The validity, reliability, academic integrity and integration of oral assessments in higher education: A systematic review

Shashi Nallaya, Sheridan Gentili, Scott Weeks and Katherine Baldock
University of South Australia, Adelaide, Australia

Various factors such as regulatory body mandates, graduate employability challenges, decreasing student engagement and increasing academic misconduct in higher education have motivated universities to explore alternative approaches to teach and assess. Accordingly, the oral assessment has taken precedence in many contexts as a popular form of assessment. Although literature highlights the strengths of oral assessments, there are also reservations among some scholars as it is found to contribute to issues pertaining to validity and reliability. This paper reports on a systematic review undertaken in accordance with the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) guidelines to explore the extent of oral assessment validity, reliability and capacity to address academic misconduct in higher education. A total of 2,657 journal articles from ERIC, Web of Science, Scopus and A+ Education databases were imported into Covidence for screening of titles, abstracts and full texts. Seventeen studies were deemed suitable for inclusion in this systematic review. The analysis identified that the validity, reliability and capacity of the oral assessment to reduce academic integrity breaches were dependent on whether it has been designed, scaffolded, and implemented well.
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Authors: Dr Shashi Nallaya (corresponding author) is a Senior Lecturer, Academic Development, in the Teaching Innovation Unit, University of South Australia, Adelaide, Australia. She holds a PhD from the University of Adelaide and MEd (TESL), BEd (TESL) and Dip. ESL degrees from Universiti Malaya, Malaysia. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3098-8112 Email: shashi.nallaya@unisa.edu.au Associate Professor Sheridan Gentili is the Director, Teaching Innovation Unit, University of South Australia, which is a central teaching and learning unit that partners and supports UniSA staff and external stakeholders to design and deliver an outstanding curriculum using relevant, effective teaching practices, technologies and tools. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5568-9106 Email: sheridan.gentili@unisa.edu.au Dr Scott Weeks is a Lecturer in Occupational Therapy in UniSA Allied Health and Human Performance, University of South Australia, Adelaide, Australia. He holds a PhD and a Bachelor of Applied Science (Occupational Therapy) with Honours from the University of South Australia. He focuses on shaping community wellbeing and educates future health professionals. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0795-2026 Email: scott.weeks@unisa.edu.au Associate Professor Katherine Baldock is the Dean of Programs (Human Performance), Allied Health and Human Performance, University of South Australia, Adelaide, Australia. She is a leader in higher education, including reimagining structural and cultural facilitators to support the transformative education of graduates who are socially just, anti-racist, culturally responsive, contributing to creating a better world. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3527-1057 Email: Katherine.Baldock@unisa.edu.au Please cite as: Nallaya, S., Gentili, S., Weeks, S. & Baldock, K. (2024). The validity, reliability, academic integrity and integration of oral assessments in higher education: A systematic review. Issues in Educational Research, 34(2), 629-646. http://www.iier.org.au/iier34/nallaya.pdf