the end of the session, participants will have a clearer sense of the creative potential of oral presentations and a more confident grasp of how these approaches can sit within an AI-aware assessment strategy. More importantly, they will leave with practical ideas, draft assessment concepts, and a working design framework they can refine and take back into their own teaching.