Oral Exams Fight AI Cheating, Boost Learning

It's March 29th.

This is Canada News today, your AI-powered local news.

Professors at colleges like Cornell are bringing back oral exams to fight the rise of AI

cheating.

In one biomedical engineering class, students ditch laptops, pens, and paper to defend their

work face-to-face with instructors.

It's a socratic style test that AI can't touch, ensuring kids actually grasp the material

instead of copying perfect essays from chatbots.

People across the country are jumping on this trend.

At the University of Pennsylvania, they're mixing oral defenses with papers and running

workshops for faculty.

The University of California, San Diego, studied how to scale these exams during the pandemic,

and now, other campuses won in.

Meanwhile, New York University pushes office hours, presentations, and even cold calling

in class to check real knowledge.

Educators say it's not just about catching cheaters.

Students are losing critical thinking and creativity from overrelying on AI.

When pressed to explain homework, many draw blanks despite flawless submissions.

The worry is that skipping the mental grind hurts long-term skills for advanced classes

and jobs.

Some professors are fighting fire with fire using tech.

One at New York University built an AI voice agent that quizzes students remotely on group

projects, spotting free riders or AI outsources.

Students log in anytime, answer questions, and is being refined for wider use.

Cornell splits defenses among teaching assistants for their 70 student classes, grading talks

over written sets.

This shift toward in-person and smart oral assessments is gaining steam, helping even

shy students shine one-on-one while rebuilding core learning.

Habits that AI can't fake.