Universities Reinstate Oral Exams To Validate Learning

College instructors at Cornell, Penn, NYU and other U.S. universities are reviving oral exams and in-person assessments to confront generative AI and ensure students understand their work. Since the emergence of ChatGPT in 2022, educators have adopted Socratic defenses, AI-powered oral bots, short interviews and workshops to verify comprehension and deter outsourcing of assignments. Institutions report mixed student feedback but view oral assessments as practical verification tools.